APPENDIX.

Appendix A.

REPORT OF CROWN LANDS COMMISSIONER.

Crown Lands Office,
Wellington, 21st April, 1874.

Sir,— I have the honor to furnish, for the information of your Honor, the subjoined Report relative to the Crown Lands and Survey Departments, for the financial year commencing 1st April, 1873, and ending 31st March, 1874.

The experiment of selling land on deferred payments has, so far as relates to open land, been completely successful, every section of that description thrown open for purchase having been applied for. On the other hand, the bush sections are not so readily disposed of, but as the Palmerston district, in which they are situated, is now connected with Rangitikei by a road, and with Foxton by the tramway, it may be anticipated that with the impetus to settlement which will be given by this opening up of the country, these sections will gradually come into greater demand. The second instalment of the purchase money on the earlier selections will fall due during the current year, but before such can be received the value of the improvements will require to be ascertained and reported on, as provided under Section 6, Part I., “Wellington Special Settlements Act, 1871.”

Under your Honor’s proclamations, dated 24th June, 1871, and 11th February, 1874, nearly the whole of the Crown Lands situated on the East Coast and Wairarapa Districts have been withdrawn from sale, pending the determining of the position of the railway line, but more particularly with the view of exploring, traversing, and definitely fixing the necessary road lines to be ultimately formed through those important tracts of country, and thus avoiding those difficulties and delays which have so seriously retarded the settlement of many parts of the Province. The greater portion of the country in these districts consists of level land, with rich soil, and containing a large amount of valuable timber. In order to insure the disposal of this land to the greatest advantage, I am of opinion that in addition to laying out the road lines it would be advisable to bridge the creeks and rivers, and form the roads in the worst places before offering it for sale. Were this suggestion adopted, I am confident that the prices realised at the sale would be such as to prove conclusively the great advantages of executing such necessary works in anticipation of the occupation and settlement of the land. As illustrating the advantages of laying off the road lines, and completing the sectional surveys before offering land for sale, the Rangitikei-Manawatu Block, and the township of Alfredton may be cited as cases in point. In the Rangitikei-Manawatu Block 524 sections, varying in size from 20 to 400 acres each, were thus prepared for sale, and only five now remain unsold, two of which will be taken up by a Native chief, for whom they are reserved, in terms of a promise made by Dr. Featherston at the time of the purchase of the block. Again, at Alfredton, 195 sections, chiefly bush land, averaging fifty acres each, were thrown open for selection, the result being that every section has been purchased.

The very lucid detailed Report by the Chief Surveyor, a copy of which is herewith enclosed, will afford the fullest information with reference to the nature and extent of the surveys executed during the past financial year; as also with respect to the operations contemplated during the current year. The desire which he expresses that the officers in charge of districts, within which there still remain considerable arrears of surveys to be completed, should be allowed to remain in such districts till the work is finished, has my most earnest approval. It is almost impossible to estimate the amount of loss, in effort and money, which has been sustained in the past owing to the frequent removal of surveyors from one part of the Province to another before the work upon which they were engaged has been completed. Besides this, there has to be considered the inconvenience and loss to which those settlers were