D.—1

The following table shows for the last three years the capital expenditure on new school-buildings, additions, sites, and teachers' residences. 1932-33. 1933-34. 1934-35. £ £ £ Public schools .. .. .. .. 36,290 57,664 35,105 Secondary schools .. .. .. .. 22,909 2,568 14,679 Technical schools .. .. .. .. 4,110 1,504 12,851 Native schools .. .. .. .. 869 2,698 5,419 Gross total .. .. .. 64,178 64,434 68,054 Less credits-in-aid .. .. .. 7,050 7,778 10,894 £57,128 £56,656 £57,160 IRRIGATION. Owing, no doubt, to the decline in wool prices from that of the previous year, payments for irrigation water was slightly less than for the preceding season, being £21,835, as against £22,132. The principle of making settlers who are in arrears with their rates pay for water in advance is still having a beneficial effect on the season's payments, but, unfortunately, the total arrears on water rates still amounts to £12,534. Investigations into the financial position of those irrigators who are in arrears are now being made by the Otago Mortgagors Relief Commission, with a view to hardening up on the conditions of service and taking more rigorous methods to secure payment. No new schemes have been undertaken in Central Otago, but the building of two additional reservoirs is now under way. These have both been investigated from a financial point of view, and, making allowance for the liberal contributions received from the Unemployment Board's funds for labour, they will pay a full return on the capital invested. As indicated in my Statement of last year, I am convinced of the lasting benefits obtainable from the conservation of water in Otago Central, and, if in any way justifiable, lam sympathetic towards this class of public work. The available water that can now be impounded in the eight dams built in Otago Central amounts to some 70,000 acre-feet, sufficient to irrigate approximately 35,000 acres of land, although, of course, this quantity is not drawn from storage every season. The Maniototo Irrigation Scheme, upon which complete and comprehensive survey investigations have now been made, includes the construction of a very lowcost dam that will impound some 300,000 acre-feet, or more than four times the quantity of water impounded in all the dams so far built. This dam would provide sufficient water to irrigate the whole of the 90,000 acres of irrigable land in the Maniototo Plains. It is estimated, however, that the cost of such a scheme would be approximately £1,400,000, and unless extremely liberal funds from the unemploy-ment-tax could be justified from the point of view of providing work for the unemployed the scheme would not be financially sound. It is well worth further consideration, however, with my colleagues the Ministers of Finance and Employment, as the land is of excellent quality and urgently in need of water. With the exception of this scheme, Otago Central does not seem at present to warrant any really justifiable extension in irrigation, and the scene of future operations would appear to be shifting to the Province of Canterbury, where irrigation, although perhaps not so vitally needed, can be undertaken so much more cheaply than in Otago Central. The frequent droughts experienced so often in Canterbury in summer, together with the severe drying effect of the north-west winds, seems to have at last aroused the farmers to the necessity for an assured supply of water, and I predict an increasing demand for irrigation there in the future. For this reason, I have not hesitated to expend a fairly considerable amount of money in surveying the water resources of Canterbury, and in making a careful investigation to determine what amount of irrigation is required to produce the most beneficial results. Careful and regular measurements of soil-moisture at successive

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