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Early in August last year a working-party was sent to Cuvier Island, and the erection of the lighthouse and other buildings is so far advanced that it is anticipated that the light will shortly be ready for exhibition. The lighthouse is a cast-iron structure, which was manufactured at Auckland. On lighthouses last year the amount expended was £2,504, and for the current year the amount asked for is £2,930. This exhausts the loan allocation. HAEBOUE WOEKS. On account of harbour works, no provision was made under loan funds last year, nor is it intended to make any this year, the allocation for that class of works being exhausted. Since April, 1888, however, the Public Works Department has had charge of the construction of the harbour works at Westport and Greymouth, which have been carried on rapidly, in accordance with Sir John Coode's designs, by funds created under the special Acts of 1884. HAEBOUE DEFENCES. During the past year the defence-works have been carried on by convict labour, the barracks originally erected at the principal forts having been converted into secure temporary prisons. The prisoners are thus, with advantage both to themselves and to their work, kept confined on the fortifications on which they are employed. Considerable progress has been made on the established lines of the scheme of defence. The amount voted last year was £56,541, and of this amount £50,090 was expended, chiefly on materiel of war from England (fulfilling contracts entered into by the previous Government). This leaves an unexpended balance on loan allocation of £6,452. The total expenditure on the works themselves was £15,010, of which, again, £2,240 represents payments on account of unsettled claims for land taken for batteries in 1885. The expenditure on materiel was therefore £35,080 ; upon works, £12,770 ; and upon land, £2,240 : making in all a total of £50,090, as above. The large contracts for materiel have now been fulfilled, and the remaining orders are not for large amounts. The liabilities at the 31st March last were £3,715 on English materiel, and £2,400 on works (£6OO of the latter item representing a still unsettled landclaim), or a total of £6,116. These liabilities, with contingencies, will absorb the unspent balance of £6,452 above arrived at. The Government have again to express their sense of the valuable advice which lias continued to be readily and freely given by General Schaw on questions connected with these works and the scheme of defence generally. The total expenditure on harbour defences up to the 31st March, 1889, has been in round numbers £442,000, of which £233,000 represents cost of materiel of war obtained from England, and £209,000 the cost of works in the colony. Of this latter sum about £32,000 has been paid for land, and the balance, £177,000, represents the cost of the forts, batteries, submarine defences, steamlauuches, special reports, supervision, and all other general charges. BATES ON NATIVE LANDS. For rates on Native lands there is a balance due to the extent of about £1,000 in respect of the year ending the 31st March, 1888; and the estimated amount required for rates during the year ending the 31st March, 1889, but not yet paid, is £10,000, and, for the year ending the 31st March, 1890, a further £10,000 : making in all £21,000. As the rates, however, do not usually become payable until the year following that on which they are assessed, it is only proposed to ask this year for a vote for £8,595, being the £11,000 for the years ending the 81st March, 1888 and 1889, less recoveries up to the 31st March, 1889, amounting to £2,405. The £10,000 in respect of the year ending the 31st March, 1890, less such recoveries as may fall due in the meantime, will be asked for next year.