LOWER WAIKATO DISTRICT.

5

A.—No. 5.

South of Waikato Heads it is about six feet thick, and near the base very impure, often passing into a conglomerate ; but towards tho upper parts it is better, and might perhaps be used for pavement, or even some portions for chimney-pieces, &c. It is divided into slabs, varying from an inch to a foot or more in thickness. At Otehe Point it has similar characters, but at Te Kapamahunga, on the east side of the primary mountains, opposite to Tuikaramea, it occurs as a subcrystalline or compact rock, of a pale reddishyellow colour, and would form a most excellent building stone. A specimen of the rock from this locality is forwarded with this report. I was not able to ascertain its thickness here, but judge that it will not be found in less than 30 or 40 feet. AVuaixgaroa Clay. The bed is a yellow sandy clay at AVhaingaroa Harbour, passing soon towards the north-east, into a light blue indurated marl. Its thickness, north of the Wangape Lake, is not less than 150 feet. It generally forms undulating fern covered hills, and, as it contains a sufficient quantity of lime, will probably form a good soil for grain crops. Aotea Sandstone. Pale-blue calcareous sandstone, getting coarser grained towards the north. This sandstone can be traced almost continuously from AVaikato Heads to Aotea Harbour, and it contains the same fossils at both places ; it covers, however, comparatively little ground on the surface. Behind AVangape Lake, and down towards Hakarimata Range, it forms a highly picturesque country, abounding in steep precipices thickly covered with bush. The soil into which it decomposes is very good, but tho broken character of the country which it forms will always be against the agriculturist. It varies in thickness from fifty to two hundred feet. Kawiiia Limestone. At Te Kara Point, on the AVest Coast, this limestone is seen to rest immediately upon the Aotea sandstone, and it here attains a thickness of 100 to 120 feet; but it thins out rapidly to the north, and does not appear again in this direction. Further south beyonel Kawhia, it attains, according to Dr. Hochstetter, a thickness of 400 feet, and I have therefore taken its name from this district. It is a very hard crystalline tabular limestone, splitting into thick flags, and in many places composed almost entirely of rolled fragments of shells and corals, anel sometimes containing rounded pebbles of quartz. AVaitemata Beds. Above the Kawhia limestone comes a series of soft reddish sandstones, alternating with thin beds of blueish clay; this series attains a thickness of 300 feet or more, and I could detect no fossils in it. There is no direct evidence to prove the synchronism of this series with the AVaitemata beds, but as they are not likely to be very distant in age, I prefer for the present to group them together. They are extensively developed all along the West Coast, and at the Bluff, Mercer, and Queen's Redoubt. They form a poor but dry soil, more adapted for a sheep run than for arable farming. Plastic Clays and Sands. These sands and clays, being only local deposits, vary, of course, very much in different localities. At Wangape Lake the following section is exposed, which is a fair sample of these rocks north of Taupiri: — (a). Yellow clay with pebbles of limestone ... ... 5 feet. (b). Red, yellow, and white banded clays ... ... 12 ~ (c). Chocolate coloured loam full of fossil ferns and phcenogainic plants 2 ~ f4). Finely laminated blue clay with vegetable remains ... ... 8 „ These clays form but a poor soil. North of Taupiri tho clays contain much pumice and other volcanic rocks, and are here highly fertile. ln the Waitctuna Valley, near Raglan, they consist of clays interstratified with sands and gravel beds of pebbles of sandstone. Here also they appear to be very barren. Boulder Formation. The greater part of the centre of the country between the West Coast and the Waikato is covered with a rich red loam containing large boulders of basaltic rocks, and occasional blocks of sandstone. This country has been but little explored, and its drainage is not yet fully understood. It consists of steep hills rising to an average height of 700 feet, for the most part thickly covered with bush, among which the kauri is far from uncommon, and grows to a considerable size, though not, perhaps, equalling on an average those of the north. This tree (the kauri) extends all down the Taupiri and Hakarunata Ranges, and I saw some at Kapamahunga, the point furthest south to which I went. I mention this as it is generally thought by botanists in England, if not by the settlers here, that with the exception of a few stunted trees at Kawhia, the kauri is not found south of a line drawn from Manukau Heads to Mercury Bay. In the AVaitetuna Valley this boulder formation is seen to overlie the plastic clays. It forms a country which, though hilly, is of a most fertile character, equalling perhaps any in the Province. River Loess. On either bank of the Waipa and AVaikato, extensive level plains are often seen formed of a fine rich loam, resting on pumice, sand, and gravel, the latter being often cemented into bands with peroxide of iron. This "loess," as it is called, always presents a level surface, although often rising to some height above the river. It is light, easily worked, and very fertile, growing most 2