rangi, who came from Polynesia to New Zealand on one of the canoes. Ngatoroirangi, nearly dying with cold in the unfamiliar and less kindly climate, called on the goddess of fire to rescue him. She flew to him and on the places where she rested today's thermal phenomena are found. Ngatoro was revived by the fires brought by the goddess and ever since the Maori people have used the hot pools for cooking, washing and bathing. Many Maoris are working on the geothermal project at Wairakei, most of them as labourers, while some have been given important jobs on the drilling gangs. Two newcomers are Tarawa Whiu and Tom Te Karu, both from Reporoa. The European settlers, too, saw how helpful the steam could be to them. The remarkable fact was discovered that in many places appreciable amounts of steam or hot water could be tapped by drilling a shallow well. Particularly in Rotorua, hundreds of householders have sunk bores in their own back yards and laundries and so obtained a cheap hot water and central heating system. Now and then the earth has rebelled and a laundry or outhouse has been blown sky-high, but the people have not given up this way of cutting their fuel bills. Hundreds of other uses of the steam have been suggested or tried; from heating glasshouses and dehydrating eggs to recovering sulphur and making salt from sea water. The most vital potentiality of all, the generating of electric power, was not seriously considered until recently, because people used to think that the hydro-resources of New Zealand were virtually inexhaustible. The truth, not fully known until 1949, was different. While the South Island can depend on its rivers for electric power for many years to come, in the North Island the end of suitable locations for hydro-stations is in sight, with the demand for electricity continuing to rise as rapidly as ever. What previously had been the dream of idealists, now became an urgent demand; a group of scientists and engineers were sent to investigate the hidden stores of geothermal steam in the volcanic plateau, carry out a programme of drilling and report to the government whether an economic electric power supply could be obtained. When drilling started, the “cores” of rock cut out by the drilling bits were brought up to earth so that geologists could study them. From this study it gradually became known what went on underneath the earth and what was the history of the geothermal region. The top layer of the area is a pumice rock called pumice breccia which is from 1,000 to 4,000 feet thick. This pumice breccia is a highly porous layer. Ground water has penetrated all the voids and it is this ground water that is being heated by the steam deep below. At a temperature of perhaps 1000 deg. C, it rises through fissures to penetrate, and then makes contact with the ground water seeping down towards it. When this water surges up to the surface of the earth and the heavy pressure on it is removed, a portion of it is turned to vapour. For this reason steam and water both emerge from the well-heads. Although small flows of this hot water probably occur throughout the volcanic region, quantities suitable for economic development are only present in the thermal areas. Geologists have mapped a great number of fault lines in the region, invisible on the ground, but appearing on aerial photographs as straight lines like fences. Practically all the visible thermal activity is related to these active fault lines which are thought to carry the hot