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His Honor the Superintendent, Auckland, to the Hon. Dr. Pollen. 2223 (Telegram.) Auckland, 7th September, 1874. JRe payment of accounts for works in progress under £10,000 vote. —I ask you to sanction the payment of these accounts, as the contractors are sorely pressed for money. The expenditure of a sum of ten thousand pounds this year was clearly committed to me by the Hon. Mr. Vogel's telegram of 16th December last, dated at Dunedin. That telegram was as follows : — " The Native Minister finds on careful inquiry that an additional sum of ten thousand pounds can be advantageously laid out in completion of works already commenced in that portion of the northern district between A uckland and Whangarei. He is, therefore, willing to entrust you with the expenditure of that sum, subject to the same supervision as before." Immediately on receipt of this telegram I instructed Mr. Allright to prepare a scheme of works to the extent authorized, which works, having been duly approved by the Provincial Council, were taken in hand from time to time, as circumstances enabled us to proceed with them, and on my visit to various northern settlements in the early part of the year, relying on the promise of the Colonial Government, I informed the settlers that this money would be available, and promised that with it certain trunk roads and bridges should be carried out. Mr. Vogel's telegram clearly empowered me to expend ten thousand pounds. The vote is not really exhausted, but an apparent deficiency is shown by debiting it with the cost of Mangere Bridge, a work which was never meant to be charged against the £60,000 vote for works north of Auckland. I submit that Mr. Vogel's promise should be made good, and the ten thousand pounds placed at my disposal, so that faith may be kept with me, and I may be enabled to keep faith with the country settlers. In reference more particularly to your letter of 23rd June, I may explain that tenders had actually been invited and received for those works for which you questioned the liability; and that those very works were subsequently enumerated by the Hon. Mr. Kichardson, in his Public Works Statement to the House, as liabilities and works in progress. I shall feel obliged if you will submit this telegram to the Hon. the Colonial Treasurer for his perusal. J. Williamson, The Hon. the Colonial Secretary, Wellington. Superintendent. The Hon. Dr. Pollen to His Honor the Superintendent, Auckland. (Telegram.) Government Buildings, Bth September, 1874. The Colonial Treasurer has had your telegram. He agrees with me that, because of the exhaustion of the vote, the proposal made in his telegram of 16th December cannot be carried out, and is also of opinion that, after the intimation received from me, your Honor ought not to have entered into any further contracts or pecuniary engagements on that account. If your Honor desires it, the liabilities already incurred by you may be discharged out of the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds voted as a special allowance to the Province of Auckland for the current year; and if you will be good enough to forward the accounts, duly certified, to the Treasury here, they will be paid in due course and debited to the special allowance. His Honor the Superintendent, Auckland. Daniel Pollen. By Authority : George Dibsbuet, Government Printer, Wellington.—lB7s.