AUCKLAND'S "RIVERS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19833, 31 December 1927, Page 11

AUCKLAND'S "RIVERS."

STREAMS OF THE ISTHMUS.

MARKED VOLCANIC INFLUS&CES

SCOPE FOR BEAUTIFYING -VOTZ<

Straggling lines of willows mark the meanderiDg courses of the tiny' streams draining the Auckland isthmus. These occasional willows, comparatively rare near the city, draw attention to the suburban rivulets which might otherwise flow on forever unnoticed. They are very small. Only three, the Oakley Creek, the Meola Creek and the short stream running through the Zoological Park, deserve even the courtesy title of brooks. Following tho slope of the country, these three little Auckland rivers flow wesf ward from the heights of Mount Eden, Three Kings and Mount Albert toward Point Chevalier. In other directions the shores of the isthmus are bounded 'by steep ridges, and so tho watercourses are only short gullies. Flowing down to the upper' harbour, the streams skirt the edges of old lava flows. Long ago molten matter bubbled out of the craters of Auckland's hills, flowed down the depressions leading to the sea and, cooling, formed the familiar stone of the waste lands about the city. The streams also follow the lowest levels and so one Lank shows outcropping volcanic rocks while the other is of. clay formation, smooth and grass-covered. By the old Stone Jug, in Great North Road, this contrast is particularly apparent. There the Meola Stream forms the southern limit of the wide strip of stony, ground marking the path of a stream of lava that long ago flowed from Mount Albert to end in the long reef running out into the harbour toward Kauri Point, On the Point Chevalier side are market gardens, free from atone,' while the other bank, alongside the back entrance to the zoo, is a mass of volcanic rock. Behind the old Stone Jug outcropping rocks overhang the tiny stream, while opposite is a sloping, grassy bank, Creek as Municipal Boundary. On its northern edge this old lava stream surged up against the ridge now traversed by Old Mill Road and so formed the natural reservoir of Western Springs Lake. Visitors to the zoo will, have noticed that tho stream flowing out of the springs separates the rocky portion of the park from the tree-covered hillside of familiar clay. In the same way the Oakley Creek, which follows a semi-circular course round the base of Mount Albert, and crosses Great North Road near the Mental Hospital, has been squeezed up against the ridge that walls off Avondale from Mount Albert. On its right bank are four stone quarries showing where the old-time lava streams were obstructed by the ridge and in. cooling formed deposits of yolcanic rock. Small as the Oakley Creek is, it has the distinction of forming the only natural municipal boundary in the metropolitan area. Like the Tweed in Britain, it divides a northern district from. a more populous southern land. Crossing it by the New North Road, the traveller passes from Mount Albert borough into Avondale. In the spirit of the border raiders and "cattle-lifters," the people ol Avondale set up the borough pound by the side of the I bridge. Nowadays there are few cattle in the surrounding district to stray into its ibid, and the indistinct lettering of its notice-board tells of days long past. Deepening ol Creeks. Along Great North Road, amalgamation has obliterated the division between Avo.'idale and Point Chevalier. The lower reaches of the Oakley Creek no longer mark a growing city's frontier line, and the continuous ribbon of concrete running across the bridge is a significant sign that old boundaries are being thrown down before the march of progress. The willow-shaded pools in the zoo grounds show how even a little stream can be used to beautify adjoining park land. Something of the same nature may bo done with the Oakley and Meola Stream* k in the future, for portions of their banks are under State or municipal control. A start is shortly, to be made with the deepening of these creeks to carry the stormwater from the boroughs of Mount Albert and Mount Eden. However, it is considered -his will not contaminate them nor transform them into enclosed sewers. In a district like the .Auckland isthmus, where the land is comparatively flat, it is not surprising that people should literally magnify molehills into mountains. Over a gentle landscape towers Mount Eden, 640 ft., at which visitors accustomed to snow-capped, mountains are inclined to scoff. Yet these little hills give an individuality to the city, and the public has shown a strong desire to save them .from the ravages of "commercial vandalism." Equal consideration for the miniature streams draining their slopes might not be out of place.