OF A ROAD BETWEEN WANGANUI AND TAUPO.

9

D.—No. Id,

4. The work was prolonged considerably by the different views of myself and the Natives respecting it. I only wanted to make the track practicable for pack-horses, according to my original proposal and the tenor of my instructions. The Natives, on the other hand, wanted a road they could gallop their horses along, and persisted in grubbing every little stump, so that Mr. Booth compared the track to " a road through a gentleman's park." Of course the line is the better for it, but it occupied time not provided for in my estimate. As I was engaged far off marking off the line, I could only blame the overseer (whom I afterwards discharged) for allowing this extra work, but could neither prevent nor undo it. 5. Some little extra work was done by my order, in the shape of drainage ; and where, from the forma-" tion of the ground, I saw that the permanent line must be identical, or nearly so, with ours, I had the gradients taken out so as to suit the former, and save ultimate expense by a little increase of the presentcost. About ten days' time was occupied in carrying the line over a bad gully, which, at the time I sent in my report, I thought we could avoid, but which, wheu I came to lay off the line, I found I must either cross or involve myself in far heavier work. A delay which occurred in sending up the money to pay the men also prolonged the work. While I was detained in town waiting for the money, the whole of the work I had previously marked out was completed, and on my return (it was just at the time when we had the full complement of twenty hands), in order to keep the labourers from standing idle, I marked off some more in what was evidently the direction the permanent line would have to take, before I had had time to burn off and examine the ground, so as to discover that I could have got a shorter, cheaper, and sufficiently easy line for the pack-road. The work on the line we took proved to be very heavy, and as the bulk of the men left just as we got to the difficult part, the time occupied in the work was prolonged by fully a fortnight. I had actually for some days only three men at work on by far the heaviest side cutting on the whole line. The time occupied was fully trebled by the above hinderances. Notwithstanding all the above drawbacks, out of the thirty-three or thirty-four miles of continuous track which had to be cut, and the cutting of which I estimated at £350 in my report, about eighteen miles, besides some repairs, were completed (as an examination of the account of the money paid to the Natives will show) for less than £220 (about £12 per mile), a result which, I submit, conclusively proves the accuracy of my estimate. Mr. Buller talks of some enormous total expenditure, but I can only say if there has been anything of the kind, I know nothing of it. It is true that, owing to the continual hinderances above mentioned, the time occupied in cutting the completed portion of the line was so prolonged as to run up the amount of the officers' salaries to a very disproportionate sum, and that, by compelling the remainder of the line to be selected and cut through in the depth of winter, the cost of that work has been greatly increased; but still I cannot account for such sums as Mr. Buller mentions, and feel sure that he (and possibly you too) is under some misapprehension on the subject. The amount of officers' salaries on the completed portion of the line was about £210, making its total cost about £430, which is at the rate of about £24 per mile ; —no great price for a pack-horse road, eight feet, and in many places ten feet, and even twelve feet wide, through a country previously deemed impassable. The above sum of £210 includes my pay for nineteen days, during which I was occupied with business arising out of my being appointed Sub-Paymaster for the work. This is hardly fairly chargeable to the road, and if it bo deducted it brings the cost of the line down to less than £22 per mile. The actual cost of cutting the leading line beyond this point has been £151 75., which is at the rate of about £L 1 per mile. This however includes the pay of the Natives sent up by Mr. Booth to act as guides ; an amount which if struck oft'reduces the cost to about £10 per mile. The ordinary contract price charged by surveyors for cutting mere survey lines through bush and scrub, such as the road line passes through, is £8 per mile, and more where, as in this case, the work is so far from any town or settlement that the provisions of the party have to be carried long distances on pack-horses and men's backs. Survey lines generally run straight for long distances together, and comparatively little care is required in laying them off; while a road line, on the contrary, necessitates a careful preliminary examination of the ground, so as to curve it to suit inequalities or arrive at practicable crossings of streams, and has to be cut along hill faces and the descents to streams in such a way as to give the gradient lines. When these things, and the facts that the line is still further fixed by marks on trees, and on steep faces by spade cuttings, so as to determine the exact position of the gradient levels, and that the work has been executed in the depth of winter, I think any reasonable person must admit, that it has been very cheaply performed. Had it been done in summer I could have accomplished it in about two-thirds of the time, and of course at about two-thirds of the expense; but even then, as any one who takes the trouble to reflect and calculate can see, it could not bo included in my estimate, as it would leave an utterly insufficient margin to cover the widening and levelling of the line. I have mentioned the time occupied in connection with the paymastership. Part of this was taken up, of course, with the mere paying and accounting, but the bulk of the loss of time arose from the restrictions accompanying the appointment. Mr. Buller's signature was required to all estimates for advances and to all vouchers before I paid them. I had therefore several times to come to town to see Mr. Buller and obtain his signature, and was on one occasion detained several days awaiting his return home, and on another, five days waiting for the money to pay the men's wages, the estimate for which I had sent down to Wellington a fortnight previously, but which had not been remitted. On three occasions I had to go to town to consult Mr. Buller about matters connected with the work. They were : — 1. When the labourers left to attend the funeral without fixing a time for their return. 2. A fortnight later, to urge Mr. Buller if possible to expedite their return, and get a second gang to make up for the lost time. 3 ; In March, when the men who had been hired on the understanding that they were to be paid at the end of each month, but who had received nothing, were clamouring for their wages, and threatening to leave if they were not settled with; Mr. Buller being at that time Paymaster. 3