B.—No. 5

QUARTER ENDED 31ST MARCH, 1863.

Thomas Dick, Provincial Secretary. April 13th, 1863.

Enclosure 2 to No. 9. W. H. CUTTEN TO THB SUPEEINTENDENT, OTAGO. Crown Lauds Office, Dunedin, 13th April, 1863. Sir,— In reply to your Honor's request for an Estimate of the value of the Crown Lands within the Province of Otago, I have the honor to state that I estimate their value at £6,000,000 (six million) pounds sterling. This estimate is of necessity only approximate, and may be inaccurate should any change be made in the laws relating to the sale, letting, disposal, and occupation of Crown Lands. I have, &c., W. H. Cutten, Commissioner of Crown Lands. To His Honor the Superintendent of Otago.

PEOVINCE OF SOUTHLAND. No. 1. THE SUPERINTENDENT, SOUTHLAND, TO THE HONORABLE THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. Superintendent's Office, Southland, 4th February, 1863. Sir,— Since the constitution of a Government in this Province, the necessity for constructing a Railway to the Blufi' has always been looked forward to as a contingency by no means remote, if the Province only prospered as all classes in it anticipated. The extension of Gold-fields in Otago, in the course of last summer, greatly, though indirectly, benefited Southland ; their further development, in the course of last spring, near the borders of this Province, gave so great a stimulus to the commercial prosperity that it was felt even then that the time had arrived for entering on a work which would connect the best port in the Province— and the only unexceptionable one for vessels of the largest class—with the capital and country in the interior, and a survey of the line was pressed forward. That survey is now complete, and the line presents no engineering difficulties, for the greatest part of the way it will run alongside of the highroad. In connection with this Railway, jetty accommodation of a somewhat expensive character will be required at Campbelltown, and, to meet the expenditure on those works, the Government proposes to borrow .£100,000 for these specific purposes, to be repaid in twenty-five years by a sinking fund. But while engaged in ascertaining all the preliminaries of those works, a further development of the Gold-fields on the borders of the Province has occurred, and the Gold-field of Whakatipu— the lichest hitherto discovered in New Zealand—is now occupied by thousands of miners. In about two months, about thirty thousand ounces of gold have been transmitted from thence. It is said that from eight thousand to ten thousand men are now on the field, and the supplies have been almost exclusively sent from Southland. The only available line to Whakatipu from Dunedin joins the road from Invercargill, at the Mataui'a, about forty miles from here, and then traverses this Province, for about eighty miles, to the Whakatipu Lake. This road, however, is neither formed nor metalled for more than a dozen miles from this place ; and there are two other routes from here

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PEOVINCIAL LOANS

January. February. March. Total. Great Britain Colonies 523 2,597 211 4,756 380 5,306 1,114 12,659 3,120 4,967 5,686 13,773