D.-i.

Hurunui Station will probably be available for goods traffic by about the end of the financial year. The expenditure on the railway last year totalled to £27,815. For the current year a vote of £25,000 is proposed. Midland. At the Nelson end the formation of the line to the Motueka River has been finished, and the rails laid; the combined road and railway bridge over that river has been built, and is now in use ; the formation-works in the direction of Tadmor are nearing completion ; and rail-laying on the Tadmor Section has been begun. Goods traffic is also being carried, over the section between Motupiko and Maniaroa. Tenders for the erection of the station buildings at Tadmor are about to be invited. Provision is made for a further section of this line, ten and a half miles in length, in the Railways Authorisation Bill which is now before the Legislature. At the Reefton end considerable bush-clearing has been done, and some progress made with the earthworks. The bridge over the Inangahua at Reefton has been finished, and the combined road and railway bridge over the same river at the Landing is well in hand. The cylinders are in position, and nearly all the material required for the rest of the bridge is on the site. A contract has also been let for the bridge over the Waitahu River, and the materials for its construction are now being delivered, and pile-driving has been begun. Raillaying will shortly be started, and arrangements made for the removal of the station buildings at Reefton to the new station-site, which will be much nearer the centre of the town than the present station, and will be on the same side of the river as the town. Mr. V. G. Bogue's final report on the location of the Arthur's Pass Section of the railway has come to hand, and honourable members will be gratified to know that the opinions of the Government's engineering staff have been fully confirmed. The surveys hitherto made have only been of a preliminary character, so as to enable the engineers to definitely determine which line it would be best to adopt. A decision having been arrived at on this point, the work of making a detailed final survey of the adopted line has now been taken in hand. The works involved are of a nature to require very careful and exact surveys to be made, and these have been intrusted to Mr. J. H Dobson, who has already done so much survey-work on the line both for the Midland Railway Company and the Government, and is consequently more familiar with the ground than any other officer on the Government staff. For a tunnel of such length as the one proposed at Arthur's Pass it will be necessary to obtain up-to-date boring machinery; and inquiries as to the best class of appliances to be adopted, and also as to the best means of ventilating the tunnel when constructed, are now being made. At the Canterbury end of the line satisfactory progress has been made with the very heavy construction-works in hand there. The foundations for the Staircase Viaduct are now in hand by the Department's own workmen, and the contractors for the steel pier and superstructure have the manufacture of the material well in hand, a portion of it being nearly ready for shipment. A plan of this viaduct appears as an appendix to this Statement. The section now being carried out is the heaviest on the line between Canterbury and Westland, except the long tunnel at Arthur's Pass. Between the present workings and the Summit tunnel there is about twenty-five miles of quite easy country. The expenditure on the Midland Railway during the year amounted to £53,547. For the current year a vote of £60,000 is proposed. Ngahere-Blackball. The large road and railway bridge over the Grey River has been finished, as well as the road approaches thereto, but formation-work on the railway itself has only just been started. The survey which was in progress when my last Statement was made, to ascertain the practicability and probable cost of carrying

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