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With sanction, attended with such successful results, and now declared by the people through their representatives to be adapted to the circumstances of the Province, ought not I think to be lightly disturbed and I cannot doubt will readily receive the assent of his Excellency.

With regard to the affairs of the Canterbury Association, having abstained from the first from urging any particular course upon your attention, I am the more anxious to assure you how heartily I concur in the measure to which I have this day given his Excellency’s assent. The course you have adopted in accepting the liabilities incurred by the Association in founding the settlement, is one befitting the character of the Province, and one which will surely tend to establish its credit and in the end to promote its best interests.

I ought not to allow this occasion to pass upon which the ties between the settlement and its founders are formally dissolved, without expressing what I am sure are not only your sentiments and my own, but those of the community generally which we represent—the grateful sense which will ever be entertained of the entirely unselfish and disinterested labors of those who allotted to themselves the arduous task of adding a new colony to the Empire.

That complaints sometimes of real sometimes of imaginary or unavoidable mismanagement have found expression amongst us, in language not unfrequently embittered by individual disappointment, is not to be denied. It may be readily admitted that such complaints have not been wholly groundless. It may well be doubted whether in such an undertaking it would have been within human possibility to have avoided eliciting some, and sometimes even just complaints. But the conclusion of our relations with the Canterbury Association will always prove that the colonists as a body have risen above the narrow feelings of temporary disappointment and partial dissatisfaction, to take a wider and juster view of the great work, as a whole, which has been done by the Association and to give them the honor which is their due.

At the same time it becomes my duty to point out to you that it will not be wise in us to underrate the magnitude of the liability which the Province has undertaken, especially at a time when it is engaged in an unusual effort to restore a regular and steady immigration from the mother country, when it is prosecuting costly public works, and when its resources are temporarily curtailed by the demands made on the Land Fund by the General Government. The estates transferred to the Province are, indeed, of considerable, and of increasing value; and form a substantial security for the capital of the debt; but it will be only by careful and prudent management that they will be made to provide for the charge which the Province has engaged periodically to meet. Much, therefore, as I regret making so large a demand on your time, it will be absolutely necessary for me to call you together at the earliest possible period, after the deeds of transfer shall have been confirmed by his Excellency on the part of the Crown, in order that I may submit to you a plan for the management of these estates, and may obtain from you, under the provisions of the Public Reserves’ Act, the powers which it will be necessary to confide in the Government, in order to secure the full productiveness of the property.

Gentlemen, I do not doubt the full ability of the Province to bear the burden which it has undertaken; and I am quite certain that the liability having been once assumed, will be punctually and honorably discharged.

Amongst other acts of the Session I notice with great pleasure the incorporation of the Warden and Fellows of the College. The promise of such an institution was not one of the least advantages which we were led to expect in emigrating to this settlement. Though delay, and some disappointment have been experienced in the fulfilment of our hopes, it is a great pleasure to learn that such an institution is now actually established, and that it is in possession of such a portion of the lands purchased out of the Ecclesiastical and Educational Fund as cannot but constitute, in the course of a few years a very valuable permanent endowment.

The sums you have voted for public works shall be expended in the prosecution of the several purposes indicated with all expedition. I am glad to be able to inform you that the contracts already entered into on the Sumner Road are within the estimates of the Engineer. Upon the other roads—several road parties are organized; and the contractors have in employment on the Government works very nearly all the labor which it would be at all desirable to abstract from the ordinary occupation on the land. But I think we may now expect the arrival of at least four ships with immigrants from England.