29

A.—4.

BEPOET BY MESSES. GISBOENE, SEED, AND KNOWLES.

Sir,— Wellington, June 7th, 1876. "We have the honor to report that, in obedience to the instructions contained in your letter of the 28th March, we visited " all the provinces in order to obtain the information requisite for preparing and submitting to the Assembly the estimates for carrying on the public service in the provinces during the coming year." We presented your letters of introduction to the several Superintendents of provinces, who, with the exception of the Superintendents of Otago and Auckland, gave us every aid in carrying those instructions into effect. The Superintendent of Otago informed us that he had communicated with you on the subject, and copy of the correspondence between the Superintendent of Auckland and ourselves is enclosed. The course adopted by the Superintendents of those two provinces frustrated the object of our mission, so far as those provinces were concerned, and forced on us the unsatisfactory alternative of obtaining from the Provincial Auditors the very limited information available in their offices. It will be convenient, for the sake of perspicuity, first to make preliminary general remarks on certain subjects to which we shall have to allude in detail in our recommendations on specific services in each province. Public Wokks. In the course of our inquiry in the first province we visited, the question of provision for public works came under our notice. As it did not appear to us that it could have been contemplated by our instructions that we should recommend what public works were to be provided for, we telegraphed to you on the subject, and you directed in your telegram of the 11th April, copy of which is enclosed, that we should make separate lists of works voted, partly executed and unexecuted, and confirmed our opinion that the departmental expenditure was the primary object of our mission. As the strength of the departmental staff to supervise the public works necessarily depends on the nature and extent of the works to be executed, we have refrained from interfering with the existing staffs by suggesting any material alterations therein. Surveys. In all the provinces we found the surveys in a more or less incomplete state, and in most of them the Crown grants greatly in arrear. For these reasons we have not recommended any reduction in the staffs of this department. Although the time necessary to work up the arrears will, with the present staffs, in some cases occupy a considerable period, yet, as the administration of the Survey Department is now placed under a Surveyor-General, and as its utilization The Honorable Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G., &c, &c., &c. ♦These Enclosures are printed with the Correspondence, under the headings " Auckland" and " Otago." 6—A. 4.

Enclosure No. 1. The Superintendent of Auckland to Messrs. Gisborne, Seed, and Knowles, Bth May, 1876. The Provincial Secretary of Auckland to the same, Bth May, 1876. The Superintendent of Auckland to the same, 10th May, 1876. Messrs. Gisborne, Seed, and Knowles to the Superintendent of Auckland, 10th May, 1876. The Superintendent of Auckland to Messrs. Gisborne, Seed, and Knowles 11th May, 1876. Enclosube No. 2. Telegram, Hon. Sir Julius Vogel to Hon. W. Gisborne, 11th April, 1876.*