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Egmont Boad. —Eoad-formation, 5 miles 60 chains. Amount paid during the year on account of contracts, £371 Us. Id. The road has been drained, culverted, graded, and formed from the metalled road (Junction Eoad) at Egmont Village to the Mount Egmont Forest Eeserve, a distance, as shown above, of five miles and three-quarters. It now gives ready and easy access to a large portion of the above reserve and to some Crown lands adjoining (unsold sections in Ironsand Block), and with an additional moderate expenditure would enable tourists to ascend Mount Egmont, making the journey from New Plymouth to the summit and back in one day. The work is completed, and the final payment (£92 155.) has been paid since the 30th June. Roads east of Midhirst. —These works, to cost £200, are only just commenced, and are for the purpose of giving readier access to about two thousand acres of Crown lands in Block X., Huiroa District. The works include felling about a mile and a half of Croydon Eoad, also cutting scrub, and culverting about a mile and a half of the same road, which was felled some years since ; also the excavation of a tunnel (to avoid the necessity of building a bridge) and some formation on the cross road. The felling is being done the usual 1 chain wide, and a cartway cleared and stumped 12ft. wide, at the price of 14s. per chain. The cutting scrub includes not only cutting down all scrub for a width of 30ft., but clearing it away, and clearing and stumping a track (cartway) in the centre 12ft. wide, the cost per chain being ss. Only £20 has been paid on account of these contracts. Boads east of Stratford. —Length felled to date, five miles. Cost: Amount paid to the 30th June, £253 15s. 3d. These works include the felling of the Fraser and parts of the Eotokare and Campbell Eoads, the felling being done 1 chain wide, the Eotokare Eoad having a cartway cleared and stumped 15ft. wide, and the Fraser and Campbell Eoads having cartways cleared and stumped 12ft. wide; the cost in each case, by tender, being 14s. per lineal chain. The works give access to the Crown lands sold in Block XIV., Ngaere, about three thousand acres, and which are now being cleared and occupied. Native Trust Blocks (£277 ss. 9d.). —This includes the felling of three miles of Kahui Eoad, Eahotu, the road being felled the usual 1 chain in width, and a cartway cleared 20ft. wide. This is now in process of being graded and formed by Native labour (contracts at low prices), and when completed will be the principal outlet for the block of Crown lands, about eight thousand acres in area, lying between the Parihaka Native reserve and the Mount Egmont Forest Eeserve. The expenditure for the year on this road was £235 9s. 9d. About 1 mile 45 chains of the Waiteika Eoad, Opunake, has been drained, graded, and formed by-Native labour (contract), the cost being £110 165., of which, however, only £41 16s. has been paid to the 30th June. The road leads through Native lands leased to Europeans by the Public Trustee, and is necessary to give access to the several holdings. About two miles and a half, in addition to the above, yet remains to be done, the plans for which are now being prepared. Boads through Bush, Waimate Plains (£639 17s. 7d.). —This expenditure covers payments to the 30th June on the draining, culverting, grading, and forming 20ft. wide of the Eltham Eoad from Taungatara Stream to the Punehu Village Settlement, a distance of 1 mile 35 chains; also the metalling (a light coat) of the soft parts of the above length. The cost of this work will be £244 ss. 9d., of which amount only £175 12s. 7d. has been paid. Two bridges have been constructed on this road, the one over the Mangahumi Stream being a single span 46ft. in length, the timber being totara, and the bridge being built on concrete piers. In order to shorten this bridge a stream-diversion was cut through a point of the road, and on this the bridge was erected; the saving thus effected being fully 40ft., besides the advantage of straightening the stream and avoiding flooding of the road in high freshets. The old bed of the stream has been filled in, a large culvert being placed under the embankment to take away drainage and flood waters. The cost of the bridge—including cutting stream-diversion, making approaches, and building 4ft. culvert 30ft. long (of totara) —was £273, part of which is still unpaid. The Taungatara Bridge has a main span of 60ft. and two end-spans, the total length being 78ft. It is also built of totara and maire, and rests on concrete piers. The total cost, including approaches, is £370, a portion of which was unpaid on the 30th June. Of the total expenditure on this road for the year (£639 17s. 7d.), the sum of £60 6s. is for wages to the surface-men employed in keeping the gravelled road from Opunake to Taungatara Stream (5 miles) in repair. The foregoing expenditure benefits the Crown lands, about five thousand acres, in Blocks XI., Opunake, and IX., Kaupokonui, and the Punehu Village Settlement lands. Bush Lands inland of Patea (£283 12s. 6d.). —The work includes the felling of about six miles of the Makino, Kawaiti, and Maben Eoads, Opaku District. The Makino and Kawaiti Eoads have been felled 1 chain wide, and cartway cleared and stumped in the centre, 12ft. wide, at a cost of 14s. 6d. per chain. The felling of the Makino Eoad—2 miles 9 chains—has been completed, and about a mile and a half of the Kawaiti Eoad was completed by the end of June. The Maben Eoad has been felled for a length of nearly two miles and a quarter, half a chain wide, and a bridle-road has been roughly graded and formed and culverted at a cost of 12s. per lineal chain. The above work opens up Crown lands set apart as small grazing-runs in the Opaku District, the area benefited being about five thousand acres. The total expenditure for the year ending the 30th June, 1887, on the whole of the works mentioned in this report, including all expenses for engineering, plans, travelling, supervision, and an overseer's wages, amounts to £5,387 os. Bd., the above expenses being in the proportion of a little over 5 per cent, of the whole. The supervision also includes my inspection of roadworks carried on by the Wairoa Eoad Board on the Block IV. and Ngutuera Eoads, Waverley, and by the Ngaere Eoad Board on the Opunake Eoad, Ngaere, previous to progress or final payments being made; the expenditure being over £1,500. The works at present in hand are the completion of the felling of the Eimutauteka, Bristol, and Croydon Eoads; and works on the cross road, Huiroa District ; the Campbell and Mangawhero Eoads, in the Ngaere District; the Kawaiti Eoad, in the Opaku District; the formation of the Kahui
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