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1911 NE W ZEAL A N T3

TAUPO TOTARA TIMBER COMPANY COMMITTEE (REPORT OF) TOGETHER WITH MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS, EVIDENCE, AND APPENDIX.

Report brought up the 24th day of October and ordered to be printed.

ORDEE OF REFERENCE. Extract from the Journals of the Bouse of Representatives. Thursday, the 14th Day of September, 1911. Ordered, "That a Special Committee be appointed to inquire into the petition of the Tanpo Totara Company for railway extension, and any other matter in connection therewith; such Committee to have power to call 'or persons and papers ; three to be a quorum : the Committee to cneist of Mr. Pavey, Mr. Forbe=, Mr. Fraser, Mr. (ireenslade, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Mander, Mr. Myers, Mr. Newman, Mr. Reed, and the mover.—(Mr. MacDonalu).

PETITIONS. Petition of the Taupo Totara Timber Company (Limited). To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of New Zealand in Parliament assembled. May it Please your Honourable House, — The humble petition of the Taupo Totara Timber Company (Limited), a company duly incorporated under the provisions of Act, 1882, and having its registered office in Putaruru, Auckland, showeth that — 1. That with the view of working large areas of timber country in the Taupo district your petitioners have, in conjunction with the Wellington Industrial Development Company (Limited) constructed a railway fifty miles in length from Putaruru (on the Morrinsville-Rotorua line) to Mokai, which is run under the authority of an Order in Council fixing tin; maximum rates for passengers and goods. 2. This line is distant sixteen miles from Taupo, and the cost of carrying the goods traffic per vehicle is an insuperable difficulty in the way of settlement of the great territory of which Taupo is the natural centre. 3. That the great distance of Taupo from the port of Auckland —two hundred miles—renders it absolutely necessary that railway communication should be provided if the districts of which Taupo is the centre are to be settled and carry the population they are destined to. •1. That the area thus involved is about two million acres (2,000,000 acres) of which eight hundred thousand acres (800,000 acres) is Native lands and three hundred and fifty thousand acres (350,000 acres) Crown lands. This area lies in the East and West Taupo Counties, and the following facts speak for themselves: — Agricultural Statistics, 1911. Grain and Green and Total Area Pulse Crops. Root Crops. in Crop. Acres. Acres. Acres. East Taupo 773 .. 867 .. 1,640 West Taupo and Ohoura .. .. 654 .. 1,737 .. 2,301 Sheep Returns, 1910. West Taupo and part Matamata .. .. .. .. .. 6,740 East Taupo and Rotorua .. .. .. .. .. .. 29,412 Population, exclusive of Maori*. East Taupo .. ■ • ■ • • • • ■ • • .. 528 West Taupo .. .. • • • • • • • • .. 974 Total 1,502