A.—No. 8a

imported for, viz., £15 a head. The cost of an Enfield rifle, with accoutrements complete," is £5 in England. We have then— 18,000 men ..... £270,000 14,400 women (four-fifths) .... 216,000 14,400 children ..... 108,000 Arms and Accoutrements for 18,000 men . . 90,000 £084,000 COST OF ROADS. The cost of the 1,000 miles of road proposed may be taken at an average of £1,500 a mile or £1,500,000. This is sufficient, as a great part of the lines proposed run through open country. The Waikato District above Meremere, consists of level and undulating lands, easily traversed, and from Taupo towards Hawke's Bay occur barren plains, a considerable portion of them covered witli pumice stone, over which roads will cost little making. Again, we have seen that 20,000 men employed for nine months of working days might easily make the amount of road proposed. Say they would be paid the usual i-ate of wages, or five shillings a day ; this would amount to £1,170,000. If paid as Militia, the total would be something less. Allow then for bridges, culverts, tools, and other expenses £330,000, and it may safely be estimated that £1,500,000 would be sufficient to cover the whole expense. MODE OF RAISING THE REQUISITE FUNDS. The next point is, how to procure the money ? It is not necessary, and certainly it is not desirable, to raise any of this by additional taxation, whether the Colony could bear it or not. It is not right that the present generation should bear the whole expense of measures the benefit of which is to be reaped principally by their successors. To borrow on an Estate so rich in undeveloped resources, and so easily and rapidly improvable, as is a young Colony like New Zealand, and to borrow for the purpose of developing these resources and improving such an Estate, is not only prudent, but the simple duty of those who have the management of it. Ten or twenty years hence, the burdens nowrequired to be taken up would scarcely be felt by the Colony. That is certain. Let, then, the power and prosperity, the material wealth that the Colony would necessarily grow into in the course of twenty or thirty years, be, as far as practicable, forestalled and realized at once. It would crush us to take the burden on ourselves alone; place it on the future ; and while we are saved—nay incalculably strengthened by the proceeding—the very future we shift the burden to is equally enriched and benefited. For if near 50,000 souls can be introduced and settled in the Northern Island at present, and the debt caused by their introduction be got rid of say in twenty years, will not the Colony be to an altogether incalculable degree richer and more powerful than if the twenty years had gone by and no such amount of population had been introduced, and the debt never incurred 1 The population can be introduced and the debt can be paid off as supposed. AMOUNT OF LOAN REQUIRED. The introduction and settlement of Immigrants, and the making of roads, as above proposed, would cost in all about £2,300,000. But, as money will be wanted for the heavy expenses of the war during the present and possibly the next year, which cannot be safely estimated at less than a million, it is proposed to add this sum to the Loan. This will be paid for out of the proceeds of the Lands of the Tribes at open war with us. Thus, with other expenses, to be presently alluded to, the total cost of the present scheme will be £3,500,000. While on this subject of a Loan, it is to be remembered that as the Loan of £500,000 authorized by Act of General Assembly last Session has not been raised, the expenses intended to be covered by that Loan will still have to be met. The £100,000 for roads will merge in the present Loan for the same objects. The £200,000 for Taranaki re-instatement may be reduced to £140,000 thus. By the arrangement with the Government of that Province on this subject (detailed in printed Papers), the Province of Taranaki was to raise £50,000, and the General Government to pay out of the Re-instatement Fund £90,000. But, ai the Provincial Loan could scarcely be raised, except on the security of Lands to become sooner or later the property of the Province, and as it is now proposed to apply the proceeds of these Lands to payment of the new Loan, it will only be fair to charge the amount of £50,000 upon the present Loan, making, with the £90,000 already agreed upon, £140,000, as just stated. Out of the lapsed Loan of £500,000 was also to be paid the £200,000 which the Imperial Government has since offered to take as a discharge in full of all former debts of the Colony to itself. We have thus £340,000 to add to the Loan. There are some other outlays, such as £150,000 for the proposed Electric Telegraph, which it is highly desirable

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MILITARY SETTLEMENTS.