c.—B.

A camp for twenty-four men was established at Waitakarurn in November for the purpose of clearing and draining Crown land on the western side of the Maukoro Canal. Thick manuka scrub has been felled on an area of 306 acres, which, after burning, will be sown in grass in the autumn. Another camp of sixteen men, established at Mangatarata in March, have commenced clearing the Mangatarata Stream. Twenty-nine chains had been completed at the end of March. In August a camp of seventeen men was transferred from Kaihere to Torehape, where the men have been employed ballasting peat roads with clay. From the pit at Torehape the clay ballast is hauled on light railway an average distance of 3i miles to Centre Road. After repairing 3 miles of line and renewing sleepers, some 53 chains of new tramway has been laid along the Centre Road on 3,700 fascines, and 5,022 cubic yards of ballast spread along 38 chains of road. The total length of the road to be formed is 2f miles, and, when completed, it will provide access for nineteen sections, having a total area of about 1,900 acres. For the purpose of providing a stock route between Ngatea and Waitakaruru a hardwood bridge of 25 ft. span has been erected over the Pouarua Canal on the Orchard West Road, which has been formed for a distance of 115 chains eastwards from the Maukoro Canal. Detours have been made on the road along the eastern side of the Maukoro Canal at dam spillways, and this road graded, and on completion of 30 chains of formation on the Orchard East Road a through route for stock will be available. When the Orchard East Road is formed for its entire length it will provide access for a number of new farms and be a valuable addition to the means of access to the district. Drains of a total length of 1,419 chains were cleaned, and 3,903 cubic yards of material was excavated in widening and deepening 275 chains of drain. Grass-seed was sown on 180 acres of land where the scrub had been cleared and burnt, and this area was subsequently opened for selection. Kerepeehi, Awaiti Distbict. During the first four months of the year three dredges were engaged on the Piako River improvement works between Kerepeehi and the Waikaka diversion, one in the Puhanga Canal, and two dredges were employed intermittently on the Awaiti and Elstow Canals. A party of sixteen relief men, camped at Kaihere, was engaged cutting and clearing Crown land from April to July, when the men were transferred to Torehape Road works. In November another party of about twenty-one men from Auckland went into the Kaihere camp, and have since been employed clearing blackberry and scrub, principally in flax areas. A party of sixteen men camped at Netherton have been engaged since February on the construction of Bancroft's Drain. This drain will be four miles long, and will be an additional outlet into the Awaiti Canal for the land to the south of the Tirohia - Otway Road. The formation of a new road 5 miles long from Kerepeehi to Netherton, commenced last year, was completed this summer when 2m. 60 ch. of this road was formed. The road on the left bank of the Awaiti Canal for a distance of 5 miles upstream from the Reservoir Canal was also formed with grader. This road is on a banquette along the inside of the main stop-bank, and had previously been partly formed with drag-line excavator. During the winter a party of ten to twelve men was engaged reconditioning the boundary drains ■on the Kerepeehi Block Extension, and the construction of a large two-barrel sluice-gate on this block was commenced. Operating from the headquarters at Kerepeehi a large number of minor undertakings have been carried out over a wide area, including fencing, catting sleepers and posts from bush on the banks of the Waitoa River, sowing with grass-seed 232 acres on the Koromatua Block, which had been ploughed and cultivated during the autumn of the previous year, and 70 acres of surface sowing, erecting 343 chains of fencing on the same block, also 464 chains of fencing at Kaihere. The usual drain and road maintenance carried out during the year comprised cleaning 2,595 chains of main drains and grading 6 miles of road of the Kerepeehi Block. Twenty to twenty-five men have been employed on the Orongo Settlement since the 10th October on drain cleaning, improvement, and construction. Patetonga District. The metalling of the Patetonga Top Road is the principal new undertaking in this district. The road to be metalled is 350 chains in length, and the work is being carried out by the Department for the Hauraki Plains County Council as an unemployment relief work. About thirty men have been engaged on the work, which was commenced at the end of October. A new quarry has been opened up, half a mile of service road constructed, and 1,450 cubic yards of metal delivered on to 130 chains of reconstructed roadway. Another relief work camp for twenty has been established in this district since January, and the men have been employed on road and drainage work and cleaning and deepening the Waikaka Canal. This is a somewhat difficult undertaking with hand labour, but very satisfactory progress is being made. The canal has been cleared of growth for a distance of 102 chains and approximately 3,300 cubic yards of silt and sand removed from the canal bottom. Some dredging and clearing willows in the Piako River near the Patetonga Landing was carried out during the first four months of the year. Drains of a total length of 3,437 chains were cleaned, and 3,260 cubic yards excavated in widening and deepening 82 chains of main drains.

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