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The Towai Road. —This is an extension of the above road. On it one mile of engineering surveys has been done. A mile and a half of dray-road formation, two miles and a quarter of horse-road formation, with three miles and a quarter of bush-clearing, and 413 ft. of culverts, have been constructed, and the work has been maintained since its completion. The expenditure includes £794 for formation, bushwork, and culverts, and £86 for survey and maintenance. The dray-road formation was extended to Mr. Whilta's homestead. In order to give access to the intending settlers of the Rising Sun Block, this road should be continued as soon as funds will allow. The Mangatoro Road. —This road runs from the township bearing its name down the Mangatoro Valley, and connects with the Danevirke-Wainui Road at a point where the latter crosses the Mangatoro Stream. Engineering surveys have been partially made for a distance of about seven miles, from the Mangatoro Township Reserve to Section No. 4, Block VI., Tahoraite Survey District, where it meets the dray-road formation from the Danevirke end of the road recently done by the Kumeroa and Danevirke Road Boards. Several deviations from the original location will be necessary in order to make a good road, your attention having been already drawn to them. About three miles of pack-track have been cut through the bush and kept open to enable settlers to get in to their work of bushfelling and grass-seed sowing ; and 40 chains of dray-road formation, with bush-clearing and culverts, have been constructed. The expenditure includes £140 for bushwork, formation, and track-cutting, and £90 for surveys. The work for the first three miles will be costly, being heavy, and containing much rock. It will, however, be a road of considerable service to settlers on the Coonoor and adjacent blocks, the total distance from the Mangatoro Township Reserve into Danevirke being about twenty-four miles, with easy grades obtainable all the way. The settlers in the Mangatoro Valley, in making their improvements, labour under great difficulties for want of this road, which, for their sakes only, if for no other reason, should be pushed on without delay. All the construction work on the above roads was done by co-operative labour, with the exception of the bridges on the Upper Makuri Road, which were constructed by day-work. The average number of men employed right through the year was fifty-five. During the last winter, owing to the bad state of the roads and the exceedingly bad weather, these men suffered considerable hardship; many of them were seriously ill, and three died. Since the completion of the Makairo Road the supplies are more certain and far cheaper; and it is to be hoped the coming winter will not be so trying. I would, however, point out that for the above reason it is undesirable to send any but robust men to work on rough inaccessible blocks during the winter months. Mr. William Campbell was the overseer in charge of all the Coonoor works, and conducted them in a very creditable manner. The Makuri Gorge Road. —This road was gazetted a county road last winter, prior to which £215 was spent on it in the construction of two bridges, the completion of the formation, and maintenance of the road. The Makuri Toionship Roads. —A mile and a half of dray-road formation, with bushfelling and culverts, have been constructed ; one 20ft. platform bridge, with approaches, and three fords, two of which cross the Makuri River, have been made ; and one mile of the road has been metalled; all of which work has also been maintained. The metalling cost rather more than was anticipated, owing to the gravel in the first pit running out, and another having to be opened at some cost and trouble. It is, however, there ready for future use. The Makuri-Aohanga Road. —One mile of bushfelling and horse-road formation have been done, and six miles of the road maintained and put in repair for the coming winter. Protective works near the-site of the proposed bridge over the Makuri River have also been done, consisting of about a chain of the bank being fascined, two fascine groins, some booms, and the channel cleared. Engineering plans have been received, and authority obtained, for the extension of this road from its junction with the Upper Mangatiti Road to its junction with the Utiwai Road, a distance of 2 miles 17 chains, which will connect it with the formation now being done from the Alfredton-Weber Road. This work will be put in hand at once, and should be finished in about three months. The maintenance of this road is still in our hands, and I would suggest that it remains so, for similar reasons to those given in the case of the Makairo Road. The Mangatiti Road. —Seven miles of engineering plans received in an uncomplete state have been completed, and contracts prepared from them. Six miles of bush-clearing and horse-road formation, with 1,530 ft. of culverts, have been made, and the road maintained and put in order for the winter's traffic, and to enable us to keep the works going ahead. This road should be pushed on to the Township of Pungaroa, the settlers there being already at work. Aohanga-Waewaepa Road. —This is marked the Woodville-Aohanga Road on the maps. Three miles of engineering surveys have been done, and one of them is let for formation as a horse-road, starting at the end of the county dray-road formation, about two miles from Makuri Township. Other contracts will be let as soon as the work can be prepared. For the convenience of settlers, about three miles of pack-tracks were cut through the bush as a temporary means of access. Mangaramarama Village Settlement Roads. —A mile and a half of bush-clearing was done by the village settlers, at a cost of £153. As already reported, this work should be supplemented by formation, in order to give the settlers a fair chance of making their settlement a success. Makuri Toionship. —Sixty-six acres of this reserve have been felled and burnt, at a cost of £130, all trees having been cut down. On all roads the bush has been felled a width of 66ft., and stumped and cleared a width of 33ft., and all overhanging trees likely to be dangerous to traffic have been cut down. The prices paid for this work have ranged from 10s. to £1 10s. a chain, the average being about £1. The horse-road formation has been made from 6ft. to 10ft. wide, the latter in dangerous places nearcliffs, &c. It has in all cases been formed on the best grades obtainable for the dray-road, so that by simply increasing its width the latter is made. The dray-road formation has been made 14ft. wide

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