Kuhawaea and The Tauaroa Farms.

The Rangitaiki flows in a northerly direction all the way from its source far to the south of us. This part of it, where the alluvial plain of the Kuhawaea opens out between the Kaingaroa tableland and the Urewera wall, was once a lake. The powerful river which fed it at last burst the barriers on the north and emptied the flat-floored valley. The pumice showered on the hills by the Taupo and Tongariro-Ruapehu volcanoes in past ages was borne down in vast quantities to the plains, scouring deep valleys, accentuating the sharp outlines of the sierra that makes Tuhoeland's western rampart and building the long levels that extend to the sea.

We seemed, as we drove over the Tauaroa or Galatea estate that was once the great Troutbeck sheep and cattle station, to be moving endlessly through a prairie of mist. The dim shapes of farm buildings and haystacks appeared and vanished.

A scene on the Galatea estate during the lambing season.

The Government has transformed this once rough grazing run into a region of well-cultivated farms, about fifty of them, where dairying as well as fat stock-raising is successfully carried on, a home for many scores of people where once a few stockmen, shepherds and shearers were employed.

We crossed the Whirinaki River, rushing in from the mountains around Te Whaiti; its discoloured waters were almost level with the bridge planking. It is the largest tributary in these parts; and timber felling on its upper waters increases its powers of erosion in this pumice plain country that cries out for trees for soil protection and shelter.