c—6

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The Crown's titles to all these additional pieces are in course of preparation, and Gazette notices reserving them for scenic purposes will issue in due course. A handsome drinking-fountain has been erected on the roadside at the Cooper's Knobs Reserve : it is fed from a spring in the reserve, and is the gift of the Hon. R. H. Rhodes. Receipts and Expenditure for the Year ending 31st March, 1914. Receipts. £ s. d. Expenditure. £ s. d. Government grant, pound for pound .. 50 0 0 Carting material, &c. .. .. .. 6 3 4 Erecting fencing .. .. .. 816 3 Part cost material .. .. 15 0 0 Balance in hand .. .. 20 0 5 £50 0 0 £50 0 0 C. R. Pollen, Chairman.

APPENDIX D. Report on Wellington Scenic Reserves, by E. Phillips Turner, F.R.G.S. Wilton's Bush. This reserve was acquired for scenery-preservation purposes by the Government in 1906, the Wellington City Council contributing £500 towards the purchase-money. ' The land was part of the Otari Native Reserve. The reserve is some three miles from Wellington, and the Wadestown tram takes one to within a mile of it. Those who are more energetic will find it a very pleasant walk. The area of the reserve is 142 acres, but only about three-quarters of this area is forest-clad; the rest is open grass land. On the south-east the boundary is a small stream, and from this stream the reserve extends up steep spurs and gullies a distance of about a third of a mile. The stream is named Kaiwarawara on the maps, but this is probably a misspelling of Kaiwharawhara, kai being the Maori for food, and wharawhara being the name of several of the astelias, two perching kinds of which are abundant here. The plants are of the lily family, have long sword-shaped leaves, and bear large panicles of yellow or yellowish-green flowers, which are succeeded by fruits which resemble little balls of bright-red jelly. These fruits were eaten by the Maoris, so the above seems the probable explanation of the origin of the name. The Kaiwarawara, or Kaiwharawhara (as I think it should be called), is a small fast-flowing stream some five paces in width. Here and there are still pools, and in these the English trout may often be seen disporting himself. There are four tributaries that pass through the reserve and join the Kaiwharawhara; two of these are of fair volume, and in their rapid descent of two deep gullies pass over rocky cliffs and form charming cascades. Two years after the acquisition of the reserve a bad fire swept through and killed a good deal of the bush. The damage then done has been to some extent repaired by the rapid growth of such trees as rangiora, houhou, mahoe, &c; but the tall, gaunt trunks of dead rimu-trees still stand to show the ravages of the fire. Our big forest-trees nearly always carry large numbers of perching-plants in the forks of their boughs, and round their boughs large swathings of mosses and lichens. In hot summer weather these guests of the tree become a great danger, as they dry almost to a tinder, and catch the flying sparks from fires near by. Frequently the fire will pass from one big tree to another, killing them without doing much damage to the small trees and shrubs below. The bush in this reserve is of a different kind from that at Day's Bay. There the black and red beeches are the dominant trees. Here they are altogether absent, and the top story of the forest has been composed of the following : Tawhero, tawa, hinau, rimu, rata, miro, kahikatea, matai, rewarewa, pukatea, totara, kohekohe, and maire, with a close lower story of mahoe, Fuchsia, raurekau, porokaiwhiria, houhou, angeange, &c, with a dense accompaniment of the vines Parsonsia, supplejacks, lawyers, Muehlenbeckia, and native passion-flower. On the forest-floor there is a great profusion of different kinds of ferns, some of which are rare, such are a crested form of Polypodium Cunninghamii (not known elsewhere), Davallia novae-zealandiae (one of our most beautiful ferns), and the delicate little Adiantum diaphanum, a dwarf maidenhair. Crape and filmy ferns are also plentiful. Treeferns are fairly abundant. In one gully the graceful nikau, the only native palm, is in considerable quantity. Except in the bottoms of the two largest gullies, fire and the axe have much changed the bush from its original condition ; and even in the gully-bottoms rotting stumps show that some of the large trees have been taken out ; however, in such places the characteristics of the original bush are fairly well preserved ; and resting near the streamlet, with no noise but its babbling water, the twittering of that restless little fairy of the wood, the fantail, and the occasional music of the tui, one can easily forget that one is within an hour's walk of a bustling city. As before stated, the backs of the spurs are in grass, but the sides bear a dense growth of such small trees as rangiora, mahoe, heketara, houhou, Fuchsia, makomako, karamu, &c, often thickly