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are of a very good type, and there is every prospect of them making a success of their holdings in spite of many drawbacks. This las! season has been very favourable to settlement, as a wet winter was succeeded by the driest summer and autumn uver experienced, and the settlers have been able tci gel good burns of their felled hush. The greatest drawback to (his district is the of getting stock, whioh has to be imported and consequently is very costly, and ihvis leads to the lands felled and grassed being understocked, and in consequence ferns and underscrub form a second growth on the clearings. The Hanger inspected li' 2 leasehold selections, including 7 1 within the Westport Harbour Board endowment area, and made 247 inspections for the Land Board and Warden. Generally speaking, the improvement conditions <>n leases have been well kept, as only twenty-five selectors had not effected any improvements, and several of these had just begun to work. The Crown Lands Ranger in the [nangahua County made I() I inspections of Crown leases with an area of 21,328 acres. The value of improvements effected amounted to £7,532, against £3,595 required by the Land Act. There wwe thirteen defaulters with regard to improvements: live were non-resident, seventy-one were exempt from residence under the Land Act, and thirteen have been granted exemption by the Land Board for various reasons. For the Land Board and Warden -lit inspections and reports have also been made. The Ranger reports that the settlers are beginning to realize that the land is «cil suited for pastoral purposes, and quite recently 3,800 acres has been selected bj ten applicants under pastoral license. Fully 000 acres of land has been burnt and sown with grass on freehold and leasehold lands, and this will mean a large increase of stock in the district. Crown Tenants' Improvements. Upon an area of I \.i IS acres the bush has been felled this season, an amount far exceeding any previous year: and, owing to the dry summer and autumn, g I burns have been obtained all over t he district. Tenures. Nearly all the Crown lands are situated in the national-endowment area or in a mining ihsiriet, so thai nearly all the lands selected art , on renewable lease or pastoral license. ' Arrears. The pivmeiit of rent is on the whole satisfactory, the total ai ml of arrears living ,£2,26 d 2s. Bd., and of this amount l;!).'S(> Is. 2d. .nr lints and royalties on the Puponga Coal-mine (this sum has been paid since the year closed), and £•'!()(! 8.8. lid. owing on land for settlement, chiefly on Wangapeka Settlement. The balance of arrears distributed amongst the various tenures is I hercfore not a large sum. Tin: Dairy Industry. This industry has increased to a very large extent during the past season, not so much by an increased number of factories as by a much larger number of suppliers. 'I he Murchison factory has increased from twenty sis suppliers milking 540 cows to thirty-four milking 960 cows. The Takaka co-operative factory is erecting a much larger and more up-to-datj plant to meet the requirements of the increased number of suppliers. There are now six butter-factories and one cheese-factory in the Wainua, Takaka, and Collingwood Counties, one butter-factory in the Karamea district (Buller County), and one at Cronadun, within eight miles of Reef ton, in the I nangahua County. These factories are supplied by 5,240 cows, with an output of butter and cheese amounting to a value of £50,000. The Timber Industry. There are forty-eight mills in the Waimea, Takaka, Collingwood, and Murchison Counties, of which forty-three are cutting on private land, three on Crown land, and two on Native land, the yearly output being (>,!)!'■'!.000 superficial feet. Matai and totara are practically cut out in this part of the district, so that the cutting is chiefly riinu and birch: there are fairly large areas of the latter, and it is being used a good deal for building purposes, and found satisfactory . In the Buller anil Lnangahua Counties there are twenty-seven mills employing 2.")() men, and the yearly output was 8,802,000 superficial feet, an increase of over 1 .000.(1(1(1 ft. on last year. The total output for the seventy-five mills was 15,725,000 superficial feet. There was a decided improvement in this industry for the past year, and the prospects for the future are good. The Flax Inbustky. There has been no improvement in this industry during last year, owing to the low price of fibre. Ten mills have done a little work with an output of 160 tons, valued at £9,000. The operations have been confined chiefly to private lands. Until higher prices are obtai 1 there is not likely to lie any development in this line. The Coal Industry. The principal coal-producing ar%a is in the Buller County, with the Port of Westport. and great progress has been made during the year. The tolal output was 831,114 tons, an increase of I 12,041 tons on last year. 'Hie principal mines are the Westport Coal Company, the WestportStockton Coal Company, and the Seddonville State Mine. Since the beginning of the year the trade has been somewhat slack, but there are good prospects of an improvement in the Dear future. In the northern part of the district very little has been done during the year, the only mines working being at Puponga, where the output was only 5,800 tons. In the lnangahua County, near Reefton, the coal trade locally is very good, hut is too far inland for export; the output for the year was 12,640 tons.