8.-6

X

TELEPHONES TO OUTLYING LOCALITIES. By the vigorous prosecution of the work of constructing telephone-lines to isolated parts of the country the Department was enabled to open for public business no less than 146 telephone-offices during the year. It is anticipated that the number for 1907 will at least equal this. The amount expended on telegraph extension during the financial year 1906-7 was £114,068, but there are liabilities amounting to £75,110 on account of works for which parliamentary authority was granted too late for the necessary expenditure to be brought within the financial year. DAIRYING. The first essentials to excellence and purity of dairy products is strict cleanliness in byres and the highest degree of freedom from disease in stock. These objects can be effected only by increased inspection, and for this purpose it is proposed to pay £8,000 per annum out of the Consolidated Fund. By this means animals found with signs of disease will be eliminated, thus securing not only purer meat for local consumption and Home markets but purer milk for dairy productions, the aim being to ensure the best milk being brought to the factories under conditions most favourable to manufacture. Whatever promotes the excellence of our products ensures for them higher prices in old world markets. RAILWAY-CONSTRUCTION. Full details of the Government's railway-works and proposals will be given in the Public Works Statement which will be submitted by my colleague later on, hut I may, however, refer briefly to one or two points. Our railway-construction works have continued to make steady progress. On the North Island Main Trunk Railway especially a large amount of very good work has been done. The rail-heads at the northern and southern ends of the line are now within twenty-eight miles of each other, and the intervening gap is bridged by a good coach service, so that the through journey between Auckland and Wellington by this route is already quite practicable, and the travelling public and many honourable members and others have recently undertaken it. During the coming summer the rails will be laid over much the greater part of the eighty miles gap, so that by the end of the financial year the break between the rail-heads should not exceed five or six miles. There is now, therefore, every prospect of the promise of completion of this great national undertaking by the end of 1908 becoming an accomplished fact. The section of the Midland Railway between Staircase Gully and Broken River was duly completed and opened for passenger traffic in time for the commencement of the Christchurch Exhibition season on Ist November last, as promised by my colleague, the Minister for Public Works. The completion of this section of the line made it possible to establish a daily service, by coach and rail, between Christchurch and Greymouth. This has been much appreciated by the travelling public, and has been very largely availed of. The further section of the line between Broken River and the Cass is now in hand, and tenders for the steel viaduct over Sloven's Creek have recently been accepted. Tenders for the Arthur's Pass Tunnel contract have been received, and the Government, after full consideration, has accepted the lowest tender—namely, that of J. McLean and Son, for the sum of £599,794. So that the important Work of connecting the East and West Coast Railway should be completed in five years. The expenditure on railway-construction last year amounted to no less than £919,684, and in addition to this £308,150 was expended on additions to open lines, and £117,915 on railway-duplication works. The expansion of traffic on our railways in all directions calls for a much larger expenditure on rolling-stock, for it will be recognised that where an increase of traffic has taken place it is the business of the Government to make the necessary provision to enable the traffic to be properly