PROVINCE OF WESTLAND GAZETTE.

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the purpose of carrying out some of the most urgent of our public works did not meet with success, and it has therefore been found impossible to undertake any of the works alluded to in the resolutions.

Our representations with reference to the Christchurch Road were however more favorably received, and provision was made under the "Public Works and Immigration Act," by which the shares of Canterbury and Westland in the Middle Island Railway Fund should be first applied to putting in repair the serious damage done by the floods last Easter. The share of this fund due to Canterbury and Westland comes to £21,217 of which three-fourths is Canterbury’s, and one-fourth Westland’s share. The contracts already let amount to £18,617, and it is likely the full sum coming to both Provinces will be absorbed before the works are completed. Already considerable progress has been made in removing to higher ground those parts of the road which are most liable to injury by floods, and the contracts are commenced for the re-construction of the road through the Otira Gorge in such a way as will preclude all possibility of it being affected to any great extent by future floods. The effect of the alterations when completed will be to lessen the annual cost of maintenance, and so greatly relieve the Province from one heavy drag on its limited revenue. In connection with this subject I may mention that out of this fund I have been able to get effect given to the resolution of the Council passed on the 4th March last, that the bridge over the Arahura known as Hungerford’s Bridge be purchased and thrown open to the public free of tolls. This has enabled me to carry out the views expressed by me in a former address to the Council as to the desirability of getting these private works into the hands of the Government; the only other large work in the Province now in private hands is the Arnold Bridge.

The construction of the Road to connect Okarito with the Northern part of the Province is steadily progressing, and already the opening up of this Road has led to settlement, several blocks of land having been taken up in the neighbourhood of Lake Mapourika, under the Special Settlement clauses of the "Westland Waste Lands Act."

The project of establishing a Special Settlement at Jackson’s Bay, to which I alluded in my last address to the Council has now assumed a definite form, and I shall lay before you the heads of Agreement entered into with the Honorable the Premier under which the scheme is being carried out. Copies of the Reports of the Chief-Surveyor and Harbour-master, and the General Conditions under which the settlers are being located have already been forwarded to you. The condition which permitted a limited number of persons resident on the Coast to have the same privileges as Immigrants has been found to be a very useful one, the number of applications sent in has greatly exceeded the number that could be taken, and the Government have thus been able to secure as pioneers for the settlement, persons whose previous local knowledge and experience will be of material assistance to the Immigrants coming direct from home. The general favor with which the settlement has been regarded by the residents on the Coast promises well for its future. There are already several parties preparing to establish saw-mills in the locality, attracted mainly by the good port, excellent timber, and easy terms afforded for acquiring the land, and I look for a most prosperous and important timber export trade being established there before long.