3

E.—3.

•40. Can you name any approximate time at which it would probably be completed to Woodville ? —Certainly not. It would depend entirely upon the funds placed at the disposal of the department and the pressure put upon the department to complete it. I suppose that under any circumstances it would take three years. 41. Can you give approximately the probable cost of completion as far as Woodville?—l am unable to give the cost from memory. All these things are in print, and you could be furnished with them at half an hour's notice in Wellington. 42. Mr, Wright."] Can you give any information with reference to the amount already expended on the line we inspected yesterday —namely, that portion of the Wellington-Foxton line between Kaiwarra and Johnsonville ? Can you say how much has already been expended on the work done, also what contracts will require to be completed in order to keep faith with contractors ? —I will answer the second question first. There are no contracts whatever. We have spent, up to last payday, £18,000 in work, plant, and material. 43 How far is it intended to carry on the line in the meantime ?■ —There has been no limit at all put to it. The late Ministry instructed me to begin a piece of work on the Wellington-Foxton line as near to town as we could, and just go on till further orders. We started on about a mile and a half, beginning at the first mile from Pipitea. We have now extended it close up to Johnsonville. The work is spread over nearly five miles at the present time. 44. How far would that line require to be carried before it would be of any practical benefit to the settlers, or a source of any revenue ? —That is a question I have not gone into. It would only be an opinion that I could now give. The country that it would go through from Wellington to the sea■coasc at Paikakariki —that is, about thirty miles —would not likely give a large revenue from traffic. 45. Judging from what has already been spent, what do you suppose it would cost to complete the line io such a point that it would become in some degree remunerative ? —I will tell you what the estimate for the whole of the line is, and that will give you an idea. The estimate for the whole of the line from Wellington to Foxton is £440,000. From Wellington to Paikakariki the distance is 30 miles, and the whole length of the line is 67i miles. The first 30 miles—to Paikakariki—will cost more than one-half the money —probably £250,000 —seeing that it is the rough part of the line. 46. Would that carry it to the boundary of the Maori land ?—Tes. From that point to Foxton the land is pretty well nearly all in the hands of the Natives. 47. No considerable area, I suppose, in the hands of Europeans ? —Such a small proportion that it is scarcely worth mentioning. I think there are a few hundred acres here and there which have been bought by Europeans. Speaking from memory, I think that the area of land to be considered good is comprised in the triangle which lies between Paikakariki and Foxton, the apex being at Paikakariki. There are about 85,000 acres there which is described as being excellent land. 48. But the land is principally in the hands of Natives ?—Tes. 49. Can you state whether there is any probability of that land becoming the property of Europeans in a short time ? —-I have no means of giving an opinion on that. I think, from what I have learned on the subject, that it is very likely to be some time before it is in the hands of Europeans. 50. Colonel JPearce.] As we have in your evidence the approximate cost of the line from Wellington to Foxton, can you tell us the approximate cost of the line from Masterton to Bunnythorpe via the Gorge, assuming Bunnythorpe to be the junction? —£440,000 is what I have given for the WellingtonFoxton line, and about £453,000 would be the approximate cost of the other line from Masterton to Bunnythorpe. 51. Then there is no appreciable difference in the probable cost ?—Only about £13,000. 52. Following that.up, can you tell the Commission how many miles there are still to construct between the present terminus at Kopua and Woodville ?—I cannot answer that question now exactly, but I can do so when I return to Wellington. 53. Mr. Wright.] I would like to ask whether any survey of the line has been made between Woodville and Bunnythorpe ? —Yes —a preliminary survey, and part of a second survey, which we are siow busy with, from Bunnythorpe to the Gorge. 54. You gave an approximate estimate of the cost of the line from Masterton to Bunnythorpe as £453,000: can you inform us approximately how much of that would be chargeable to the Masterton— Woodville portion, and how much to the Woodville-Bunnythorpe portion ? —About one-fourth would be the cost from Woodville to Bunnythorpe. There would be about, say, £340,000 spent upon the main line, and the balance of £113,000 would be spent on the branch or connecting link.

Woodyille, Thuksday, llth Makch, 1880. Mr. Pebcy Feast, licensed Government surveyor, sworn and examined. 55. The Chairman.] The Commission are informed that you have a good knowledge of the country in the Forty-mile Bush, and they are anxious to know what account you would give of the general character of it on both sides of the road ? —I have been for four years, more or less, engaged in the bush between Eketahuna and Woodville as a Grovernment contract surveyor. 50. Then you have a good general knowledge, I suppose, of the character of the bush? —I have a thorough knowledge of it, because I surveyed two large blocks —the Mangaone and Pahiatua Blocks — comprising nearly 60,000 acres of land. 57. Would you be good enough to give the Commission your opinion of the value of the country, both as regards the timber for sawing purposes, and also as regards the land for settlement ? —There is no timber available for sawing purposes in sufficient quantity with the exception of rimu. It is only upon the land belonging to Natives that there is totara in any quantity ; and there is not very much ©t that either. There is only one considerable bush of totara in the vicinity of the Hawera Native settlement, and that is at present in the hands of the Natives. 58. The greater part of the bush is still in the hands of the Natives ? —Yes ; the best portion of the bush is still in the hands of the Natives.