A.—No. 2A.

to furnish an estimate of the preliminary expense necessary in order to trace the line of the South Road from Stony River to Patea, and survey the belt of land which I propose to have reserved for the purpose «>f constructing the road. As the object in making the proposed road would be not so much to open up the most direct line of communication between distant points in the Province (which must sooner or later be provided for by a road inland of Mount Egmont), but to render accessible for occupation all the available open lands in the Province, and as the nature of the country to be traversed from the Stony River to Patea is tolerably well known, and presents no serious difficulties, I think that all that is required is to fix beforehand the average distance from the coast line or the bush at which it is desirable that the road should be taken, and to lay it down provisionally on the map. The surveyors should then be instructed in commencing any surveys they may have to make between those points to lay out the road in the first instance in about the position indicated on the map, examining the country in advance to a moderate distance to see that no difficulties are likely to occur of a nature to require any great deviation. The cost of actually laying out the road in this manner would be very trifling, and could not exceed two or three hundred pounds for the whole distance. The survey would, I presume, be done at the ordinary contract rates —the cost of which per acre, from your experience of contract surveys elsewhere, you will be able to estimate far more correctly than I can. I should propose to make the survey of the road and road reserve concurrently with the surveys for Military Settlements, for the settlement of Native claims, or for the purpose of sale to general purchasers, which will have to be undertaken, and sales of portions of the belt might be made from time to time before the whole line was completed, so that I can see no reason why the outlay of funds not derived from the land should exceed the cost of the survey of from five to ten thousand acres of land. His Honor the Superintendent of Wellington, on his recent visit to this place in company with General Chute, called my attention to the extreme importance of opening a road through the bush inland of Mount Egmont, and he estimates the expenditure necessary for this purpose at about £4,000, or, roughly speaking, £100 per mile, for the road through the bush, an estimate which agrees with that which I had arrived at as to the cost of making passable cart roads through the bush. The cost of this line also might be defrayed by the sale of land, but it is not, of course, to be expected that bush land in remote districts would fetch more than a very low price. lam hardly able to say which of these two lines is of the most immediate importance. With the view of securing the permanent peace of the Province, and of establishing a rapid overland communication with Patea and Wanganui, the line behind the mountain is undoubtedly the most important, whereas the coast line is that which will connect together the Military Settlements, and make available the intercnediate districts for occupation. It is my opinion that with the view of insuring the peace of the Province, and of raising the value of the waste lands, and stimulating their occupation, both these lines should be made first charges upon the districts through which they run. I have, <fee, H. R. Richmond, The Hon. the Minister for Colonial Defence, Wellington. Superintendent. No. 6. (No. 67.) Copy of a Letter from the hon. c. w. Stafford to his honor h. r. Richmond. Sir,— Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington, li)th February, 1866. I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 93, of the Bth instant, to the Hon. the Minister for Colonial Defence, on the subject of the preliminary expense which would be required to trace the line of the South Road from Stony River to Patea, and survey the belt of land proposed to be reserved for the purpose of constructing the road. I have to inform your Honor, in reply, that a sum not exceeding £250 is authorised to be expended in tracing the line of road in question by the coast route. Although it is doubtless desirable that a road should be opened through the bush inland of Mount Egmont, it is impossible at present to authorise the expense of constructing it, till it has been decided how the confiscated lands in the Province of Taranaki are finally to be dealt with, and where the funds required for their settlement can be obtained. ■ The same observations will apply with respect to the question of the survey of any land not absolutely required to fulfil engagements made with military settlers. I have, «fee, His Honor the Superintendent, Taranaki. E. W. Stafford. No. 7. (No. 94.) Copy of a Letter from His honor h. r. Richmond to the hon. colonel haultain. Sir, — Superintendent's Office, New Plymouth, February 8, 1866. I have the honor to forward herewith a return of the expenditure necessary to complete existing contracts on the South Road ; and also a return of the further expenditure required (some part of which received your sanction when at New Plymouth) to make the road passable as far as Ahu Ahu, at which place is situated the contract most distant from the town of New Plymouth which has hitherto been let. The total expenditure on the South Road from the Bth July, 1865, the date on which it was placed under the management of Mr. O. Carrington, to this date, has been £1871. I did not feel sure, from the

5

OF THE CONFISCATED LANDS.