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before you in the course of the present session, that which will principally occupy your attention, will be the disposal of the Waste Lands. The measure to be proposed by the Government has been so long before the public, and has been so amply discussed, that it is unnecessary for me to dwell upon it at any length. The plan I have laid down is based may be briefly embodied in two propositions. First, that the occupation of the soil by settlers who require it, and will use it, for agricultural purposes, is the basis of all real and durable prosperity to a colony, and ought therefore to be regarded as the main object to which all others should be made subservient. Secondly, that, until the Waste Lands are required by agricultural Settlers, the utmost possible encouragement should be given for their use for pastoral purposes. It cannot be too often or too strongly asserted that the interests of the pastoral and agricultural settler are not opposed to one another, but are identical; for whilst, as I have said, the settlement of the lands in the hands of bona fide occupiers and cultivators, is the main and ultimate object to be kept in view, that object is largely promoted, not retarded, by the temporary occupation of the Waste Lands by pastoral settlers.

at least as largely as any other class in the community by the prosperity of the squatter. The introduction of capital, the importation of stock, the cheapening of animal food, the creation of a large export trade in a commodity of all others the most readily produced, and the consequent stimulus given to the importation of the necessities and luxuries of life; these, the results of the squatters enterprise, add largely to the wealth and prosperity, not only of the Settlement generally, but especially of the agriculturalist, by extending the market for his produce. The prosperity of the Squatter cannot then justly become an object of jealousy to other classes of the community, unless it be gained at their expense; and the limit to the encouragement which the pastoral interest should receive, may be defined by this principle, that it should never be permitted to stand in the way of the permanent settlement of the country by the cultivator of the soil. And in the final disposal of the land for permanent settlement, a leading principle seems equally obvious: I mean that the Settler should be enabled to acquire it on the easiest possible terms. Not indeed at the lowest price; for terms which would admit of the land falling into the hands of large capitalists for speculative purposes, would be, not the easiest, but the hardest of all terms to the settler of limited means. I mean

the easiest terms, consistent with all the conditions and circumstances of the case. I am aware that it has been proposed to set aside certain parts of the country in which the sale of the land shall be limited to the bona fide occupying settler by affixing to the sale conditions of occupation; such as the expenditure of a certain sum of money in improvements, and withholding the Crown grant until those conditions are fulfilled. I hope no such system will be adopted by your Council. A system which involves an inquisitorial inspection of every mans property, which places the settler at the mercy of the opinion or caprice of an official of Government who is to determine the nature and value of his improvements—which prohibits for several years the sale and interchange of property—which compels the investment of labor upon a precarious title—and, by preventing the settler from borrowing money for purposes of improvement, virtually dissevers capital from the land,—and, more than all, a system which would impose these hard terms upon the poor man, whilst it leaves open a great part of the Country to be bought by rich men without any such conditions or restrictions:—this seems to me to be a system not only repugnant to the character and habits of the English people, but entirely opposed to all sound economical principles. The problem, gentlemen, which is offered to your practical solution is,—first, on what terms can the agricultural settler be enabled to acquire land with the greatest facility;—secondly, to what extent can you encourage the temporary occupation of the unoccupied portion of the Province for pastoral purposes, without in any degree impeding the advance of its permanent settlement.

I shall gladly unite with you in recommending to his Excellency any plan which will accomplish these objects.

Amongst the practical difficulties which the inhabitants of the Province have to encounter, none are more severely felt, than those arising from the state of the law relating to roads and drainage, from the absence of any machinery for keeping roads in repair, for altering lines of road which experience has shown to be inconvenient, and for laying out new roads through settled districts which have become necessary to the public. A measure to supply this want will be submitted to you similar to measures already adopted in other Provinces, and similar so far as circumstances will admit, to the law of England.

In compliance with a petition which I have received from some of the inhabitants of Lyttelton, I have caused a bill to be prepared for the purpose