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APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A. Report op the Public Petitions Committee (A to L) on the Petition of the Pelorus Road Board and Others, op Marlborough. Petitioners pray that the Government should procure the present Rai Valley Trarnway-line, and extend the same up the Rai Valley, in order to open up the splendid forest contained therein, and to facilitate settlement. I am directed to report that, in the opinion of this Committee, the bush on the Crown lands in Marlborough is of such importance that the Committee recommends the Government to make further inquiries, so as to ascertain in what manner they can be worked in the interest of sawmilling and settlement to the best advantage of the district and colony. 29th September, 1893.

APPENDIX B. Dear Sir,— Rai Valley, 31st May, 1893. At a meeting of the Land Board it was recommended that the value of the timber standing on each individual section in the Ronga Valley be added to the assessment of the land. Perhaps I can give you an idea of what timber stands on one of the Ronga sections, which the Board could never have had when it was proposed to add the timber-value to the land. A few days ago, on Section No. 39, containing 205 acres, myself and three others chalk-marked 1,300 timber-trees, all over Ift. in diameter—matai, rimu, and white-pine; this was 3ft. or 4ft. from the ground. Took us four hours to mark; very few small trees. Mr. Forrest says a fair way to estimate timber here is to take all timber-trees over Ift. through at I,oooft. a tree. This timber we marked stood on considerably less than half the section—the half that had the least on it. lam prepared to prove, if any one will'come out and mark with me, there is not less than 2,000,000ft. of mill timber on this section, which at 6d. per 100ft. would come to £500. How can settlers pay a sum like this? Mr. Mills told me the Government estimate for the Ronga Settlement was 2,000ft. to the acre; there must be more like 5,000ft. or 6,000ft. Can there be no way of getting at the value of timber ?—to take a strip of land one-third the width of a survey that contains all the timber and spread it over the two-thirds that has none. Sections 39 and 46, or part of them, I was always told, were in the Forest Reserve that completely surrounded us, and I saw a map Huddleston had here with it marked "Forest Reserve." We were refused any land adjoining us seven years ago by Mr. Ballance, through Mr. Percy Adams. The reply I got from Mr. Adams was that the Government could do nothing, because the timber was not to be destroyed, but we might get more land when the timber was removed. Ten years ago a party of men from Nelson came and applied for the Ronga as a special settlement. They were refused, because the Government telegraphed to the Ranger, was there any valuable timber on it ? The reply was, Yes ; and they were refused. Now we are told there is little or no timber, and what there is is worth nothing. Ido not wish to trouble you for a reply. Below is the number of trees that stand on an acre, 2 chains by 5 chains, on Blick's land in the Rai, with the girths of most of them taken 3ft. or 4ft. from the ground. I am, &c, A. P. Seymour, Esq. • Charles Turner.

Totara trees: three, 16ft. girth; two, 19ft. girth; four, 18ft. girth; three, 17ft. girth; one, 22ft. girth ; one, 20ft. girth ; one, 10ft. girth ; two, 15ft. girth ; one, 13ft. girth ; one, lift, girth ; one, 12ft. girth; twenty-five trees of 6ft. girth and upwards.

APPENDIX C. Department of Lands and Survey, District Office, Blenheim, 2nd September, 1891. In reply to your telegram of the 29th ultimo, relative to a description of the lands in the Rai and other valleys, which in my opinion should be opened for settlement, I have to state that the detailed report on the unsold surveyed sections on the eastern side of the Rai, which in my memorandum of the 26th ultimo I suggested should be first thrown open, was destroyed in a fire in the Government Buildings in 1876. I, however, attach a copy of a general report, and description of the lands on the Rai and its tributary valleys, made by Mr. J. Rutland, Ranger of Crown Lands, in 1886. I may state that this description would apply generally to the lands suitable for settlement in the Wakamarina and Pelorus Valleys. Henry G. Clark, Chief Surveyor. The Superintendent of Lands and Survey Department, Wellington.

Repokt on Rai Valley. General Description. The Rai Valley forms an exceptional feature in the physical geography of North Marlborough, containing, with its branches, a larger area of level land than the Pelorus, of which it is a tributary. Surrounded on all sides by a lofty mountain range, in some places upwards of 3,000ft. in height, and having only a narrow opening at its southern extremity, where the Rai River, through a narrow gorge, falls into the Pelorus, this block may be compared to an irregular-shaped basin, from the sides of which a number of spurs project towards the centre.