Image Description from historic lecture booklet: "No point of either North or South Island over 75 miles from the ocean. While Australia is a very dry continent having but a limited rainfall, no high mountains, and consequently no large river systems; New Zealand is comparatively a moist county, requiring little or no irrigation for its crops. The Wanganut River in North Island is famed for its beauty. For the greater part of 140 miles it runs in a deep canyon, which it has cut through hardened volcanic ash to a depth of form 200 to 500 feet. The walls of the canyon are in many places almost perpendicular and everywhere they are very steep. Both sides are covered with rich green vegetation, conspicuous amongst which are tree ferns, rising in some instances to a height of fifty (50) feet, and bearing aloft surprisingly graceful umbrella-shaped fronds. In some places along the course of the river the banks are so steep that the natives are obliged to go to and from their canoes by means of ladders."
