Everyone who has crossed the Matawhero traffic bridge is familiar with the lower cut in the Waipaoa River, but Tietjen's cut, a few miles upstream, is not so familiar.

This cut, an integral part of the Waipaoa river control scheme, is 45 chains long, and eliminates a 2½ mile section of the river. When these pictures were taken it was carrying the whole of the river flow. It is situated about a mile below the Waerenga-a-hika hotel.

Cut through level pasture land, the bypass was excavated originally to a width of 15ft. Now it is approximately 50 feet wide, should ultimately erode to a width of 200ft or more. It will then be able to carry the river in full flood.

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Looking down Tietjen's cut. Note swift flow of water from original river bed. Cut has a fall of 6ft in ½ mile, compared with normal fall thereabouts of 1.1ft per ½ mile.

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Viewed from lower end, channel has appearance of miniature Panama Canal

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Blasting operations have opened up huge cracks in unwanted corner at entrance to cut. This section should now erode away.

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Looking across river at entrance to cut (left foreground), view shows old river bed without its river.