THE ACTING ENGINEER-IN-CHIEF.

5

D.—No. 5.

be required to complete the formation of the road. This does not include gravelling, the cost of ■which Mr. Carrington puts down at about £300 a mile. Northward of Umuroa as far as Waiweranui, a distance of about twenty-three miles, the country consists of open fern and flax, a considerable amount of swamp, but no large rivers. In this length nothing has yet been done towards the road, nor has the road line yet been surveyed, and the coach travels along the beach, or near it, along the old tracks. Thence to Hangatahua, or Stoncy River, about four and a half miles, a considerable amount of work has been let, such as clearing, ditching, cuttings, and culverts, through a level fern country, but swampy in many places. About one-half of the work has been executed. A substantial trussed girder bridge has been erected over the Hangatahua, whence the road to New Plymouth is in good order, and all the rivers excepting the Kaihihi are now bridged. Beyond New Plymouth northwards, for about thirty miles, a considerable amount of work has been done in detached portions, the first ten miles of it to Waitara being now an excellent road. This river is now being bridged by the Provincial Government. The principal works now required to make a road available for safe and regular traffic from Wanganui to New Plymouth, besides the formation of those places yet untouched, will be the erection of bridges, besides those already enumerated, over all the important streams, and the gravelling of the softer parts of the road. The bridges enumerated by Mr. Carrington as amongst those he would recommend to be built, are the Whenuakura and Waitotara, both rivers subject to heavy floods, rising quickly in the former, and in both to a height of 20 feet. In reference to the fourteen bridges said to be required between the Waingongoro and Umuroa, it is suggested that the timber necessary for their construction should be imported, and landed at Opunake, to avoid the difficulty of dealing with the Natives in whose hands the bush now is. This is well worthy of consideration, and by adopting something like uniformity in the design of the bridges, the difficulty of ordering exactly what might be necessary would be considerably reduced. I feel great satisfaction in noticing that Mr. Carrington reports that several good gravel pits may be found between Waitotara and Waingongoro, and that between Waingongoro and Stoney River it may be found at intervals nearly the whole of the way. A cursory inspection of the country would not lead any one to think that gravel was easily obtainable, and this report is therefore all the more satisfactory, as it is obvious that unless the road is covered with good metal or gravel, however carefully formed and drained, it must of necessity, from the light nature of the soil, be little better than a summer road. It is true that the coach yet runs regularly between New Plymouth and Wanganui, but many parts of the road are excessively heavy and cut up to a great depth even with the small amount of traffic at present existing. Our attention must therefore be directed, during the next summer, to the thorough and careful metalling of all those parts of this road which may require it.

Bay of Plenty, Tauranga.

This important district has many claims for consideration. Tauranga itself, besides possessing an excellent harbour and commodious town site, is surrounded by a large extent of country well calculated for settlement, and is, besides, the key, naturally, to communication with the interior from the North. It has therefore received a due share of attention. The most important road work undertaken in this district is on a line drawn nearly due south to Kotorua, and thence on to Taupo. The first section of this road, now being executed in a serviceable way for dray traffic, lies through open undulating country, chiefly covered with fern, for a distance of about eight miles. This section has been completed by contract for about .£1,300. Portions of the old road between the Waioroi Stream (the commencement of the above contract) and the town, have been improved by cutting and forming, &c.; the work being let out in small contracts, to suit the circumstances of those in the district in want of work. Beyond this lies a stretch of about seventeen miles of dense forest, through which the road has been carefully laid off, and let by contract, in two sections of nearly equal length, at an average rate of £200 per mile, including bush felling 1 chain wide, and formation of the road 18 feet, with necessary side and other cuttings, culverts, &c. The bridging through this length of road in the forest amounts to 360 lineal feet, which has been let by contract at a gross sum of £1,430. The first of these sections is now well advanced and the second is in progress, terminating at Puhirua, near Lake E-otorua. From here to Niho ote Kiore the road has been surveyed, and some contracts are in hand. This part is in open country. The line from Niho otc Kiore to Lake Taupo will be described in connection with the East Coast. Before this line of road was decided on, a question arose as to whether, instead of making a nearly straight line southwards, it would not have been better to have adopted a line more to the westward, so as to strike the Upper Waikato country, and crossing the forest at a point where it Mas very much narrower, and thus have secured a road in which there would have been less bush to deal with, and of generally easier execution as regards work. Had this question been raised at an earlier period, and had we been free to explore for and to choose the really best line as regards natural features, it is possible that the line of road chosen might not have corresponded exactly with the one now in progress; but as it happened, the really best line for a 2