C.—B.

1935. NEW ZEALAND.

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND SURVEY. DRAINAGE OPERATIONS IN HAURAKI PLAINS. REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1935, TOGETHER WITH STATEMENTS OF ACCOUNTS.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly pursuant to Section 20 of the Hauraki Plains Act, 1926.

Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington, Ist July, 1935. I have the honour to present herewith the report of the Chief Drainage Engineer on operations carried out during the past year on the Hauraki Plains m accordance with the provisions of the Hauraki Plains Act, 1926. I have, &c-., W. Robertson, Under-Secretary for Lands. The Hon. Sir E. A. Ransom, Minister of Lands.

REPORT OF CHIEF DRAINAGE ENGINEER. I have the honour to furnish the twenty-seventh annual report on the land drainage and development works carried out on the Hauraki Plains area during the year ending 3ist Maich, an exceptionally low midsummer rainfall there was a slight decrease in dairy-production compared with last year, instead of the previous average annual increase of about 12 per cent, due to normal expansion of farming activities. The Hauraki Plains settlers who have always been a strongly progressive community, are rapidly developing various adiuncts to dairy-farming, so that the serious consequences of decreased returns fiom butterfat have to some extent been reduced by increased returns from other farm-products. Attention is being focused on pig-raising, and this branch of production has now reache considerable proportions in this district. The undoubtedly attractive possibilities for improved farm-income offered by lamb-fattening has been mentioned in previous reports and is repeated in the hope that it may lead to more development m this direction As an approximate indication of the volume of production from the reclaimed swamp lands the following list has been prepared from the returns kindly supplied by the d ry factories and other concerns handling most of the produce of the district. The production figures for the year 1933-34 are also given in T. ... 2,975 (3,036f) tter ' ' ' ' " . . 2,698 (2,895|) Cheese • • • • • • ' 139 (72*) Flax • • • • n O . .. 23,262 (22,396) Calves • • • • ■ • ' g 707 (5 790) Carg^> 1 °and shipped from' the Piako River and Waitakaruru amounted to 11,358 tons. These figures are by no means complete and do not include the large and increasing quantityofTve stock sold at sales outside the district, as no records of these sales are available.