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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 75

Plains

Plains.

The two most important of these have already been mentioned. On the eastern side of the main range the Wairarapa extends northward from the lake of that name for about forty-seven miles, with an average width of about nine miles. In some parts, especially on the flats along the Ruamahanga River, the soil is alluvial and rich; in others, though stony and unfit for cultivation, it is nevertheless grassed, and carries stock well in the winter and rainy seasons. The plain is watered by the Waiohine, Waingawa, and Ruamahanga Rivers, and contains altogether about 200,000 acres, much of which is good agricultural land. On the other side of the district, west of the Tararua and Ruahine Ranges, there is a large block of land so nearly level that it may be called a plain, extending from Paikakariki (thirty miles from Wellington) to Marton (a few miles north of the Rangi-tikei River), and contains about half a million acres. Starting as a narrow strip between the hills and the sea, the plain widens out by degrees until at Fielding it is at least twenty miles in breadth. Along the beach runs a fringe of sandhills, but behind this is to be found some of the best farming and grazing land in the colony. There are two plains inland—Murimotu and Waimarino—both lying some 2,200 ft. above sea-level, in the neighbourhood of Mount Ruapehu, the former to the south and the latter to the north-west of the mountain. The soil is covered with a coarse native tussock, and, though capable of carrying stock, is of a light porous nature, and cannot be classed as agricultural land.