A.—No. 17.
60
CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE
The proprietor, however, makes no difficulty abour this being done. H;^ land is cut up by several roads in places so impracticable that they c:m never be of any service to the public, and on a re'asoDable exchange in the interest of the public, he would receive much more land thati would be required from him, and would have a considerable balance to pay. About a year ago I made some suggestions for this very road to be revised, but some legal difficulties •were raised at Wellington. I will, at an early date, lay before you the alterations which seem to be required, but in the meanwhile there is no obstacle to the progress of the road to Judea, a work the want of which not only retards the settlement of an extensive district, but may at any time be productive of a deplorable disaster. I presume Mr. Clarke will have laid before you the rough estimate made by Mr. Gundry of the cost of the road to Rotorua ; a detailed one is also in preparation of that to Judea, of which the amount cannot be very considerable. I have, <fee, Theo. Heale, The Hon. the Defence Minister, Auckland. Inspector of Surveys.
No. 128. Copy of a letter from Lieut.-Colonel Harington to Mr. Heale. General Government Offices, Sir,— Auckland, 22nd March, 1870. I am directed by the Hon. Defence Minister to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 117, of the 21st instant, relative to the roads now in course of construction in the Tauranga district, and beg leave to inform you that he wishes you to undertakethe general supervision of them, and to give such instructions to the surveyor of the district as will ensure the speedy and efficient completion of the roads in •question. I am further directed to request that you will be good enough to send in an estimate of the probable expense of a ram and such iron work as is required for the construction of the bridges across the swamps. You will be good enough to give the necessary directions to the District Surveyor to make arrangements for the completion of the road across the Kopurererua swamp, and thus connect the lands on the west side of the Judea Ford with the township of Taurauga. The Officer Commanding the District has been instructed to place himself in communication with Mr. Clarke, Civil Commissioner, so as to render all available assistance with the men under his command for the completion of this road without delay, as it is necessary for the defence of the districtI have, &c, Philip Harington. T. Heale, Esq., Inspectoi of Surveys, Auckland. Lieut.-Colonel.
No. 129. Copy of a Letter from Mr. Heale to the Hon. D. M'Lean. Sir,— Wellington, 27th June, 1870. In March last I was instructed to take charge of the road then being constructed from Tauranga towards Taupo. I immediately proceeded to Tauranga and, in company with Mr. A. C. Turner, who has long conducted the Government surveys there, I examined the proposed line throughout. A large amount of work had been already performed on the end of the road nearest the town, with which I did not feel called upon to interfere further than to improve upon some of the minor details of the work, especially in respect of drainage ; but I became very anxious to push the survey on through the forest to where the road must debouch on the Rotorua Lake, in the vicinity of Puhirua, before the actual road-making advanced any further, lest any unforeseen difficulty should be discovered which might require an alteration of the line. Some small difficulties which arose among the natives employed on the survey and escort duties and with others through whose lands the road would pass, prevented me, in the absence of Mr. Clarke, the •Civil Commissioner, from completing the survey and getting out a plan and section of the whole. I, however, deliberately went over every part of the line and satisfied myself that, without departing very materially from it, a road may be made from Tauranga to Ohinemutu, which will be several miles shorter than the present one from Maketu to the same place, which will for a great part of the way be nearly level, on which the steeper portions will be but short, and with nowhere a gradient exceeding one in eleven ; and the construction of which will not cost more than £250 per mile, including all the work necessary to made it passable for wheeled vehicles. This being so, I had no hesitation in recommending the work on the line to be continued. To secure the selection of the absolutely best line between the terminal points through an untracked country a great portion of which is covered with forest, would require wide spread and exhaustive surveys, which are quite impracticable underexisting circumstances. In any case other roads will be constructed by the settlers as this fine district becomes opened, and as the settlement of the country advances. It is most probable that some of them may ultimately be opened more suitable for the trunk line than the one now proposed ; but this road, which can be opened rapidly and at a moderate cost, is the first and essential step to make such an advance possible. It will not bo necessary to do more than clear the forest a breadth of about a chain on an average; to form the road to a breadth of fourteen feet; to provide efficient drainage where required, and to bridge