G.—lo.

Grass-seed and other seed, fertilizers : Including labour, sowing, and top-dressing, these items cost £2,696. Buildings and implements cost £846. Stock: Dairy cattle, £3,064, sheep, £405, and bullocks, £773, making a total for stock, £4,242. Supervision : £212, being the wages of the foreman. Miscellaneous items, £596. Taking the 31st March as the conventional date for closing the accounts of the previous twelve months the attempt to strike a correct balance between the expenditure represented by actual payments and the corresponding results in development-work completed, material delivered and paid for at that date, requires a measure of co-ordination between an accounting staff and the field organization which is not possible under the conditions. The difficulties are increased where piecework is involved, especially if unemployment subsidies are allotted. Autumn is the period of greatest activity on a development project, and the worst possible for striking a balance. In the case of Mohaka, therefore, which owing to its position emphasizes those lags between field and office that upset the calculations of accountants, it has not been found practicable to synchronize costs and results as at the 31st March, 1932, in any reliable way. Mr. Harvey, the Registrar at Gisborne, who has personal control of the scheme, submitted in October, 1932, a schedule of the results achieved as follows :— Total area cleared and treated with the plough and harrows or sown direct on to burns : 3,034 acres in grass for cows, and 3,673 acres cleared, sown, and fenced for sheep, a total of 6,707 acres. This involved in addition to clearing, ploughing 1,386 acres, disking 1,442 acres, stumping 105 acres. Fencing : Total length of new fencing done by the scheme, 3,369 chains, and repairs, 486 chains ; and the owners erected 10 miles at their own expense. Road access involved 3 miles 48 chains. Draining 75 chains, and sheep-yards were completed. Buildings consisted of seven four-roomed cottages, ten small cottages, and twenty P.W.D. small huts. Also two large cow-sheds with milking plants. Stock : Dairy cows in milk, 789 ; bullocks, 200; yearling heifers, 232 ; sheep, 670. There were forty-six units in occupation, of whom forty were milking, and the others were making preparations to commence as soon as possible. The blackberry menace to the Mohaka country is a real one, but wherever the bushes can be ploughed under the Mohaka settlers, with the inspiration and material assistance provided by the scheme, are converting infested land into dairy pasture. Cutting and burning continue, while the use of goats on an adjoining European farm is being watched with great interest. No better work is being done on any of the Native development schemes than that at Mohaka. When the nature of the country, the varied and difficult surface covering, soils, and contours, the distance from bases of supply of seeds, material, and stock are taken into consideration, the practical results are remarkable for the cash outlay. But the psychological effects upon the inhabitants of Mohaka and throughout the Wairoa, Nuhaka, and Mahia Maori communities are incalculable. It may be possible to assess some of these in a review of the progress of the scheme during the present financial year 1932-33, but the time has not arrived for recounting that story. It is sufficient to say that the migration of Wairoa and Nuhaka Natives to the Horohoro scheme and the development of the Mohaka blocks have profoundly moved the Maori communities that live south of Gisborne and north of Napier. (e) Putokino Nursery. This was taken over under an arrangement with the Forestry Department made in 1931, when as the result of reductions in Government expenditure the operations of that Department were restricted. The Maori Land Board at Gisborne recommended that the Native Department should take over the nursery and stock for the use of the development schemes in its district, especially of Mohaka, which is situated close to the nursery. The stock taken over was 2,340,000 trees, and the Native Land Settlement Account was debited with the sum of £1,000, the value of the property and trees. Up to the 31st March, 1932, the expenditure on maintenance was £333, but no trees had been issued from the nursery. " E." AOTEA MAORI LAND DISTRICT. This district extends from north of Manawatu to White Cliffs, just south of Mokau, and is bounded on the north, north-east, and south-east by the Waikato-Maniapoto, Waiariki, and Ikaroa Maori Land Districts. The only Native-owned areas of undeveloped or partially improved lands submitted for the consideration of the Native Department are in the Whanganui and Karioi districts, and on the fringe of the forest lands of West Taupo, over which the Tongariro Timber Co. formerly had timbercutting rights. The Tokaanu scheme, which affects lands in the Aotea district, has been attached to the Waiariki district. The only other scheme undertaken in the Aotea district is known as the Ranana Development Scheme.

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