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Fully loaded canoes do not enter the upper part of the Awaroa, but either discharge half their cargo at the termination of the Kaikatea (where the influence of the tide ceases) or employ "kaupapas" to lighter it up to Pura-pura.

The lower portion of the stream winds a crooked course through the bush before mentioned; its average width is about twelve feet, with a depth of water varying from one to six feet. The bottom is a continuous network of fallen timber, to which constant additions are being made from the dense bush abounding on its banks. Dams are also employed here; and the navigation, notwithstanding the perceptible influence of the tides and the additional width of the creek, is both difficult and tedious. The bends of the creek throughout its whole length are so acute that an ordinary canoe rounds them with difficulty, and so numerous as to be barely capable of profitable diminution by cutting. The banks and the adjacent swamps consist of some two feet of vegetable matter, resting on layers of sand and decomposed pumice, forming together a composition very unfavourable to the construction of durable works.

In closing our description of the Awaroa it may be well to explain how so insignificant a water-course became of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the Provincial Legislature with a view to its extension.

Previous to the present year, this section of the country was known to few. It belonged to natives, and Europeans had no direct interest in it. Facile communication, after the fashion of its owners, was sought exclusively by water, for they knew nothing of the advantages of a road beyond a footpath,—and were, in short, utterly ignorant that any medium existed between conveying goods in a canoe, or on their own shoulders. The Awaroa was, therefore, the line of communication best adapted to their primitive means of transport, and as aborigines were then, and are now, the sole carriers between Waikato and the southern districts, the highway which they frequented was the only one thought about, and hence, it became obvious that, being bad, something should be done towards its improvement. The extension of that communication was, therefore, manifestly not contemplated by the Government because satisfied that it was the best line as compared with any other, but because it happened to be the only one in existence, and for that reason, the only one which could come under their cognisance for such a purpose.

Your Honor will perceive, from what we have already stated, that the Awaroa is but badly adapted to the purposes of trade now, and would be wholly unsuited to the increased demands which the opening up of the southern country would impose on it. Hereafter, reserving our remarks on the means that might be taken to accelerate traffic temporarily, and divesting it of any importance that a mere priority of public notice may have conferred, we first proceed to consider how the creek might be best formed into a permanent communication of the extent and utility demanded by the important interests thereby sought to be combined.

The character of the swamp through which the Awaroa flows is such as to preclude the possibility of forming a habitable terminus on any part of it, most of the marsh being very little above high water in summer, and considerably below it in winter. As goods cannot be landed in the swamp, they would require to be carried by water to the present landing place at the head of the creek, and this could only be effected by constructing a canal capable of admitting steamers employed on the Waikato. Such a work would be a formidable and an expensive undertaking, even under the most favourable circumstances; but the Awaroa valley is so destitute of the materials necessary to the construction and maintenance of a canal, that to excavate a channel large enough to admit a steamer 15 feet beam, to protect its sides, and to erect upon it the necessary locks and other adjuncts, would cost upwards of £100,000. An undertaking of this magnitude could not be accomplished in less than four years, and when finished would be defective in the first elements of utility, for it could confer no local advantages on the unarable swamp through which it would pass, and being on the southern boundary of the Waikato Block, its situation would be such as to bestow the least possible benefit on the greatest number of purchasers.

Taking into consideration the vast cost and great length of time necessary to complete a canal, also, its disadvantageous position and local imperfections, we determined, before recommending anything of the kind here, to satisfy ourselves that no other communication could be established, offering equal advantages for less money.

Disappointed in finding the Awaroa so badly suited to our purpose, we proceeded along the eastern margin of the Waikato Block in quest of a more eligible locality. This (the Waikato face) with very little exception, consists of low, extensive, and impracticable marshes, most of them subject to immersion by tides and freshes, and all uninhabitable. In the whole distance we observed only two spots possessing the recommendations necessary for mercantile depôts, and having examined these, we returned to Waikuku. We next traversed the country between the Manukau and Waikato in almost every direction, with a view of determining the best connecting lines between it and the two spots already referred to on the latter, but a considerable portion of the intervening space being covered with timber, we found this a more tedious, and, indeed, a more arduous duty than we at first supposed.

We beg to report two practicable lines for a tram-way, either of them capable of being constructed at a moderate cost.

The first to which we would direct your