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Town, Suburban, Pastoml Lands . and Rural Lands. Acres. Acres. Auckland 205,989 232,273 Hawke's Bay 34,667 24,929 Taranaki ... ... ... ... ••• 9,643 Wellington ... ... ... ... ■•• 64,114 Nelson ... ... ... -•• ... 43,194 Marlborough ... ... ... ... ••■ 38,500 Canterbury 124,099 39,528 Westland 574 224,000 Otago ... ... ••• 225,151 327,266 Southland ..' 299,721 899,133 Totals 1,045,652 1,747,129 The above figures include lands both surveyed and unsurveyed; a great deal of it is second class, and only suitable for working in good sized areas ; some of it is difficult of access, and presents at present little attraction to the selector. The approximate area of Crown lands remaining, exclusive of any pastoral leases which may fall in and prove suitable for smaller settlement, is about 11,000,000 acres, but the greater part of this is mountainous and quite useless for settlement. There cannot be more than 4,000,000 acres of this that can be utilised for settlement or pastoral purposes. With regard to lands which remain in the hands of the Natives in the North Island, the following is a rough approximation—exact figures cannot be given because the tenures are changing from day to day : — Acres. Land which has passed the Native Land Court ... ... About 8,000,000 Land which has not passed the Native Land Court ... ... „ 2,260,000 10,260,000 This land varies very much in quality, and much of it is unsuited for settlement —at any rate, for a great many years to come. A large portion of this area is required for the maintenance of the Maori people themselves. It is difficult to get at any reliable data as to how much of this country is suitable for settlement in sections, say, up to 2,000 acres, but it is probable that 3,000,000 acres is an outside limit. Of land which may properly be called agricultural, there are very few blocks of any extent, though a considerable part of the 3,000,000 acres might be used for pastoral purposes in blocks up to 2,000 acres. Nearly all of it requires a large expenditure on roads before it could be rendered available for settlement, and from the nature of the country this would be an expensive operation. Some valuable blocks of Native land, comprising about 346,000 acres, have been acquired during the past year, which will come in for settlement during the next, amongst which may be included a part of the Awarua country—over 140,000 acres—which is situated inland of Hunterville, and through which the North Island Main Trunk Bailway will pass, and which is already provided with a good main road leading from Hunterville to Lake Taupo. The lands selected by the Midland Bailway Company under their contract with the Government up to the 31st March last was 282,329 acres. This area does not include the lands held in trust under the 28th clause of the contract, which amounts to 84,262 acres. A certain amount of settlement takes place on the lands selected by the company, but to what extent is not known, but it is probably not so much as would be the case were the lands in the hands of the Crown, and the whole of the area available for settlement. This especially would be the case in Nelson and Westland, where very large areas are withheld from settlement, and where practically no settlement is going on within the proclaimed area. Special-settlement Associations. Table O, appended hereto, gives the particulars of this class of settlement. The number of selections made under this system since it was first inaugurated under " The Land Act, 1885," up to 31st March, 1893, is 1,824, which includes only those in which the individual selections have been made, the total area within the fifty-one association blocks being 267,243 acres. During the past year ten additional blocks have been balloted for, the number of selectors being 290, and the total area selected 68,852 acres. In addition to the above, preliminary arrangements have been made with twenty-two associations, composed of 845 selectors, with an area of 173,048 acres, but the position only of the blocks has been decided, the surveys, though in progress, not'being in a sufficiently advanced state to allow of ballot for individual selections. The particulars of these twenty-two associations are shown in Table 0 so far as is possible, but the areas are subject to revision on survey, and the full particulars will only appear in next year's returns, to which they properly belong. Though a considerable number of extra surveyors have been employed during the year, it has been found impossible to complete all the surveys of the association blocks taken up, which is greatly due to the rough country in which some of the blocks are situated, requiring extra care and time in laying out the road-lines and arranging boundaries. It cannot yet be stated what improvements have been made on the association blocks taken up within the last two years, for by the terms of the regulations the time for inspection has not arrived. It is known, however, that many of the settlers are clearing and grassing their lands, and others are engaged on the roadworks which are necessary to give access to the land. With respect to the old association blocks, which have been in existence for some years, a large amount of work has been done on them, but, as the law under which they were selected allows of

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