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for the time being the policy or policies of such Insurance and the receipts for all premiums paid by the said John Morgan his executors or administrators AND ALSO will conduct the business of the said house in such an orderly and unobjectionable manner as to entitle him to a license of the said premises AND ALSO will enter into and execute a Bond with two sureties in the sum of four hundred pounds for the due fulfillment of this agreement.

In witness whereof the said parties hereto have hereunto respectively subscribed their names and the said John Larkins Cheese Richardson has caused the Public Seal of the said Province to be affixed hereto.

J. L. C. RICHARDSON.

Signed sealed and delivered
by the said John Larkins
Cheese Richardson in
the presence of

JOHN LOGAN,
Clerk to Superintendent, Dunedin,
Witness.

Signed by the said John
Morgan in presence of

A. FINDLATER,
Dunedin,
Clerk to Provincial Solicitor.

NAVIGATION OF THE MOLYNEUX

ABOVE THE DUNSTAN.

CAPTAIN MURRAY’S REPORT.

SIR,—In compliance with yours of the 17th February, respecting the survey of the Molyneux River, I beg leave to hand you herewith my report on the same.

I left Dunedin for the Dunstan on the 6th instant (having previously forwarded boat for survey), and arrived on Saturday, the 7th, the boat arriving there on the same day, and after making all necessary repairs to boat, got ready to start for the Wanaka Lake on Tuesday evening the 10th instant.

In following up the river from the Dunstan to the junction of the Kawarau, a distance of 14 miles by water, I found for the first 9 miles a great many impediments in the main channel, and not suitable for steamboat navigation, without a large outlay for blasting rocks. The five miles below the Kawarau is unimpeded for navigation. I arrived at the Kawarau on Wednesday, the 11th instant, at 3 p.m.; after remaining here a short time, started to examine the river above the falls: followed the river about two and a-half miles above the falls, where the Louburn Creek empties into the Molyneux. This point I consider about starting place for river navigation; camped here for the night.

On Thursday the 12th, started and followed the river up as far as Ferry above M’Leod and Gibson’s, which by water is about sixteen miles from Louburn Creek, found the river this distance safe for steamboat navigation, with a very light draft of water and good speed, the average current being five miles an hour, although on some of the bars it runs about six and a-half miles an hour. Stopped at Ferry about an hour, started again, and found the river, for six miles above last mentioned place, to be about the same as that below the Ferry. About two miles above the Lindis the first obstacles to navigation came to my notice. This is where the first of the high terrace plains commences; the current at this point of the river for a short distance runs rapid, about seven miles an hour, and at this stage of water there being a great many rocks in the main channel of the river, I do not consider it safe for steamboat navigation. About two miles farther up the river we camped for the night; a short distance below our camping place we found similar obstacles to that last mentioned.

On Friday the 13th, started and found the river about two miles below Poison Creek, with a very narrow channel and full of rocks. At the first of the S. Bends, about opposite Poison Creek, the river runs more rapid than any below, and, up to Sandy Point Ferry, is fall of rapids and shoal bars; and from thence to the Wanaka Lake, a distance of about fifteen miles by water, there are several rapid and shoal places. Arrived at the Wanaka Lake on Friday evening, at 5 p.m., where we camped on the shore for the night; started on the return trip on Saturday, the 13th, to survey river below Dunstan township. Arrived at the Dunstan on Monday, the 15th, at 11 a.m.: started at 1 p.m., and followed the river about 14 miles down, where we camped for the night; on the morning of the 16th started again at 7 a.m. about one mile below the point, which is 15 miles by water from the Dunstan.