DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 956, 13 August 1880, Page 2

DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS.

•We have to acknowledge receipt from the Government Printer of a large batch of Parliamentary papers being chiefly departmental reports. From the report of the Post Office Department we glean the fallowing, figures. Cash revenue for Financial period of nine months ending 31st March last Ll 15,680. Expenditure for same period Ll 17 7« 7<l. Official postage for same period was L 41.625. Letters received 10,251,570. Letters posted 10,706,248 or an average of 23,008 per head of the population. Newspapers received 5,649,570. Newspapers posted 4,408,365. Number of Officers employed by the Department 1056. N umber of Post Offices 846 Letters dealt with at the Dead Letter Office 76,887 ; of these 4,738 were destroyed, 61,589 were returned to the writers and the balance were returned to other countries unopened. Post Office money orders issued in tho colony 117.999 representing 1.428,673, drawn on the colony 88,965 representing L 320.252. The report is a particularly interesting one, and well worthy of careful

perusal. The Report of the Minister of E lucation gives the following figures Nuuber of schools open, 817; average attendance of scholars, 54 724 ; number of teachers, 1773; number of scholars on roll, 75,566—0f these 39,427 are boys, and 30,129 girls. Total expenditure on public schools, L4I /,847 of this total Ll 1,109 is expenses of management by Boards, L 7735 cost of inspection and examinations, and L 172.867 school buildings. Cost per scholar, ealeu ■ lated on average attendance, L 7 10s 104. This report is very voluminous, with most useful tables and appendices, and extends over 131 pages of closely printed foolscap. The Report of the Crown Lands Department shows the total land revenue for tho year to have been L 332.463. Of this L 149.400 was for land sold on immediate payment, L 122,800 paston! rents. 1.43,385 deferred-payment rents, L 11.877 agricultural lease rents, LSOOO coal and mineral leases, etc. 95,000 acres have been selected during the year by 718 settlers. Total land disposed of from the foundation of the Colony, 14,126,772 acres, for L 11,321,045. Total area remaining for future disposal, 20,013,832 acres of this Otago has nearly eleven million acres.—

fteport on lunatic asylums shows numbers of registered insane 1,055 being 1 in every 443 of the population Intemperance in the use of alcohol figures very largely in the tables of cause of insanity, 21 per cent, of the to tal admissions for, the year being assigned to that cause. The total expenditure was L 31.354, being an average annual cost per patient of L 29 10s 61.

The Keport of th ; Hallway Commission is a very bulky document, covering two hundred and thirty-four pages of foolscap. The report itself occupies only seventeen pages, the balance being occupied by evidence taken between the sth March and July 16th. Of the evidence taken on the Stratb-Taien or Central Otago line, that of Mr Maitland, Chief Commissioner of Crown Lauds Otago, and Mr Watson iShcunaii, of Maniototo Plain, is the most damaging ; aud very little wonder do wo now that the Commission reported as they did, though we wonder how men occuuying the positions they do make such broad statements. Mr Maitland in bis evidence as to the quantity of laud that would be affected by the railwayin the Upper Clntha Valley, is reported to have said— There are about 50,0D0 acres, principally about Lakes Wauakaand flawea, about 5000 acres of that land is first-class, the remainder is second-class and inferior. 1 have seen wheit, barley, and oats growing on the laud. I never saw a heavy crop any where. 1 got the Chief Surveyor to assist mo in making estimates of the quantities. It is not land I certain'y would choose for agriculture. I would be very soiry to go into agricultural fanning in the interior. I do not think the interior of this pi oviuce, except in patches here aud there, is at all suited for profitable agriculture. Mr Watson Sheinan says there is no first class land in Maniototo Plain, and only about 20 per cent of second and third class, Ida Valley there is about 20,000 acres first class land aud 10,000 acres of second class, but very little will yield good crops on account of the excesive dryness of the climate and it is not suitable for small settlers. In the Manuhcnkia Valley there may be about 10,000 acres of second class land. 1 hold there is no first class land.—Neither of these men we feel fully assured ever dreamed for a moment that their evidence would have seen the light of day, or they would surely never have so far compromised themselves. We will have it for those who know the country to form there opinion as to the value of such evidence. If Mr Maidland had said that he got the Chief purveyor to assist him in making an estimate of the quality, as well as the quantity, it would wa think have been much nearer the truth than in saying he had seen wheat, barley, and oats growing on the land about Wanaka aud Hawea. Mr Maidman says distiyctly that in the Upper Clntha Valley there is no land suited for agriculture between Cromwell and the Lakes—what then does he call Lower Hawea block, No. 5 ; Tarras blocks, Nos. 1, 3 and 7, and all those magnificent rolling downs to the North and West of Tarras block, No. 7, and from thenco to the Lindis river, containing thousands of acres. Mr Maidland was evidently talking of a country he knew nothing of, or ho was wilfully stating that which ho know to bo untrue ; consequently bis evidence is not worth the paper it is written on. Of Mr Shennan we will ask if there are only 10,000 acres of second-class laud in the Mauuhorikia Valley—what docs ho call the Tiger Hill and Lauder Blacks, Lauder Hundred, the Lander swamp, and the stretch of country from the foot of St. Bathans, right along the foot of the Dunston range to the Molyncux. The report has been characterised on all sides as unreliable and untrustworthy, and we cannot do other than endorse the so very general opinion.