D.—6a.

4

deposits further inland. The gold is very similar to that found in the Lyell District—very coarse gold, and often impregnated with rose-coloured quartz. Heretofore the gold-workings have been in the more recent or alluvial formations, but with this road opened, touching as it does the great auriferous belt of rock runuing through the Island, the source from whence all the alluvial gold of tho coast is derived, may Aye not anticipate important discoveries to result from the opening up and thorough prospecting of such a promising district ? The Haast Pass Track into Otago and Canterbury is also a Avork requiring despatch, as until it is made passable for stock those parties who have taken up runs on the various rivers in and near the settlement are unable to get stock to them, as they are unwilling to risk large mobs of cattle on tho present track. In connection with and as tending to very materially assist tho various industries that are now being initiated by the settlers and others, it is very desirable that effect should be given to the promise made some two years ago by the Government, that a steam-launch should be sent to the Bay for the use of the settlers. Prom Bruce Bay in the north to tho farthest south sound the whole coast is accessible by sea only, and as in this stretch of coast innumerable harbours are available to a small craft such as we desire, and as the recent discoveries in the sounds are likely to lead to further ventures in the same direction, I think the necessity for some such vessel will be apparant. Martin's Bay, Big Bay, and the Gorge River, the two latter of Avhich will yet come into prominence as goldproducing districts, would be greatly benefited, as very frequently the '.' Maori " has to pass without landing cargo. The benefit to the settlement would be very great, and Avould, lam assured, induce a much larger investment of capital in the district. The assistance that could be rendered to parties prospecting on the coast would be invaluable, and the outlay, as compared with the benefits that are sure to follow the opening up of new mineral districts, Avould be trifling. Moreover, no olea of interference with vested interests can be brought against this, as under the head of subsidies the Government are in the habit of assisting or subsidizing vessels in the interest of certain ports when such interest is clearly shown to be tho public interest. I therefore think it would be promoting the best interest of the country if such facilities as above indicated could be granted. Like all other neAV districts, our wants are many. In the first place, the completion of the jetty is of vital importance to our rising industries, and, in fact, to the very existence of the settlement itself. In the second place, a steam-launch is wanted for the Bay and settlements north and south of us; and in the third place, the carrying through of the roads already promised, and provision made for the maintenance of the thirty-three miles of roads constructed Avithin the settlement, and that steps be taken to open up communication by horsetrack through the Cascade Valley (where a large area of excellent land would be available) with Big Bay and Martin's, thereby connecting the different settlements with the East Coast and the northern parts of Westland. In judging of the policy of initiating this settlement and the amount of success attending the experiment, due regard must be had to the prospective as well as the realized results that have already accrued ; to its surroundings in tho shape of natural advantages ; and also to the character of tho immigrants sent here, whoso exaggerated notions of what the Government were bound to do for them were only equalled by their thorough unsuitableness for the task of pioneering a new settlement. As a centre from which to operate in opening up the South-west Coast, no better site could havo been chosen, possessing, as it does, one of the best harbours on the West Coast (having no bar risks, and being easily accessible to either steam or sailing vessels), vast natural resources that can and are uoav being turned to account by the settlers, and embracing within its area the outlet to the great natural road from the East to the West Coast, through the Haast Pass. The realized results may be summed up thus : The settlement of over four hundred souls in a district formerly unoccupied ; the establishment of industries that promise to develop into great importance and that will attract settlers of a kind more suited to the requirements of the place than those with whom the experiment was made ; the stocking of the Clarke and other river runs with cattle ; and the mineral discoveries made to the southward through the facilities given to prospectors Avho made this their base of operations. The prospective benefits likely to accrue to the country from a more thorough exploration of the South-Avest Coast will be apparent to any one at all conversant with its mineral character. However, it Avould be manifestly unfair, under present circumstances, to apply the same rule to this settlement, where, at present, Aye are only concerned in trying to develop the more common industries of the country, as would be applicable to the latest manifestation of the poAver of gold in promoting settlement recently witnessed in the more northern part of the province. Genuine prosperity in such cases is sometimes more apparent than real, for strike off nine-tenths of those who act as mere mediums of exchange and aa-lio produce very little, and we can then form a better estimate of their value as compared with the more slow-going settlements, such as this. Were the matter looked at in this light the great difference in appearance between such places as a uoav gold field and settlements Avhere the more ordinary industries of life are carried on would be less striking, and would be estimated at their true value. As bearing on the question of free and assisted immigration, as applied to foreigners, it may not be out of place to draw attention to the very indifferent raw material we have had to deal with. No doubt many of them have done as well as they knew how, as in the case of the Poles and Germans many of whom will ultimately make good settlers. It is not so much the want of will in their case, as that, through Avant of skill, their labour is often misapplied ; but this is an evil that with some of them time will remedy. With regard to the Italians, lam sorry to say my experience with the majority of them has been anything but satisfactory; the same Avant of knowledge, the same lack of resource, but possessing far less of the will to Avork which characterizes the others; there is too much of the dolce far niente spirit about them ever to become successful settlers. I need only refer to the results of Italian immigration to the Argentine Republic, as commented upon' by T. Brassey, Esq., M.P., in an article in a recent number of the " Nineteenth Century," where he says,- " Of the 140,000 or 150,000 Italians who have landed in the Republic since 1862, one-third at least