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—by the settlers themselves. Beyond this point—l 3 miles 30 chains —the road is being felled, cleared, and formed as a dray-road by co-operative labour. Similar work is, at the same time, in operation backwards from the Tongaporutu end, where the Mimi Boad runs along the Tongaporutu Stream between the usual crossing and the Mangaongaonga Stream. Of this portion of the road 3 miles 64 chains have been felled, grubbed, and cleared, and the formation of a dray-road is being proceeded with, about 50 chains being completed, while a further 100 chains is under contract. About six miles of the formation-work will be exceptionally heavy, the line running along steep sidings in papa-rock, the angles of the cross-section varying from about 25° to 26°, and as no embankment will stand on a papa-face of a steeper angle than about 28°, the greater part of the base of the road will have to be cut out of the solid. The whole of this work is being done on the co-operative-contract system, in short lengths, to suit the numbers in the parties. The expenditure for the year includes the cost of an engineering survey of fifteen miles and a half of road between the Uruti and Tongaporutu Streams. When completed this road will be of great value as a connection between Waitara and Mokau, avoiding as it will the track along the sea-beach at Pukearuhe, the tunnel at Parininihi, and the bridle-road, frequently out of repair, between Parininihi and Tongaporutu, this track being at times very dangerous. In connection with the roadwork, improved-farm settlements have been established in the Mimi and Tongaporutu Valleys, particulars of which will be found under the heading "Improved-farm Settlements." Okoke Boad (Expenditure, £500). —A block of Crown lands having been surveyed for sale in Blocks V. to XIV., Upper Waitara, this road, which leads through the block, was felled to a width of 1 chain, stumped and cleared 12?t., and formed as a bridle-road sft. wide for a distance of 6 miles 36 chains from the point to which it was already passable, the length now open from where it leaves the Mokau Eoad being about nine miles, of which about two miles and a half is dray-road. The work has been finished to about the centre of the block, and will be continued so soon as a loan (under the Government Loans to Local Bodies Act) is granted. In connection with the formation, a large number of culverts and pack-bridges had to be made over the numerous watercourses crossing the road-line. The work was done by settlers under the co-operative-contract system. The Clifton County Council formed the first part of the road —two miles and a half —as a dray-road last year out of loan moneys, spending £300 upon the work, upon which they were promised a subsidy of £1 for £1. This further £300 is being spent this year in building a cart-bridge 90ft. long over the Urenui Stream, at the junction of this and the Kohangamoa Eoad. The bridge will be completed in May. Junction Boad to Purangi (Vote, £2,000; expenditure, £1,000). —The metalling on this road between Tarata Bridge and Mataro Boad—a little over five miles—was commenced last year, but had to be discontinued on account of wet weather in April. A further length of nearly three miles and a half has been laid this year, or a total length from Tarata Bridge of nearly four miles and a half. The contract, should the weather be favourable, will be completed in May. Out of the above vote of £2,000 the sum of £325 has been expended in dressing up the formation and metalling 48 chains of the worst parts of the road over the zig-zag west of Tarata Bridge. This will assist in keeping open the road during the coming winter, if it is not destroyed by the heavy traffic on narrow-tired wheels which obtains on this road, and tends to cut through the newly-laid metal and destroy it. The road will never be really serviceable until the gap of nearly six miles still unmetalled between Inglewood and Tarata is properly laid with broken metal, or with a thick coat of the best gravel, and until the wheel-traffic and width of tires is regulated by the local bodies, as it has to bear the whole of the traffic of the Tarata to Purangi settlements, including the Milsom, Tanner, and Oxford Special Settlements. The 48 chains of metalling was done by ordinary contract. Bridge at Purangi (Vote, £400 ; expenditure, nil). —No arrangements have yet been made for bridging the Waitara Eiver at this point. At present, the whole traffic of the Milsom, Tanner, and Oxford Special Settlements has to go over a fin.-diameter wire cable, under which a cage is suspended to a travelling block, the span of the cable being over 220 ft., stretched at about 45ft. above the water. A temporary ford has been made at a shallow part of the river, but a few hours' rain renders it impassable. The above settlers have to sledge their goods three miles and threequarters from the end of the dray-road between Mataro Eoad and Purangi, sling them in parcels across the wire cable, and then pack them with horses to their homes—in some instances a further seven or eight miles. A bridge over this river, the widening the Junction Eoad, and a bridge over the Matau Stream, in the Tanner Settlement, are each urgently required if the settlements are to be a success. Tikorangi-Tarata Boad (Vote, £300; expenditure, £150 35.~6d.). —In previous years, out of votes, the whole length of the road between the open land at Tikorangi and the formed road at Tarata has been felled, stumped, and cleared the usual widths, and a bridle-road formed from the Tikorangi end to within about one mile and a half of the Makara Stream. At the Tarata end, the Clifton County Council formed the road as a dray one (out of loan moneys) to within about 40 chains of the Makara Stream. There was therefore left a gap of about two miles, the formation and culverting of which as a bridle-road has been let on the co-operative-contract system to settlers having farms near the work. The contracts will be completed in May, when there will be roadcommunication open between the Ngatimaru district, about Tarata, and the Tikorangi and Waitara districts. Sixty chains of this work, including 80 lineal feet of culverts, was completed by the 31st March. Tikorangi Bridge (Vote, £300 ; expenditure, £21). —A plan was prepared for a cable suspensionbridge to take the place of the proposed trestle pier-bridge over the Waitara Eiver at this point, but no contract has yet been entered into for its erection. The whole of the bridge material prepared for the truss-bridge is carefully stacked, and is available for the erection of the new one. Ararata Bridge (Vote, £150; expenditure, £150). —The bridge over the Ararata Stream at junction of the Eotokare, Whareroa, and Makino Eoads, which was commenced last year under the supervision and control of the Hawera County Council, has been completed. It is a light but