7

C.—l

areas burnt in this manner, and to arrange for an immediate supply of grass-seed. As a result, every settler who was in need of seed, and unable to buy it immediately, was either given an order upon a seed-merchant nominated by himself, or supplied by the local Commissioner of Crown Lands direct, with seed in such mixture as applied for, the terms of payment being the signing of a promissory note for amount owing, payable in two, three, or four years without any interest thereon being chargeable. These very liberal terms were availed of by 647 settlers in the North Island, who have been supplied with grass-seed to the value of £24,082. In the South Island sixtyseven cases have been dealt with, for a value of £2,756. The several land districts and their disbursements are shown in the accompanying table.

Table H. —Return showing Number of Settlers to whom Grass-seed has been supplied by the Government and the Cost of such Seed.

Improved-farm Settlements. Very satisfactory reports on these settlements have again been received from the Commissioners of Crown Lands. Some indication of their general prosperity is shown by the fact that since the initiation of the system in 1894 to 31st March last improvements to the value of £177,537 have been placed on the land. Full particulars regarding each settlement will be found in Table 32. It is hoped during the present year to open a number of sections in the Waimarino Block in the vicinity of the Main Trunk railway-line for the benefit of workers thereon, as the line is now approaching completion, when many of the men now emplo.yed will be anxious to settle on the land with the money they have saved. Details of the land for occupation in this manner are not yet available. The various blocks of Native lands in the Aotea Rohepotae districts, the purchase of which is now being concluded, are either too far removed from the railway-line, or are not of sufficiently good quality to warrant their subdivision into the small areas required for improved farms. It is very doubtful, therefore, if any considerable area of land can be placed at the-disposal of applicants under these conditions. Village Settlements. As foreshadowed in last year's report, owing to the absorption of this class of settlement into the general system of the prevalent land-tenures, no special report will be published. The settlements themselves have fulfilled the purpose for which they were originally created, but with the changing conditions of land-settlement, it has not been found necessary to provide for their continuance, more especially so as the Workers' Dwellings Act and the Government Advances to Workers Act have met most of the needs for which the village settlements were originally designed. Revenue. The total receipts amount to the handsome sum of £658,794, being an amount considerably in excess of the estimated revenue. Territorial revenue (which embraces all the ordinary receipts from Crown lands proper) totalled £288,317, or £32,317 beyond what was expected; whilst nonterritorial revenue (which includes rents of land-for-settlement estates, endowments of all kinds administered by the Department of Lands, State forest receipts, Ac.) realised £370,476, or £60,276 over the estimate. In the following table is shown the amounts received from each land district.

\ Number of Settlers Amount Q , Seed gQ w.th 8 G P r P as ed seed. M District. Amount of Seed sown on Burnt Areas on Crown Land. Cost. Value of Seed. Auckland Hawke's Bay... Taranaki Wellington Nelson Marlborough ... Southland 197 iy 103 328 44 22 1 lb. 217,511 39,415 58,400 467,087 36,577 72,523 790 £ 7,913 905 1,686 13,578 1,022 1,717 17* lb. 24,000 39,342 1,420 18,360 18,152 34,546 16,146 £ 784 1,345 50 578 787 1,550 403 Totals ... 714 892,303 26,838£ 151,966 5,497