51

C.—l

NELSON. Maintenance. Nelson, Tophouse, and Tarndale. —The Waimea County Council has expended £114 7s. 6d., part of vote for previous year and partly from .county revenue. The work done is general repairs, removing slips, repairing bridges, &c, over a distance of 28 miles from Bellgrove to Tophouse. Beyond the latter point the road to Tarndale has been allowed to get into such bad repair that great difficulty is experienced in getting through ; and the accommodation-house at Bainbow Crossing has been burnt. A sum of about £200 should be available next year to keep this road open, as it is the only direct inland road between Nelson and Canterbury. The portion from Tophouse via Wairau Gorge is in the Amuri County, the Board of which has expended nothing on it, and has declined to undertake the repairs required. Nelson, Westport, Oreymouth, i&c. —The Waimea County Council has expended £325 3s. in maintenance and general repairs over a distance of 19 miles between Spooner's Eange and Hope Junction. The Inangah.ua County Council has expended £800 out of this vote in maintaining 45 miles from the crossing of the Grey to the Dee Eiver, Nelson Eoad, and White Cliffs-Westport Boad, and 40 miles length from the Eight-mile Creek, Lyell, to the Hope Junction ; a total of 85 miles. The Buller County Council has expended £1,648 os. 9d. in maintenance and repairs of this road for a distance of 48 miles, from the Nine-mile to Junction, and Eight-mile Creek east of Lyell. Nelson, Havelock. —A sum of £43 17s. 6d. has been expended by the Waimea County Council in repairs between the Wangamoa and Eai Saddles outside of the county boundary, which has been refunded by the Government. No expenditure out of vote has taken place within the boundary of the county this year; but the gravelling of the Wangamoa Valley has been authorised and will be undertaken by the county shortly. Ahaura Bridge. —Contribution. Of any expenditure on this I have no information. Construction. Port to Stoke, via Coast. —This work is under the supervision of Nelson City Engineer, and the work has been commenced. Waiau-Hanmer. —Eelief-works for the unemployed were put in hand last September by the Government under the supervision of Mr. F. S. Smith, District Surveyor, and £1,530 has been expended. The work was let in small contracts, consisting mostly of cuttings and formation. Eeport attached. Ngatimoti Bridge. —The main wire for this bridge has been provided by the Government and delivered to the Pokororo Eoad Board. Tenders were called for its erection, but the prices received were considerably in excess of the vote. Since then the Board has merged into the Waimea County Council, and the work has not been proceeded with to date. Wairoa Gorge Boad. —The sum of £261 7s. has been expended on construction of dray-road, —bush-felling 66ft.—12ft. wide. The total length constructed is 99 chains. Access will be given to abont 8,000 acres of land. In charge of Waimea County. Dovedale Boad. —No expenditure has taken place on this road within the year by the Waimea County Council; but the sum of £100 has been authorised, and works will be done to that amount shortly. Mangles and Matakitaki. —Tenders have been accepted by the Inangahua Council for construction of 3 miles of dray-road, on the 4th Februarj 7 , for £627, and on the 18th March for 4 miles further for £889 ; making a total of £1,516 : the Government contributing £400. This work is in progress. Biivaka Valley Boad. —Eelief-works were provided by the Government under supervision of Chief Surveyor. Ninety-one chains of dray-road was constructed 14ft. wide; 3Jchains stone drains and culverts. Crossing of deep ravine filled in with crib-logging protection. Formation included 8 chains of cutting through hornblende and granite rock. Thirty small contracts were let, averaging £2 16s. per chain. The total expenditure was, £367 3s. Id. less value of tents, tools, &c, remaining. Purchase of Boads to open Crown Lands. —There has been £91 18s. expended as compensation for taking short pieces of road through freehold sections to givo access to about 4,000 acres. John S. Browning, Chief Surveyor.

Amuri District. In August last I received instructions to report on the roads with a view of placing some of the unemployed on the work. The road which appeared to be of the most importance was the Culverden-Hanmer Plains Eoad. This required the grades flattening and the flats metalled; but, owing to the road not having been put in the proper place in the first instance, no great improvement could be made without having breast cuttings, which had to be done in some instances, while in others Mr. W. O. Rutherford allowed me to make some small deviations on to his land, with the understanding that we should pay for the fences being put in good order again, he doing the work himself, and sending in the bills to the Government; this has not been done yet. The work was started with fifteen men on the 31st August last. They were joined by fourteen others on the 15th September, eight more men came up on the 3rd October, and four more on the 12th October. We had generally about thirty-five to forty men on the works up to about Christmas time ; they then left to take other work. A sum of £1,530 17s. 6d. has been expended up to date. This includes everything except the item for fencing above alluded to, which will probably be about £20. Against this, however, there is a credit of £28 7s. 6d., made up of cash from contractors for powder, forge, &c, and new, or nearly-new, tools got for the work, and now in hand. The work was done by piecework or petty contracts —that is, we priced the work and offered it to the men at that price. This worked fairly well, although it is almost impossible to put a price on any work—where one party will make good wages another party would not make tucker; but,