333

Surveyed for Settlement

Surveyed for Settlement during the year was 245,740 acres, of which there were for immediate payment 1216 sections, covering 210,316 acres; for deferred payment 165 sections, covering 33,000 acres; of Town and Suburban sections there were surveyed 1537, covering an area of 2424 acres. It will thus be seen that the Survey Department has not been idle: There are at present about 130,000 acres in course of Survey.

Railways

The Railway Revenues for the year, over 202 miles, amounted to £105,000, the working expenses being £66,500. It may be observed that in our case the working expenses cover a considerable expenditure incidental to the initiation of the traffic—expenditure which it may be assumed will not be required when the lines are in complete working order.

Goods traffic has for some time been carried on upon the Awamoko Railway, and so soon as the light locomotive and carriages, now being manufactured in Dunedin, are completed the line will be opened for passenger traffic also.

The Waiareka branch railway is about completed, and would have been available for goods traffic now, could the main line to Maheno have been taken over from the contractors.

The Western District Railways, in consequence of disputes between the Public Works Department and the contractors, have not progressed so speedily as might have been desired; at the same time, looking at the rate of progress in the construction of other lines throughout the Province, the Western District lines will compare favorably in this respect. The Government has now concluded to take the completion of the lines into its own hands, paying the contractor at the contract rates for the work actually performed by him. In connection with these railways, and for political party purposes, a vast amount of calumny and vituperation has been heaped upon the Government by persons who know nothing and care less about the facts of the case. All this, however, the Government can afford to treat with the contempt which it deserves.

With regard to the question of light branch railways I may say that I take some credit to myself for having been instrumental in promoting their adoption in this Province, believing that they will be found much cheaper than metalled roads. But I regret that we are not in a position, as we ought to be, to extend them where practicable, throughout every district in the Province. But for the action of the Colonial Parliament there would be nothing to prevent this. I observe that in some quarters there is a disposition to sneer at these lines as compared with the colonially constructed railways, forgetting apparently that the one can be made for one-half or one-third the cost of the other.

Estimates

In framing the estimates of revenue and expenditure for the current six months it will be seen that the Government relied to a large extent upon receipts from land sales.

During your last two Sessions there were authorised various important public works which were to be constructed out of land revenue or out of loan. The Colonial Parliament having declined to sanction the latter, there remains no option but to fall back upon the former.

It is true that Parliament empowered the Colonial Treasurer to advance to the Province in respect of these works the sum of £60,000 out of the Immigration and Public Works Loan, the evident intention being that the sum would have to be repaid by the Province on the same terms and within the same period as the Public Works Loan was to be repaid by the Colony. Instead of this, however, the Colonial Government insisted upon the Province repaying the amount with interest in twenty-four monthly instalments, commencing upon the 30th June, 1875.

Had the repayment of this £60,000 been extended over 30 years, as is the Colonial Loan out of which it was advanced, there might have been some advantage to the Province; as it is we might almost as well have been without it.