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NELSON GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

advice has not recommended itself to my judgment as being either expedient in the public interests, or just to the individuals concerned, I have not felt called upon to adopt the only remedy in my power by requiring the resignation of the Executive.

But when proposals were made to me in reference to a matter largely affecting the interests of the Province, namely, the expenditure of the sum of £50,000 voted by the General Assembly for the completion of the main roads from Devil's Grip to Westport and Greymouth—proposals to commence the work at both ends, but to complete the road from Westport to the Lyell, and if, as was then anticipated, the sum available should prove insufficient for the completion of the whole line, to leave a gap between the Matakitaki and the Lyell, so as to postpone the long desired through communication between the port of Nelson with the intervening districts and the leading goldfields, and to make it dependent upon the result of an application to the General Assembly for further assistance next session--I felt it to be my duty to inform the Executive Council that I should use such constitutional means as were open to me to prevent those proposals from being carried into execution; either by requiring my advisers to send in their resignations, or by summoning a special session of your Council. Modified proposals were thereupon submitted to me, and eventually arrangements which I could accept as satisfactory were agreed upon.

I am glad to be able to add that contracts for the whole of the line from the Grip to Westport have now been let with the exception of about five miles immediately below the Lyell, which have been delayed for further survey, and that the funds available will be sufficient to complete the entire road.

4. The General Government have agreed, on my recommendation, to expend £2,000, out of the sum of £60,000 voted by Parliament for Public Works in this Island, on the improvement of a portion of the road between Reefton and Greymouth, and when that has been done, and the existing contracts are completed, the entire line from Nelson through the heart of the Province to Westport and Greymouth, in all about 220 miles, will be available for wheeled traffic at all seasons.

I trust that you will appropriate a sufficient sum to enable me to secure frequent and regular communication by coach throughout the line as soon as it is completed.

5. In addition to the sum of £2,000, out of £8,000 accruing to this Province from the vote of the General Assembly of £60,000 for public works in the South Island, which the Colonial Government have consented to expend, as I have already stated, in the improvement of the road between Square-town and Little Grey Junction, the Minister for Public Works has also accepted my recommendation for the appropriation of £1000 to a road up the Takaka Valley, £700 to the improvement of the Cattle Track from the Ahaura Saddle to the Amuri, £1000 to roads at Boatman's and Larry's Creeks, and £1000 to a bridge over the River Nile, at Charleston, the two latter sums to be supplemented by equal amounts contributed by the Provincial Government, but the whole to be expended under the supervision of the Colonial District Engineers.

The appropriation of the balance has not yet been finally decided upon.

6. In pursuance of the proposal I submitted to you last year, and which received your assent, I

introduced a Bill into the General Assembly to make provision for a loan to this Province of £250,000, to be raised during five years at the rate of £50,000 per annum, for the construction of a number of much required public works.

During the interval between the time at which I made this recommendation to you and the meeting of Parliament, a material change had taken place in the views of the Colonial Government with respect to Provincial loans, and after consultation with the other members for the Province, I withdrew the Bill and accepted the offer of the Government to advance the sum of £50,000 for the current year from the Consolidated Fund.

7. It will be in your recollection that previously to your last session I had with considerable difficulty obtained from the Colonial Government the promise of an advance of £20,000 in anticipation of the authority of the General Assembly for a loan of larger amount, in order that I might proceed with the construction of the main road through the Buller Valley. These works were in active progress at the time of your meeting, and I regret that you were induced to cause their abandonment by deciding to refuse the promised help of the Colonial Government, not only on account of the postponement for many months of the important work which is now approaching completion, but because I am convinced from the tenor of the conversations I had with the Premier on the subject that the sum of £50,000 now in course of expenditure might otherwise have been obtained, in addition to the refused £20,000, and other works of importance could consequently have been executed.

8. The necessity for the erection of several bridges over the large rivers crossed by the line of road I have just referred to, as well as of bridges in other parts of the Province, together with pressing requirements for roads in many localities, appear to me to justify an application to Parliament for a further loan of £50,000 for expenditure during the next financial year. A schedule of these works will be submitted for your consideration in the hope of obtaining your approval of their selection.

9. The progress of the railway works in the Province does not present a subject for congratulation. The first section of the main line from Nelson to the West Coast, extending to near Fox Hill, and the short line from the Brunner Coalmines to Greymouth were provided for by the General Assembly in the year 1871. The Fox Hill section is at length showing signs of completion, but as regards its extension, without which it is almost valueless as a means of opening the country for settlement, the promised revision of the survey of last year has not yet been even commenced. The Brunner line, that remarkable specimen of a political railway, after a struggle of four or five years, also affords some promise of being open for traffic before the end of the year. The first estimate of its cost, for which a vote was taken in 1871, was £26,250, In 1872 the estimate was raised to £54,400, or more than doubled, and a vote taken for the difference of £28,150. In 1873 the estimate was raised to £74,000, and a vote taken for the excess of £20,000. In 1874 the estimate was raised to £84,000, and a vote taken for the additional £10,000; and this year I believe a further sum of at least £15,000 will be required. Whether the line can be maintained at all in its present position without enormous cost, or whether it will tumble into the river, are questions which time alone can decide. I believe it will be found necessary to abandon it and to re-construct it