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By the old Braemar to Burnett's Boad, thence as above, the new formation from L to Burnett's and steep incline into the Jollie would be saved, but the length would be 4 miles longer, and at least £1,200 would have to be spent on the old road to make it all passable. B. The Lake Eoute : This seems to me to be the most feasible of any. From Tekapo to the deviation of the road is already formed, and is in places metalled ; and is, in fact, a fair summer road. No doubt, should it ever be made the main road, more formation and metalling would have to be done before long; but it is no worse in this respect than the coach-road now in use between Tekapo and Pukaki, which for a greater proportion of its length is neither formed nor metalled. The 4f miles of new formation to the navigable water of the lake can be made at a good grade for about £500, and a steam-paddle ferry-boat capable of carrying the coach and horses might be employed to ply between this point and Boundary Creek—say, one similar to those employed on Sydney Harbour—or a simple steam-launch to carry passengers and luggage only would do very well, with a coach for each side of the lake. About £1,000 spent between the lake and the Hermitage would now make that portion of the road very passable indeed. I think this route would not be a very wearisome one-day journey to tourists ; the distance would be broken and monotony relieved by the 4 miles' steam across the lake, and with good horses the journey could be done very quickly. The same number of horses now employed would be sufficient to run right through to the Hermitage, and the work for them would be much lighter, and consequently they would do it more quickly and better than at present. There should be three stages : Pairlie to Tekapo, 26 miles, say, four hours; change horses Tekapo to ferry-boat, 20 miles, three hours and a half ; lunch and boating across the lake, one hour ; new coach and fresh horses 27 miles to Hermitage, say, four hours and a half : total, thirteen hours, say, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. ; and I have estimated the journey at the low rate of six miles an hour, which speed could always be maintained without fail. Should a weekly service only be required, each horse would not have to travel more than a maximum of fifty-four miles and minimum of forty miles per week. At present they are doing eighty and some of them a hundred and sixty, which accounts for their poorness and utter inability to do the journey in a reasonable time, and yet the company has at least four sets of horses. There is deep water at both sides of Lake Pukaki at the points indicated as landing-places, and only small stages, with a boathouse and a hut for the boatman, would have to be erected. I may say enough horse-feed can be had, and is at times now grown on the freehold at the head of the lake to feed all the horses which are ever likely to be employed on the road. It was no use making costly and extensive surveys with exact estimates of the different routes at this stage of the proceedings, but I have measured all that was necessary to enable me to speak accurately in the general way that I have done, and this, I am sure, will be near enough for you to decide whether the survey of any particular route should be undertaken. If it is thought worth while to bridge the Tasman in preference to any other scheme, it would be as well to consider whether it is not less costly to put the bridge across the two streams opposite Braemar, and make a raised causeway, protected by wire fence and willows, across the island and swamp. Both swamp and island are always wet, and at times flooded in places, but neither are ever washed away in the slightest. T. N. Beodeeick, The Chief Surveyor, Christchurch. District Surveyor.

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