INTERIOR OF NORTE ISLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11433, 25 July 1900, Page 3

INTERIOR OF NORTE ISLAND.

• : • TO THE EDITOR. • • ' "v'.' Sir —Mr. Park describes the pumice-affect' ed wuntry as seoond-class land. ; Now, tl true description would be third-class or sterile : laud. Recently we had a sale of second-cla«s ; land west of Te Kuiti, and many hundred applicants failed to got a section. .Does Mr. Park suppose for a moment that his second; class -land J? from -Tiininiiarorel to ;To Iviuti r would ho so rushed? ;> Then, again, he say 3' the ■'steep }hillsides "'and' mountain tops are good, but surely if a land agent could, offer nothing hut land of that description his business ' would he a complete failure. . Neithor is Mr.' Park successful as/tin cnginoer. I, notice lie evades this question of level.. lor instance, he does'.not tell us .that:■ the lino from. Karioi to the Waiuiarino descent traverses a distance of 50 miles at a height of; some 2500 ft," nor does ho refer, to the groat cost iof viaducts in the blue papa country within this section, nor does ho; show the settlers on'the lower side (thcro will be none on the upper side) how they can got up their ; produce to the railway level. Ho simply ; dismisses this subject by. saying: that there is* a very. rapid descent _ from 2600 ft to tho valley of the Wanganui, ; ->ln short, in- ft very few miles the country drops 2000 ft. .A* a geologist Mr. Park is also very much astray. For instance, iho , describes the country . between tho Ruahine Range'and tho OiiKaruhe a3 a clay marl with oyster shell, and in tho next breath says that this is tho basement rock >of that country.' As a geologist ho ought to know that oyster shells arc not found in .a.basemont rock. Then ho : says; near the point of divergence in Ongaruho Valley this. basement rock gives way to tertiary clays. . . He does not appear to understand the position held by the bluo papa, in relation 1 to the tertiary system. . He says ho. examined some six rivers to their Source, yet he does not tell us how Hieso sections junction. Tho fact is, he went up the wrong rivers. 'If he had passod up'tho bod of tho Upper, Tangarakau, ho could see there tho junction of sections, and instead of tho tertiary system covering tho papa and its oyster sholl it is tho other ,way about. Tho basement roc'.' in tho wholo of that country no describes is a slate, and it docs not contain oysters. A sample of the samo slato supports the wharf at Motutapu Island in our harbour. Between the oyster sholl ho speaks of and this slate there is probably one mile in depth of horizontal stratification. Tho tertiary system overlies tho slate as the papa-toverlics the tertiary clays. Mr. Park is equally unfortunate when he refers to tho distribution of pumice. For instance, ho says, and no doubt very truly, that tho centro of activity was Lake Taupo, and that tho pumico was distributed from the sky, which is also trim. But lie ought to know that such distributions aro the most regular of any, and that it is impossiblo to find pumico covering tho land at Karioi, and when you come nearer tho centro of activity you find none. Ho says there is no pumice between Karioi and Ongnrulie, unless what lias been brought down into the valleys by water. In point of fact, this section is woll within the pumice 7.0110, which is 50 miles wido from the centro of Lake Taupo, either cast, or west. The reason for the absence of pumice on the'mountain tops and steep hillsides is that tho great rainfall upon a very steep and slippery country has laid bare certain spots. But the valloys were originally,, and they still are, smothered deep with pumice.—l am, etc., Peter Olipjiant,