No. 4.
The Commissioner of Crown Lands, Canterbury, to the Secretary for Crown Lands.

Sir,—

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st instant, and No. 12, relative to the complaint of the Native Runanga of Kaiapoi, regarding the draining of Lake Ellesmere, and in reply beg to report as follows:—

I find that nothing has been done or is doing by the Provincial Government towards draining the lake. The Secretary for Public Works informs me that a short time since levels of the adjacent country were taken by order of the Government, for the purpose of ascertaining if such a work could be done, but the enormous cost of the undertaking renders it improbable that it will over be attempted. The lake periodically discharges itself into the sea by breaking through the shingle beach, and this has been the case recently, the effect of which has been to lower the lake considerably, but I cannot learn that it has resulted from any other cause.