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and the corresponding value of its Local position would not be worth a shilling of the money to the Province.

4. For the distance it would save.

The line No. 1 would save 14 miles by water between Auckland and the Southern districts, or a little more than one hour’s steam; and as a river boat averages only about 8 hours per diem under way, to lose one of these would be to lose a noticeable proportion of the earnings of the craft.

5. On account of the time.

This also is a matter of consequence: the line No. 1 might be made in 12 months, and would therefore be in working order three years before a steamer could be placed on the Awaroa.

6. On account of the cost.

Line No. 1 would cost £16,400 versus £185,000 for a canal via the Awaroa. The contrast is great, but we do not deem it overstated; there would be no object in making a road however cheaply it might be done from Waikato to any part of the Awaroa swamp, where warehouses could not be built, and goods landed; and as the banks on the whole length of the creek from Pura Pura to its mouth, have this defect, a canal to admit steamers is the only work we can propose.

A canoe track could be substituted for £1750 and might be completed in one year but, the detention, additional cost of carriage, incident damage to goods, and general objections to lightering cargo the long distance of 6 miles, are so obvious, that we do not entertain this process as any part of a scheme for opening up the Southern districts, particularly as such a bar to traffic would cost the same time in completing as the most eligible line.

We would consider a tram road the most advisable kind of communication to adopt between Tehiki and Tekiki, not only because the site abounds with suitable timbers, but because it would be the cheapest and the most readily accomplished. An inferior quality of metal for a Macadamised road could be found at intervals along the line, but it would cost more in 15 years to make and maintain a serviceable stone road, than to make, repair, and periodically replace a tramway for the same time; and then a horse could draw four tons on the latter, versus 15 cwt. on the former.

With regard to the utility of the work there can in our opinion be no question. Indeed we think the block itself of sufficient consequence to merit all the attention that can be bestowed on it, for when settled upon by bona fide farmers, it will be capable of producing grain enough to meet the wants of half the Province. It is moreover so located as to participate in all the traffic between Auckland and her principal inland dependencies—possessing in an eminent degree the material elements of ultimate wealth; it is in short, better calculated to remunerate the Province for an outlay tending to its improvement, than any other section of the country we know.

We may also state our belief, based on a careful investigation of the subject in all its bearings, that if the most efficient, most suitable, and most expensive works which the united skill and present resources of the colony could devise or undertake, were commenced in the Awaroa contemporaneously with the sale to European settlers, of the Waikato block, and the purchasers were ceded the single advantages of having the line No. 1 reserved and placed at their disposal; so suitable is its position, and so obvious are its advantages, that before the former works could be made available, colonial enterprise would without any other aid have completed the line we propose, to the great detriment and possibly to the ultimate supercession of the other.

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With reference to the works that might be undertaken in temporary aid of traffic on the Awaroa; we beg to state that the means to be applied are very simple, and save consideration by admitting of no choice.

The principal difficulty experienced in navigating the creek, consists of the large number of fallen trees lying athwart its channel, but at the same time, it should be remarked, that without these, or something to represent them, a great portion of the stream could not be navigated at all; acting as small locks, many of them elevate the water considerably above what its level would otherwise be, and if removed, would have the immediate effect of leaving the bed almost dry.

To facilitate the transit of canoes, it would only be necessary to remove the more prominent logs, or such parts of them as projected into the stream, and to construct small locks at convenient distances, capable of raising the water level from twenty to twenty-four inches each, and to round off a few of the sharper angles of the creek. The cost of the first work would be about £750, and that of the two latter about one thousand more; the whole could be completed in a season.

We may observe that the removal of logs, and construction of the locks would require to be conducted simultaneously: that one work would be utterly useless without the other, and that both would require to be complete on the whole length of the creek, before any benefit worth notice could be derived from either.

We do not conceive that the small sum of £500 could be judiciously employed in the improvement of the Awaroa, even as a canoe track. We would not recommend it to be expended in removing the logs, for that operation would terminate in leaving the channel almost destitute of water, thereby destroying the communication instead of opening it; and we do not advise a portion of any line to be undertaken, before the whole can be proceeded with, for we feel satisfied from the character of the Awaroa, that no good result can be expected from attempting its amelioration piecemeal.

In conclusion we beg to remark that it would occupy as long a time to improve the Awaroa, as it would to complete the line No. 1 from Tehiki to Tekiki, and that if the latter