GEOLOGICAL DATA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1943, Page 5

GEOLOGICAL DATA

FEATHERSTON SIDELIGHTS. IN THE DAYS OF LONG AGO. A.C.H. (Waipukurau) writes as follows:— Some weeks back, as an cx-Fcather-stonian, I forwarded to Mr IVI. B. Tait, well-known as a veteran in Wairarapa local body affairs, and a keen student of geological matters, a copy of the “Central Hawke's Bay Press” (Waipukurau), in which appeared an informative article written by an observant settler, > who adopted the nom de plume of “Tika Tangata,” in the course of which reference was made to the statement 'in Mr H. H. Hill's book. “The Lost Wairarapa,” to the author's contention that a river formerly flowed from the Wairoa district right through Hawke’s Bay and the Wairarapa, discharging into the Wairarapa and Onoke Lakes, and thence into Palliser Bay. In the course of a reply, Mi' Tait stated:— “Our local Boar Bush stream at one time met the Pacific Ocean at the foot of ‘Fog-hill,’ and helped to make a papa-clay deposit lift, deep, 60ft. below the surface, at Vincent’s cordial factory, spreading at a level going about 101't. below the surface at Mr’Staff Murphy’s home, and about four’ feet in thickness. Abbott's Creek has never encroached 1 much on the Featherston town area, going more to the south along the foothills, having made up all the ground that is now the local cemetery. It had a definite bed in a channel in front of ‘Gum Grove’ homestead at that period, probably meeting the Wairarapa Lake a little below the railway crossing, and building up all that fairly good grazing country from there to the present water-side. The Tauherenikau River, too, is interesting if you can imagine it coming down fairly close along the Targrua foothills and hitting the Featherston moraine from Boar Bush Gully at a point a little above Mrs Wm. Barton's home (‘Fareham’). Being deflected on the left it probably met the lake near the Martinborough road; in its course eroding sufficient earth to cause that slight eminence in the locality where Mr Wm. Benton, in his later years, dwelt. Lower down, about 20 chains to the westward of the South Featherston cheese factory, it cut across the paddocks, ran through the back of ‘Longwood’ homestead, then meandered along the then borders of the lake and discharged into the Pigeon Bush lagoon, causing the bar which forms that stretch of water. The Ruamahanga River (if you can let your mind go!) ran on top of Bidwill’s hill, discharging through those throe depressions between “Pihautea” gate and Mr D. C. Collins's homestead, meeting the lake at Rototawai lagoon and ultimately creating that lagoon, also bringing down all the sand which went to make the Kahutara sandhills. At that time Kahutara would be a tidal beach, and when the tide was out (the beach drying a little), the north-west winds would come along and blow the sand up among the rank vegetation, thereby in time building up the hills. Another very interesting point is bur lime deposits. At the head of the Dry River stream (Martinborough), halfway up Bull Hill, there is a deposit of probably more than. .100 ft. deep. It is difficult to reconstruct the conditions which brought this about, as all shell sand deposits are formed on a beach where the surf grinds the shell to powder. At my home in the Shetland Isles there were . several beaches of shell-sand where we used to get boatloads and spread it on our cultivations. One can hardly imagine a shell beach half-way up Bull Hill!”