NELSON GOVERNMENT GAZETTE. 57

10. The construction of main lines of road connecting the auriferous districts both with ports from which supplies from beyond seas may be drawn, and with the agricultural and pastoral parts of the country capable to supplying the miner with food at reasonable prices, becomes more than ever a matter of pressing importance.

I shall, therefore, recommend to you, in the proposals for the expenditure of the current year, that such money as shall be available, (after providing for the maintenance of existing means of communication) for new public works, shall be devoted almost exclusively to the furtherance of these views.

The construction of a dray road from the Arnold to the Ahaura, to complete the communication between Greymouth and Reefton, I hope to see accomplished with your concurrence by means of as large a sum as can be spared for the purpose from current revenue, aided by grants of land under the conditions prescribed in the 41st section of the Waste Lands Act of 1863. A bill to empower me to make the necessary contracts, and to grant land in payment will be submitted to you.

Provision will be made in the Estimates for the completion of a road sufficient for the purpose of stock-driving between the Ahaura and the Amuri, so as to connect the Grey and Inangahua Valleys with the stock-producing districts in the northern part of the province, and with those of the province of Marlborough.

11. Proposals will be submitted to you, having for their object the formation of a special settlement in the central part of the Buller Valley, combined with the completion of a road available for stock driving between the Owen and the Lyell, connecting the Inangahua reefs with the stock-producing districts in the northern part of the province, and with those of the province of Marlborough.

These proposals will be founded mainly upon the provisions of the 61st and succeeding sections of the Immigration and Public Works Act, 1871, but with the modification that any land set apart for special settlement shall be open to persons already resident in the colony upon the same terms as to newly arrived immigrants.

To effect these objects the assent of the General Assembly will be required, and your sanction will be asked to the preparation of a measure which will enable me to apply the principle of special settlements to the Grey Valley and any other part of the province containing land adapted to the purpose, as well as to the particular locality referred to in the preceding sentences.

12. The late discovery of coal of a like quality with that found at Mount Rochfort and the Grey in the river Ngakawhao is of great interest to the province and to the colony. I have requested the Colonial Government to direct a scientific examination of the locality, but I am not yet in receipt of a reply.

In the meantime two reports by the Harbor-master of Westport upon the capacity of the Ngakawhao as a coaling port will be placed in your hands, from which you will see that any of the local coasting steamers will have no difficulty in taking in coal at the pit\'s mouth, while, if there should prove to be sufficient inducement for the expenditure, a railway could be made at a very moderate cost from the Ngakawhao to Westport, a distance of about eighteen miles.

13. The rising importance of the Inangahua Valley appears to me to establish a just claim to its formation into a separate electoral district. A bill will therefore be presented to you making provision for the election of a member of the Provincial Council for the Inangahua, including the adjacent parts of the Buller Valley now forming part of the electoral district of the Buller.

14. The customary reports from the Wardens of the goldfields, from the Provincial Engineer, and from other heads of departments will be laid upon your table without delay.

I now declare this Council open for the dispatch of business.

OSWALD CURTIS,
Superintendent.

Superintendent\'s Office, Nelson,
May 2, 1872.

THE Superintendent directs it to be notified that a Writ issued for the Election of a Member of the Provincial Council for the Grey District, has been returned with a Certificate to the effect that

FRANK GUINNESS,
of Ahaura, holder of Business License, has been duly elected.

ALFRED GREENFIELD,
Provincial Secretary,

Printed under the authority of the Provincial Government of the Province of Nelson, by R. LUCAS & SON,
Bridge Street, Nelson, Printers for the time being to the said Government.