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No. 4. The Commissioner of Crown Lands, Auckland, to the Undee Seceetaey for Cbown Lands. (Telegram.) Auckland, 28th August, 1877. Copy of Chief Surveyor's report on Wairoa Block has been posted to you. The precipitous nature and inferior character of the land, added to the extreme difficulty of procuring practicable roads through the block, render it entirely unsuitable for small farms. The Hon. the Secretary for Crown Lands, D. A. Tole, Wellington. Commissioner of Crown Lands.

No. 5. EXTBACT FBOM CHIEF SubVEYOB's EEPOET ON THE WaIBOA BLOCK. The Wairoa Confiscated Block, situated between the Wairoa and Waiau, is distant from Clyde, the Port of Wairoa, some 4^ miles, and is connected with it by a good dray road. The land open for sale on this block consists of the back portion, and has been subdivided into lots of areas above indicated. The quality of the soil is everywhere good, and is generally covered with a dense growth of fern and tutu on the hills, with deep gullies generally with bush in them, and plentifully supplied with water. The surface is formed of a series of ridges, averaging some 1,200 feet high, with little or no level land. It is, however, well adapted for small sheep-runs. The bush found in the gullies is generally light, consisting principally of kowhai, titoki, tawa, and a little totara and rimu here and there. Grass seems to take well where the fern has been burnt off. On adjacent lands near the coast the fern has very generally disappeared from the hills, before the fires and the sheep, and they are now covered with a fine sward of the Native poa grass, which seems to extend itself immediately the surface is denuded of fern ; and these same hills are described as having been a few years since as thickly covered with fern and tutu as the country now open in the Wairoa Block. By Authority: Geoege Didsbtjry, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB77.