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be friable and very subject to slips. This has caused not only delay in the completion of the railway, but also considerable expenditure on retaining-walls and other works beyond what was originally anticipated; but the whole of the works required for the completion of the line from Woodville to Palmerston are now in active progress, and the principal contracts expire in April next, the other minor works being timed to be finished about the same date. Allowing, therefore, for unavoidable delays, we may confidently hope to see this important link in the railway-system of the colony completed and open for traffic about this time next year. The amount which will now be required to be authorised for this railway, in order to cover its total cost, will be the full balance of the loan allocation, namely, £90,328; and of this amount £75,000 will be required to be voted for actual expenditure within the current year. Wellington-Woodville . The Wellington-Woodville Eailway is now completed and open for traffic from Wellington to Eketahuna, 88 miles, thus leaving a gap of only 27 miles unfinished in the whole distance from Wellington to Napier. If funds were available, it would be desirable that this length should be completed; and the Government is of opinion that it should be undertaken when further funds can be provided. The present loan allocation is now practically exhausted, its amount being £15,358, as against liabilities at the end of March last amounting to £11,696, and the difference being required for contingencies in connection with the works completed and in hand, including the river-bank protection-works at the Awapurua Bridge. For expenditure within the current year, the amount required is £12,500, and for that amount a vote will be proposed. Blenheim-Awatebe . On the Blenheim-Awatere Eailway, the formation, without bridges, is done to the end of the Dashwood Section, 8 miles from Blenheim. It is now proposed to complete this distance with bridges and permanent-way; and also to form and complete a further length of 2J miles, which will bring the line to a convenient stopping-place at the south side of the Dashwood Pass, and from that point it is proposed to construct a dray-road to the Awatere Eiver. This is all that the balance of the present loan allocation admits of being done, but it is anticipated that when this is done, the railway from Blenheim to Dashwood, which has so long been lying idle, will be utilised, and also that by this means the returns on the existing Picton to Blenheim section will be considerably increased. The present road over Taylor's Pass, between the Awatere and Blenheim, is so very steep that it almost prohibits the possibility of carting at any reasonable cost, and the Government has been informed that the wool-wagons go round the bluffs along the sea-shore, without any road at all,".rather than attempt to go over Taylor's Pass Eoad. This being so, there seems to be very little doubt that the railway through the Dashwood Pass would be utilised, as it can be approached from the Awatere by a road of short length and with easy grades ; and on that basis the Government has decided to ask the House to now authorise the undertakings which I have described, to the extent of the balance of the existing loan allocation (£27,363) of which £10,000 is proposed to be voted for expenditure within the year. The section of railway from Blenheim to Dashwood could, it is anticipated, be worked very cheaply in connection with the existing railway from Picton to Blenheim, on which the staff and rolling-stock are not fully employed. Gbeymouth-Hokitika. On the Greymouth-Hokitika Eailway during the last financial year the embankment and protective works at the Arahura Eiver have been completed, and the Teremakau Bridge has made good progress, and is now nearly finished.