Governor with the existence thereof. I have therefore taken the liberty of sending you this communication, in the hope that you may deem it of sufficient importance to lay before the Colonial Secretary for presentation to His Excellency. I will, as briefly as possible, state the principal features respectively, of the present route and the one I propose. Starting from Napier by the present Maori track, there is 6 miles of soft beach to traverse to the entrance of the Petani Valley. This valley is then followed, crossing the river about thirty times, until the Kaiwaka creek is reached - this creek is then ascended for two miles, in which there are about twenty crossings. The road then traverses a very rough broken range of hills as far as Rongomaipapa whence is a descent to the low valley at the foot of the great maunga haruru range. This brings you to the Pohue bush. The road now ascends for four miles to the Titi-o-kura saddle on the summit of the range from whence there is a very bad descent to the river Mohaka - the crossing of which is very dangerous - On the north side of the river the track traverses an exceedingly broken and hilly country the whole way to Kaingaroa plain - abounding in steep and unnecessary ascents and descents, crossing the Waitara, a branch of the Mohaka in three dangerous places. At the South East end of the Kaingaroa plain the road is boggy and impassable in wet seasons and indeed