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Civil Duties. One or more constables have been specially appointed at each station for the prevention of crime and the detection of criminals. One constable acts as gaoler of the District Gaol at Ngaruawahia, assisted by another constable as warder. The Resident Magistrate's Courts at Hamilton, Cambridge, Alexandra, Ngaruawahia, are each attended by a member of the force, to issue summonses, &c. The same duties are also performed for the Coroners of the district when required. Census. —The census of the district was taken by a member of the force, in accordance with instructions received. Useful Works. —At Alexandra, the new barracks have been completed and lined throughout. Timber has been cut and shingles split sufficient for the erection of a verandah round the front of the building (115 feet X 6 feet). The outside of the building has received three coats of paint, as also the interior of one room (library). The cook-house, mess-room, and latrine have been whitewashed on several occasions. Spouting has been put up all round the barracks; flagstaff, 60 feet high, erected in one of the bastions. Forty chains of fencing, consisting of matai posts and 4 wires, have been put up round the redoubt paddock (10 acres, including site of redoubt), and the ground twice ploughed, and is laid down in permanent grass. The fencing of the other Government paddock has required constant repair. Two large gates have been made and hung for this paddock. At Cambridge, the following new buildings have been erected:—l. Barrack-room, 30 x 15, weather-board. 2. Forage-room, 16 x 18, weather-board. 3. Saddle-room, 18 x 14, weather-board. 4. Waggon-shed, 22 X 18, corrugated iron. 5. Farrier's shop, 28 x 12, corrugated iron. Officers' quarters, orderly-room, and non-commissioned quarters have been repaired, painted, and verandahs added. Three paddocks (making an aggregate of 16 acres) have been fenced, taking 1,280 posts and 2,560 rails, all of which have been cut and carted in from a bush five miles distant. Six of the acres above mentioned have been ploughed and laid down in grass. Four thousand feet of timber have been sawn in the bush above mentioned, and 900 posts split (for stockade), 12 feet long by 8 inches through. The carting was done by the Armed Constabulary Force. At Kihi Kihi, the stables commenced last year have been completed; and a large forage-room, 31 X 9, built of slabs, with a shingled roof. These slabs were cut by the Armed Constabulary, and carried by hand a distance of 500 yards, from whence they were carted by Government dray two miles. In addition to these slabs, 150 more were cut to make firing-stages for the rifle-range. The well inside the redoubt has been deepened and slabbed for a distance of four feet. The paddock, which was much overgrown with fern and ti-tree, has been cleared ready for ploughing, and the thorn hedge cleared up and trimmed. At Orakau, about 6 acres of land in the immediate vicinity of the block-house, have been cleared. A raupo cook-house, 12 x 12, has been built. A new well inside the palisading is being sunk, and has reached a depth of 44 feet. The old well fell in. At Paikuku a cook-house and mess-room in one has been built of raupo, 16 x 12, with a slab chimney. A well 72 feet deep has been sunk inside the breast-work, which yields a plentiful supply of water. At Pukekura, 5 chains of road have been cleared and formed to connect the redoubt with the new patrol road, and a culvert of rough timber has been built over the head of Walker's Gully on the road to Cambridge, about half a mile from the station. A whare, 55 x 16 feet, has been built in the redoubt, and divided into two rooms—one large and one small. The building has been fitted up with stretchers to accommodate 30 men. The walls are built of double rows of ti-tree wattlings, filled in with puddled clay and chopped toe-grass. The building is thatched with rushes and lined with raupo, and the walls plastered on the outside and plastered and whitewashed in the inside. A mess whare, 20 x 12, and cook-house, 14 X 10 feet, have been built outside the redoubt. Officers' quarters outside the redoubt, 25 X 14, have been erected of the same materials as the barracks. Posts and rails are being split for fencing, and timber sawn for a reading-room. At Eotorangi, a weather-board building, 15 x 18 feet, divided into three rooms, has been completed. The timber for building was cut and carted a distance of four miles by the Armed Constabulary, amounting to 9,046 feet sawn timber, and 25,000 shingles. 1,000 posts and 1,280 palings have also been split and carted out of the bush. A magazine, 6 feet X 4-j feet, with corrugated iron roof, has been erected in one of the stations. The following buildings have been erected during the past year :■ —A four-stalled stable, built of stout rough timber with sod walls and thatched roof, 30 feet Xl 3 feet; a mess-room of raupo with thatched roof and slabbed chimney, 21 feet X 13 feet 6 inches ; a cook-house of earth and ti-tree walls, thatched roof, with store-room adjoining. An attempt was made to obtain water inside the redoubt by sinking a well, but although a depth of 110 feet was reached, no water was struck, and it was deemed unsafe to proceed to any greater depth. Public Woeks. A detachment of Armed Constabulary, under the command of Sub-Inspector Kenny, consisting of 2 non-commissioned officers and 20 constables, commenced road work at the Mangapiko Creek on sth March, 1874, and withdrawn on the 18th May. Owing to sickness and casualties, the average number of men actually on the work, exclusive of non-commissioned officers, was 17. The work on which this party was employed, consisted in the making of an outfall drain into the Mangapiko Creek, to tap the side ditches of the roads across the Panihakua and Paikuku Swamps.
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