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Ngaire, and also beyond the 90-mile peg to Ongaruhe. From the 90 miles onwards 1 consider very poor pumice land—about third-class at the best. South from 70 miles the land is good grazing land. 3. About what portion of the land on the Ngaire route is fit for agricultural purposes? —About 25 per cent., and 65 per cent, more for grazing. About 10 per cent, is too rough to pay for felling the timber; it is valueless, except as a forest reserve. 4. What width would you include on each side of the route ?—The whole of the land from the coast to the route and between the route and the Wanganui Eiver. I would take about 50 per cent, of that as being grazing land, beside the agricultural land. There is no large area of agricultural land on the east side, with the exception of the Ohura Valley, near the Wanganui Eiver, from north of about the 50-mile peg. 5. What do you reckon is the width of the Ohura Valley?—-About a mile, or a mile and a half at the most, near its junction with the Wanganui. Ido not know it near the route. 6. Is the land such as you would personally select for settlement ?—I would only be too pleased to have land there ; but it should not be divided into lessfthan 500-acre allotments. 7. Assuming that the Ngaire route were not made, would not the northern part of that district be served by the central route ? —No, not at all. The trade would go by the road from Stratford or from the sea-coast by the Mimi Eoad or Tongaporutu, and the northern portion by the Mokau Eiver or to Auckland by rail. 8. Would the traffic from the eastward side tend towards the railway for more than five or six miles in width ?—I think it would extend more than ten —fully twenty miles in places. It would extend the whole way to the Wanganui Eiver on the eastern side. 9. You know nothing of the land on the central route?— Only that up the Eetaruke Eiver, in the Waimarino Block. About seven miles from the Wanganui Biver the valleys are of pumice sand. Some of the high lands are very fair; this will be eight or ten miles from the central route. The pumice country is within ten miles of the Wanganui Biver, at the junction with the Eetaruke. The land that is not pumice is very fair grazing-land. It is two extremes. The whole of the land that. I have been over tends towards the Stratford route. There are a number of blocks east from Stratford that are being settled, some of which have been taken up as special settlements, and the land is very good indeed. Pohokura, thirty miles from Eltharn and twenty-five miles from Stratford, carries three sheep to the acre. Forty miles from Elthain there is a block selected for a special settlement. The Mimi route is also through very good land. It is tolerably rugged, but it is heavy clayey land, and could be brought under grass. There are several special settlements selected on this block. The land that I consider the worst part is the lower Tangarakau Valley. I have been through the country east of Stratford as far as the Wanganui Eiver, nearly the whole of which is of good quality, suitable for grazing, and a large portion is agricultural land— by agricultural I mean land that would be suitable for ploughing and cropping. All this land tends to the Ngaire route, and is being rapidly occupied, and so far has proved excellent sheep country, having a large percentage of lime in it. This is the district now being opened by the East Eoad, Mr. Chaeles Wilson Huesthouse, sworn and examined. Mr. Hursthouse : lam a road surveyor in the Government service. I have been in the Government service for about thirty-four years, but not in the Survey Department all that time. I was a Public Works man from the beginning of the public works until about eighteen months ago. 10. The Chairman.] Have you an intimate knowledge of the country that is traversed by the Ngaire route and central route ?—Yes ; that is to say within a short distance of each line. I cannot say that I know the country intimately between the two. I have a general knowledge. 11. But you have travelled over each route?— Yes. 12. Perhaps you will start with the Ngaire route, and tell the Committee what you know of that part of tire country as to suitability for settlement and facilities for railway construction ? —Well, beginning at the northern end. As regards the land at the point of divergence and for some ten miles along the Stratford or Ngaire route, it is not first-class by a long way. The hills are fairly good and would carry stock. The flats are of pumice drift, which overlies the old formation. You can see the papa rock at the bottom of the rivers, which have worn through the pumice drift. From about the point marked 95 on this map —ninety-five miles from Elthain —from that point right through to Eltharn the soil is very good. 13. What are the general features of the country? —The country is broken, but the features are not very large. There are no hills, speaking from memory, more than I,looft. or 1,500 ft. high. There are no mountains, speaking from a New-Zealand point of view. I estimate there is 25 per cent, of the land that is ploughable agricultural land, 50 per cent, is good stock-grazing country, and 25 per cent, that is too steep and rugged for anything but commons, forest reserves, and that sort of thing. 14. Will you look at the coloured map on the wall, supplied by the Surveyor-General, and tell the Committee how much of the land on either side of that route would feed the railway ?—I would certainly say that the railway-line would enhance the land for fifteen, miles on either side. 15. That it would draw the traffic of all that country?—lt would depend on what the traffic is, and what the produce is. It would induce settlers to go on the land. 16. But if these fifteen miles brought us to the sea-coast, would the traffic from that locality be brought to the railway ?—No, it would be absurd to do so ; because, if you notice on the map, the distance from Pukearuhe to the railway-station at Waitara is short. The sea is not to be thought of, because there is no landing. 17. Now, how much of the land to the westward of the Ngaire route would be likely to bring traffic to it ?—I think that probably there would be very little from tho westward of the Waitara Biver.