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1873. NEW ZEALAND.

PUBLIC WORKS STATEMENT,

by the minister tor public works, the hon. Edward richaedson. Mr. Speaker,— The Statement I am about to make this evening must necessarily be very dry, and, except as regards the Members of each individual district to which I shall refer, not particularly interesting. I shall, therefore, condense my remarks as much as I possibly can consistently with a clear explanation of the proceedings of the Public Works Department during the past financial year, and give a short sketch of what the Government propose to do during the year we have just entered upon. Eor the convenience of honorable Members, I intend, in alluding to the various subjects with which I have to deal, to take them as nearly as possible in the order in which they were taken by my predecessor in office last year. Before applying myself to the more immediate objects of this Statement, I wish to take this opportunity of thanking both Mr. Ormond and Mr. Reeves for the assistance they have from time to time rendered me, by giving me, at considerable trouble to themselves, the most useful information as to the position of the various matters which were in hand when they relinquished office. I found that a very large amount of work had been promised to be done during the few months which were to elapse between the end of the last and commencement of the present Session of Parliament. I also found that from the enormous amount of work caused by the large number of Returns which were called for and ordered by this House during last Session, the ordinary work of the Department had almost been suspended, and consequently very much leeway had to be made good. The Tables which have been prepared this year, and to some of which I shall presently refer, are in a somewhat different form to those printed last year, the alteration having been made with the view of meeting, as far as possible, the wishes of honorable Members, and supplying much of the information which was moved for, from time to time, during last Session. This has been done so as to make, if possible, the work of the Department lighter during the present Session. I have pleasure in saying that all the officers of the Department have done their utmost to carry out the wishes of the Government, and by working very long hours during several months, have succeeded in enabling the Government to fulfil their promises. I will only mention the names of the Engineer-in-Chief, Mr. Carruthers, and that of the Assistant Engineer-in-Chief, Mr. Blackett; both these gentlemen have done an amount of work which few officers of any Government are called upon to do, and each of them has more than once during the past few months been laid up from overwork. The former has had the more immediate