Re Estimates :—The position your Honor takes up is inexplicable. You telegraph the Government that in proposing estimates you calculated on sale of land in Hundreds, and that the receipts for the half-year will equal the amount estimated. On the other hand you re-write to Government calling urgent attention to your memo, to the Waste Lands Board, in which you inform that body that its action in stopping the sale of pastoral lands upsets your calculations, deprives you of expected revenues, has compelled you to refuse tenders for necessary works, and that pro- page 31 bably you will have to abandon existing contracts. The estimates sent up were prepared before the Board refused the sale. The position then is this : You tell the Government the estimates were prepared in reliance on the sale of land in Hundreds, and that you still expect the revenue. On the other hand you tell the Waste Lands Board (and call our attention to your memorandum) that all your calculations are upset, that you cannot get the revenue as anticipated, and that you must stop the very works you now ask us to approve. We now desire to put it distinctly to your Honor whether, under existing circumstances, you have good grounds for adhering to your original estimates of receipts from land sales.