Auckland Provincial Gazette – 1855 – No. 20

Page 122

✨ Report on Communication between Manukau Harbour and Waikato River

AUCKLAND PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

Published by Authority.

Vol. 3.] AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JULY 7, 1855. [No. 21.

Superintendent’s Office,
Auckland, July 6, 1855.

THE following Report upon the means of establishing a permanent Communication between the Manukau Harbour and Waikato River, is published for general information.

Wm. Brown,
Superintendent.

Auckland, June 28th, 1855.

Sir,—

In accordance with your Honor’s instructions of the 1st May last, enclosing a resolution of the Provincial Council, we proceeded to Waiuku on the 4th ultimo, for the purpose of surveying the Awaroa and inspecting the portage between the Manukau Harbour and the Waikato rivers.

Waiuku is a village site on the southern extremity of the Manukau, and is also a terminus of the existing thoroughfare between it and the Waikato. On our arrival here, we were much surprised to observe the amount of business created by the transit through it of merchandise and produce to and from the southern districts; and we became, consequently, more impressed with the importance of a permanent communication between those waters than we had previously been from report only. As all the goods we saw in process of delivery or shipment at Waiuku either had been, or would be, conveyed by the Awaroa, we conceived a very favourable opinion of its volume and capacity, and had little doubt the stream would be found susceptible of improvement at a small cost; but on subsequently commencing our survey at the principal landing place, we were disappointed to find—not the river we sought, but a mere brook of a foot deep, and some nine feet wide; quite disproportionate to anything we expected.

The navigable portion of the creek runs through the centre of a very extensive swamp, covered partly with raupo, and partly with thick kaikatea bush. The highest point to which canoes usually ascend is Purapura, situated one and a half miles from Waiuku. From this place to its entrance into the Waikato swamp, distant 120 chains, the course of the stream is exceedingly tortuous; the average width is about eight feet, and the depth of water varies from nine inches to three and-a-half feet. The progress of canoes is much impeded here by fallen timber, evidently the remains of an old forest; but to obviate this difficulty, natives are in the habit of constructing dams of mud, flax, and brushwood, which afford a temporary passage, but at the same time, tend materially to destroy the existence of the channel, such as it is.

When a canoe reaches a shallow part of the river, a dam, as above described, is thrown across it; and when, by this means, the water level has been raised from six inches to a foot, a passage is opened, and the canoe propelled through it with all possible haste; the materials removed being thrown into the stream, which, on account of its increased rapidity at this part, generally carries away most of the remaining substances that had been used to confine it.

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