W. 0. KENSINGTON. J

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I.—lo.

93. Do you know if the road access to those lands is good at the present time?— Not in some cases —not good access. 94. That is, in the winter-time they are very bad? —Yes, sometimes. 95. Those lands the Crown has disposed of are mainly of proved value? —Yes. 96. They are not like the pumice country? —No; quite a different character from that. 97. The area of land which has been worked and is known to be of a profitable quality is quite considerable, is it not? —Yes. 98. Are you aware that there are large areas in the North Island — Native, Crown, and European lands —which are known to be of good quality, but which have not yet been made available by railway or good roads?—Do you mean, are there still left considerable areas of Crown, Native, and private lands in the Nortn Island which are not yet within the influence of a railwayline? 99. Yes?— Then I answer, Yes. 100. With regard to the access, you said the land on the west side of Lake Taupo would be more readily served by the Main Trunk line? —-Yes. 101. Do you know there is a very big range of hills through which it would be very difficult to construct a railway? —Yes. I did not speak of the construction of a railway. I was asked whether I thought the general access to this land would be through to the Main Trunk line, and my answer was Yes, I thought the land on the western side would be chiefly served by access to the Main Trunk line. 102. Mr. Myers.] Will two-thirds of the remaining idle Crown and Native lands be served by this proposed extension of railway to Taupo? —The word " remaining " is troubling me. 103. The remaining unoccupied land? —" Will the remaining lands still in the hands of the Crown and the Native lands be served or helped by the extension of this railway-line? " 104. Yes, what proportion?— Within the Crown land area! 105. Yes? —That I could not really answer. Bernard Cracroft Aston examined. (No. 7.) ' 1. The Chairman.] What is your position? —Agricultural Chemist. 2. Probably you are aware of the prayer of the petition?— Yes. 3. There is no need for me to explain it? —No. 4. Will you be good enough to tell the Committee your views from your own standpoint? — I have a few notes here which I have prepared, on pumice soils. Pumice soils are classified as coarse sands, but the word " sand " conveys rather a wrong impression, sandy soils usually consisting of a large proportion of silica in the free state (quartz), a substance incapable of yielding the necessary food for plants. Pumice contains a less amount of silica, which is in the combined state, and a larger amount of plant-food, than the majority of sands. The pumice sands of the North Island central volcanic plateau are an example of a soil which has undergone the least possible alteration from the original eruptive rock from which it was derived. Usually soils are formed by the weathering and disintegration of rocks and by the action of moving water in transporting, grinding, hydrating, and sorting out the rock-particles. Some of the more soluble constituents of the original rock are dissolved out and lost; other constituents are oxidized or hyrated; so that the resultant soil possesses characters widely different from the parent rock. On the other hand, although of the same chemical composition as granite, pumice, owing to its vitreous or slaggy nature, is not readily attacked by the chemical influences which produce disintegration of granite; yet, owing to its vesicular and porous nature, and the ease with which it is comminuted, pumice will form a soil and support luxurious plant-growth without previously undergoing the same amount of weathering necessary to reduce granite to a soil. A pumice soil may therefore contain all the elements, and in the same proportion in which they are present in the original rock, with the addition of a certain amount of decaying organic matter. The essential difference between pumice and granite is that pumice reached the surface of the earth and quickly cooled from the molten condition, resulting in the formation of a light, vesicular, noncrystalline mass, easily reduced by the volcanic and other forces to a fine powder, having an apparent specific gravity less than that of water, and therefore more easily wafted over the face of the country by wind and water currents; whereas granite cooled very slowly below the earth's surface, which has enabled the component minerals to crystallise out. These decompose unequally under the chemical weathering agencies, thus gradually allowing of the disruption of the mass of rock. Eruptive rocks as a class give rise to very productive soils, but as these rocks differ widely from each other this statement must not be accepted without some reservation. They contain all the elements necessary to support plant-life, but some acidic eruptive rocks, such as obsidian (volcanic glass), pumice, and the volcanic ash derived from its pulverization, decompose with extreme slowness, owing to their glassy nature. Basic eruptive rocks are much more easily weathered, giving rise to red or dark-coloured heavy soils; the acidic eruptive rocks, on the contrary, are with difficulty weathered, and give rise to soils light in texture and colour. The volcanic glass soils of California are usually unthrifty, and bear a small growth of pines; but there is a vast difference between the rainfall of California and that of Taupo. So far as one can learn, there is no other country having similar climate and agricultural characters as those obtaining on the New Zealand volcanic plateau. Here we have large areas of flat and hilly land covered to a depth of many feet with a layer of. wind-borne pumice at an altitude of from I,oooft. to 5,000 ft., with a rainfall of 50 in. to 70 in., and varying in its vegetable covering from forest to desert scrubs. It is the copious rainfall which probably saves the situation, for in dry climates sterility follows a light soil resting on a permeable subsoil (Warming). The pumice soil readily allows the heavy rainfalls to rapidly drain away, and, owing to the excellent capillarity of the soil when compacted, permits the soil-water to ascend from below where this is possible. Owing