nity, in some respects, at all events, that influence makes itself directly felt, especially in everything which affects the public credit. It is due to you, gentlemen, that, whereas when your Immigration Agent went to England three years ago, the Provincial Government was absolutely without any credit whatever, you are now in a position to raise without difficulty any sums that you may require, to carry on Immigration and Public Works, at the ordinary Colonial interest.

In opening the first Council in 1853 I ventured to point out a line of policy for your adoption, and I enlarged especially upon the nature and extent of the establishments of Government, which would become necessary. You concurred in the opinions I then laid down, and the experience of four years has but confirmed me in those views.

The best mode of conducting the Provincial Governments has naturally been a matter of constant enquiry and discussion in the several Provinces of the Colony: but it is obvious that all our opinions on this subject must be modified by the policy of the General Government, and by the attitude which it is to assume towards the several Provincial Governments.

If the whole of what are properly called the powers of Government are to be assumed and administered by the General Government, then the Provincial Governments will descend into mere Parish Boards, for managing local Public Works. But that is not the case at present. It is undeniable that at present almost the whole real Government of the country is administered by the Superintendents of the Provinces; and when I look on the past four years, or look around me to what is going on at the present moment, I confess I see no reason to wish that this state of things should be altered.

I am sorry to be compelled to say, that since I addressed this Council in September, 1853, scarcely a step has been made in solving any one of the political difficulties in which this Colony is involved; and I do not hesitate to say, that since the introduction of Ministerial Responsibility into the General Government, those difficulties have been even greater than before. For you well know that there were certain great questions with which the General Government alone could deal, and in respect of which the complaints of the Provinces have been loud, constant, and increasing. I will name of these: the confusion in the Finances of the Colony; the deficient administration of Justice by the Supreme Court; the mismanagement of the Native Land Purchase Department; the conflicting jurisdiction between the General and Provincial Governments; the inconvenience of the Steam and Postal arrangements. Now, what has been done by the General Government towards the settlement of any one of these great questions? The Finances are conducted on a scheme which is still awaiting settlement by the Parliament of England; the deficiency of the administration of Justice by the Supreme Court has never been greater or more oppressive than now; the complaints of the Native Land Purchase Department are louder than ever; not even an attempt has been made to put an end by law to the mischievous conflict of authority between the General and Provincial Governments, whilst the mode in which the Government is administered at present has tended to stimulate to the utmost that most unseemly conflict; and lastly, the Steam Postal Service is about to be arranged in a manner both inconvenient and unjust towards the greatest part of the Colony.

Now, when I regard these things, and watch the progress of the Colony during the past four years, I am bound to confess, and I believe that there cannot be two opinions on this matter, that the whole of that progress has been due to local enterprise, to Provincial action, and to the Provincial Governments, and that the General Government has either been absolutely inert in guiding or advancing the prosperity of the Colony, or has been positively mischievous in its action. In those Departments which fall peculiarly to the charge of the General Government, there is either no improvement, or an absolute retrogression; whilst the action of the Provincial Governments generally has been to keep pace with the increasing requirements and the expanding energies of the country. Gentlemen, I see no prospect of any alteration in this state of things for many years to come; and therefore I do not wish to see the action of the Provincial Councils in any way curtailed, or their powers contracted.

It was in the anticipation that this might be the case that I counselled you