E.—Ba,

1873. NEW ZEALAND.

RAILWAY: FOXHILL TO GREYMOUTH.

(PAPERS RELATIVE TO.)

(Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly by command of His Excellency.

No. 1.

Memoeutdttm for consideration of Government relating to Mr. Calcutt's Report upon the 1,400,000 acres of Land proposed as security for the construction of Railway from Foxhill to Brunnerton. Me. Calcutt estimates the quantity of level land at about 200,000 acres, of which 50,000 are open land, and 150,000 are covered with timber. He estimates the value of these 200,000 acres at £137,000 in their present comparatively inaccessible position, or at £288,000 when the proposed railway has been made. Mr. Calcutt, however, makes no estimate of the value of the remaining 1,200,000 acres. We cannot agree with Mr. Calcutt in the opinion that only that portion of the level busk land, covered with fine timber, which lies within one mile on each side of the railway, would be enhanced in value by the construction of a line connecting it with a first-class port. On the contrary, we think a distance of ten miles on each side of the line would be a more reasonable calculation. Nor can we accept the view that level land covered with " excellent " birch timber is of value for the timber only. We need not follow Mr. Calcutt into his calculations of the cost of clearing bush land and of the cost of survey which Mr. Calcutt asserts " would represent a large percentage on the amount realized." On the latter point we will, however, mention that a contract for surveying 10,000 acres of the heavily timbered land, to which Mr. Calcutt refers, into fifty-acre sections, was lately completed for Is. 2^d. per acre. Adding to Mr. Calcutt's valuation of £288,000 for the 200,000 acres of level land, the value of the 1,200,000 acres which ho does not take into account, and which, although for the most part hilly and even mountainous, are nevertheless almost entirely covered with timber, and have been proved to contain large deposits of coal of various qualities, ranging from good steam coal to ordinary brown coal —over which extensive alluvial mining has been carried on for many years past, and in which numerous auriferous quartz reefs, especially at the Inangahua and the Lyell, are now in successful and profitable work (see Annual Report on Gold Reids), we submit that ample security has been offered for the construction of the proposed railway, without taking into account the additional security of the revenues of the ProTince, which, in the case of most of the other railways authorized in other Provinces, has been deemed to be sufficient in itself. Oswald Ctfeiis. A. J. Richmond. Joseph Siiephaed. Chas. Paekee. D. M. Luckie. A. S. Collins. Eugene O'Conoe. W. H. Haekison.

No. 2.

Memorandum for consideration of Government relative to proposed Foxhill and Brunnerton Railway. In the event of the Government deciding finally not to ask authority of Parliament during the present Session for the construction of the whole of this line, we have the honor to submit the following proposal:— That the Government take authority from Parliament, this Session, to continue the line from Poxhill to the junction of the Owen with the Buller, a distance of about forty-five miles.