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Maharaliara Block. —The works on this block are now finished, unless it is found on survey that the lands in the Mangaatea Valley, under the Ruahine Ranges, are suitable for small holdings. If such is the case, any expenditure for clearing the roads can be provided out of the miscellaneous vote. Road clearing one chain in width, 15 miles; formation, 2 miles forty chains; thirty-six culverts and one bridge have been carried out, at an,expenditure of £3,501 7s. 4d. Area rendered accessible by this expenditure, 8,693 acres. Victoria and Bush Mills Settlement. —The Woodville Road Board have expended the sum of £703 2s. 3d. on the roads in these settlements, and have completed fifty-five chains road clearing, 249 chains formation, 80 chains metalling, and 13 bridges and culverts. There is a balance of £96 17s. 9d. not yet laid out. Area affected by expenditure, 5,820 acres Tahoraite. —A grant of £50, out of the vote, has been spent by the Kumeroa Road Board on the bridle track in the Otawhao Valley, Puketoi Block. Tautane Block. —The Tahoraite-Wainui Road has now been cleared through bush from end to end, and horses can travel over the line. The work completed is 24J- miles clearing and stumping through forest. Formations and side cuttings, 6 miles ; culverts, thirty-seven ; bridges, three ;at a cost of £6,552 Is. lid. Tenders have been invited for 5 miles fifteen chains of formation. During the year 10,914 acres, valued at £10,289, have been taken up on the deferred-payment and perpetual lease systems. The area of Crown land remaining to be opened up is 48,000 acres. The main road through the block connects the coast settlements with the railway at Tahoraite, and will become an important district road ; for, besides giving access to lands in this district, it will be an outlet for a largo area, say 15,000 acres, of limestone country in the Wellington Provincial District. It is estimated that a further sum of £8,500 will be required to open up the block. This does not include bridging the large rivers or metalling the road. Miscellaneous. —One contract has been let for clearing forty-four chains of road through the Woodville Village Special Settlement. Horace Baker, Chief Surveyor.

TAKANAKI. Mr. G. F. Robtnson, Crown Lands Ranger, who has had charge of the major portion of the road works in this district, reports : Boads through Native Leased Lands letween Opunake aud Stony River —The improvement of these roads by clearing, culverting, and part formation, was commenced last year, and completed early daring the present one. The vote of £1,000 was all expended, the lengths of roads opened up being nearly 18 miles, and the amount paid on account of the work during the past year was £753. Tariki Boad, from Bloch YL., Huiroa to Waitara Biver. —This part of the Tariki road now forms part of, and is named, the Junction Road, being a continuation of the Junction Road from New Plymouth to the Waitara Eiver. The work on the above portion was the formation of the road over the watershed between the Manganui and Waitara Rivers. It consisted principally of heavy side cuttings in papa rock. The length of the work was 2 miles sixty chains, the cost £1,197. Junction Boad from Inglewood District to Waitara Valley.- —This is a part of the main road, which eventually will run from New Plymouth to the Crown lands in the Ngatimaru and Taramouku districts, in the valleys of the Waitara River and its tributaries. The portion of the road on which work has been done during the past year is from the settled lands in the Inglewood district to the point where the road joins with the Tariki Road, a distance of about 5| miles. The work has consisted of felling the bush one chain wide, and clearing and stumping a cartway in the centre, twenty feet wide. This work is nearly finished, and the first mile of it has been laid off and let—at very low rates —for culverting, tunnelling, and formation. The cost of the felling and clearing to date has been £361 19s. 5d., the liabilities at date for completion of felling, and the first mile of formation amount to £253. There still remains about 4f miles of culverting and formation to do—whioh will be shortly in hand—and the erection of a bridge across the Manganui River, also two smaller bridges over streams, to make this road practicable for dray traffic to the Waitara River. Eltham Boad, from about Kaweora Boad to Taungaiara Stream. —The work on this road for the past year consisted of one contract for forming and gravelling sixty-nine chains of road, and the formation and gravelling of If miles of the road by a working party of Armed Constabulary. This completes the road—excepting bridges—from Opunake to the boundary of the Taranaki and Hawera Counties. Until, however, bridges are erected over the Mangahunui and Taungatara Streams, the road cannot be generally used for drays westward of the Mangahunui stream, the ford over the latter being changed by almost every freshet. The cost of the work for the past year has been £432 18s. 9d.—namely, contract for sixty-nine chains of road, £187 12b.; Armed Constabulary labour and material, £245 6s. 9d. Timber is now being cut for the erection of afoot bridge over the Mangahunui stream, the liability on account of the bridge being about £20. Boads in tlie Iron Sand Block, Egmont Survey District. —The works entered into, viz., the extension of the Bgmont, Dudley, and Durham roads, are now nearly completed. The contracts let will absorb the whole of the £360 authorized. The payments to date are about £197 19s. ; the liabilities are about £162. The contracts were for felling the Bgmont road to the Mount Egmont forest reserve, the Dudley and Durham roads to the Cambridge road—the roads being felled one chain wide and cartway cleared sixteen feet wide. There are also contracts for culverting and draining parts of the Egmont and Dudley roads. Kahiu Boad, from Main South Boad at Bahotu, to Mount Egmont Forest Beserve. —This road runs through a portion of the 20,000 acre native reserve in the Parihaka district, and will lead to Crown lands —about 9,000 acres lying between the native reserve and the forest reserve. 3 miles ten chains of the road has been felled one chain wide, and a cartway, twenty feet wide, has been cleared, 4.—0. la.