Gr.—lo.

Analysed the expenditure falls under the following heads: — £ Development work .. .. .. .. .. 10,237 Stock purchases .. .. .. .. .. .. 5,168 Discharge of liabilities .. .. .. .. .. 2,643 Maintenance, sheep work, supervision, &c. .. .. .. 1,348 £19,396 The development work consisted of scrub-cutting over nearly 7,000 acres of old pasture land covered with manuka and tauhinu, costing £1,927 ; and fencing, which cost £6,901 in material and labour. The total length of fencing completed was 3,116 chains, of which 2,235 chains were on Whareponga Station. In the fencing the most expensive items were posts, which were purchased from Putaruru, transported thence by sea to Tokomaru Bay, by lorry to dumps at points nearest to the lands to be fenced, whence they were packed on to boundaries, for the most part steep hills. Battens were obtained locally and packed on to lines. Wire and staples were handled in the same manner as the posts. This expense would not have been warranted in a period of depression, but for the fact that the land to be farmed was grassland which had reverted partially to manuka and tauhinu and except in patches did not require to be regrassed. The cost of grass-seed and sowing appears in the accounts as £186. A further consideration was the low price of stock, and the assistance towards labour-costs from unemployment subsidies. The receipts were as follows : — £ Cream .. .. .. .. .. • • • • 149 Live-stock .. .. .. .. •• .. 1,751 Unemployment subsidies .. .. .. ■.. .. 1,452 Other receipts .. .. .. .. .. •. 190 £3,542 The stock figures at the 31st March, 1933, were as follows : — (i) Whareponga Station : Sheep —5,107 ewes, 199 wethers, 1,974 lambs, 152 rams: total, 7,432. Beef cattle —10 bullocks, 250 steers, 100 heifers : total, 360 head. (ii) Other areas where the stock was under the Department's control: Dairy stock— 161 millr cows, 9 bulls, 8 dry cows, 64 heifers and yearlings, and some horses. Sheep, 525. In the case of five blocks the owners were in occupation with their own stock on which the Department had not incurred any expenditure. 2. Southern Group. This consists of the original Mohaka Scheme, Kahungunu (adjoining Mohaka to the west), and Waihua (formerly Ngamahanga) on the north-east of Mohaka. To this should be added the Putorino Nursery taken over two years ago from the Forestry Department.

At the 31st March, 1933, the expenditure and receipts on these three schemes were as follows : —

Work on the Kahungunu Scheme was commenced early in 1933, primarily as a measure to relieve the unemployment of Maoris in the Wairoa, Nuhaka, and Mahia districts. The Waihua Block, formerly Ngamahanga, was handed over by the Lands Department. A good burn of bush and scrub felled in 1931 was secured on the block on an area of over 4,000 acres, after which the development resolved itself into sowing grass-seed, fencing, and stocking. Mohaka Scheme. —Details were given in the statement G.-10 of the session of 1932 of the improvements effected on this scheme up to the 31st March, 1932, together with an interim report by the Registrar dated October of that year. The main increases in expenditure compared with 1931-32 were as follows : Building, £1,077 ; clearing, £391 ; cultivation, ploughing, &c., £572 ; farm and dairy equipment, £696 ; fencing, £3,249 ; fertilizers, £567 ; grass-seed and sowing, £273 ; dairy stock, £1,575 ; and beef cattle, £403. The receipts since the inception comprise returns from cream, £682 ; sales of live-stock and wool, £969 ; unemployment subsidies, £556 ; and sale of wool and other receipts, £609.

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Expenditure. Net Expenditure. £ £ £ Mohaka 27,542 2,816 24,726 Kahungunu .. .. .. 773 .. 773 Waihua .. .. .. 2,481 .. 2,481 Putorino Nursery .. .. 1,894 197 1,697 32,690 3,013 29,677