Fascines have been used along the line wherever they have been ordered, or were necessary.

We have passed very little flax on the line, but what we have passed of flax or grass has not been cut. I had no authority to omit so doing, but have never been required to do it by the Engineer or the Inspector, excepting on the Mokomoko Branch, where there was a lot of moss and this was taken off. I do not consider that it was necessary in any other portion of the line.

The permanent culverts are all correct according to specification, but there are temporary culverts which have to be replaced.

The road is incomplete and has not been handed over; the pitching is done as well as it can be done, and according to specification, the stones are laid on their edges.

With respect to the metalling, it is open to inspection, and has to be broken to the proper gauge before it is blinded over.

No. 4 cutting is 1 mile and 20 chains long, and to have led all the material out from the two ends would have taken 18 months.

The material from No. 3 cutting has all been used upon the embankments.

With respect to the spoil banks at No. 4 cutting the works are unfinished; in the meantime the surface drainage is carried off by the road drain which runs parallel with the line.

In embankments Nos. 5 and 6 no part is yet ballasted that has been formed from wet stuff.

I know nothing about the line of railway being altered at embankment No. 4.

The Waimatua Bridge was made too high; it has been reduced 20 inches and is now at its right height.

All the culverts are made of Black Pine and Totara, and the piles of the bridges are all of Totara and Black Pine.

In cutting No. 4, the rates paid for excavation and throwing to spoil have been from 1s. 1d. to 1s. 4d. according to the depth.

The embankments from side cuttings have cost from 1s. to 1s. 6d., the greater portion at the former price.

Where the embankments have been formed from the cuttings, the cost has been in most cases 1s. 8d. per cubic yard for both works, the cuttings only being measured. A small portion of No. 3, being very deep, has cost 1s. 11d.; I produce my books to verify these statements.

The fencing is not according to specification, but the alteration was made by the Engineer. The wood of the fence, both in description and quality, is according to specification, to the best of my belief.

It was sublet, and I had an inspector over it besides the Government inspector.

Examination of Mr. James Bailey.

Invercargill,
Saturday, March 26th, 1864.

I am inspector, under the Railway Engineer, upon No. 1 Contract. I have been so employed from the commencement of the works. At No. 2 cutting not much of the material is led to the embankment, but is thrown out for ballast; it is chiefly good gravel; there is a little lignite at the south end of the cutting, and that is thrown to spoil.

No. 3 embankment is composed chiefly of sand from side cuttings, there being no other material for the purpose, the stuff from No. 2 cutting being reserved as ballast. I received instructions from Mr. Marchant to allow this.

Embankment No. 4, to the north of the Mokomoko Creek, is composed of sand; from No. 3 cutting, south of the creek, it is composed of side cuttings and gravel, from No. 4 cutting. The material of the side cutting is sand, taken from a side hill. In No. 4 cutting, a considerable part is run out to spoil, and some is gravel, reserved for ballast. No side drain is required on the bank of this cutting (excepting about 9 chains, which was made in January last), the road drain serving the purpose. The cutting is not finished; a great distance of it has merely had a gullet run through it, leaving the slopes in, temporarily, to facilitate the removal of the stuff; both from the banks and the slopes.

In No. 4 cutting, the top of the cutting is nearly all gravel. The gravel having been kept separate for ballast, no part of the material intended to remain as...