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to establish your Provincial Government not like a mere Corporation, or a Vestry or Parish Board—forms of local government indeed well adapted to the limited powers and petty interests with which they are invariably entrusted—but to regard it as a Government in the usual acceptation of that word, charged with great powers, responsible, in truth almost solely responsible, for the happiness and well being of the community, and therefore to be surrounded with so much of state, and so much only, as to secure its dignity, and encumbered with so much of form, and so much only, as should secure the patient and considerate use of those powers. You began by considering your Superintendent to be, although under another name (as the late Sir W. Molesworth pointed out in the House of Commons, he must of necessity be) the Lieutenant Governor of the Province, having ten times more real power for good or for mischief to the people under his rule than the Governor of the Colony himself. You therefore adopted the form of government in your Province which has been sanctioned by immemorial usage in the British colonies—you constituted an Executive Council to advise the Superintendent in the execution of his duties.

But we did not think it desirable to pledge ourselves, as an invariable rule of government, to the full usage of what is termed "Ministerial Responsibility." Indeed it must be sufficiently apparent to thinking men, that it is impossible in the Provincial Governments to insist upon having a "ministry" formed of the heads of departments, resigning office with every adverse vote of the Legislature. Such an attempt in a small community in which there are often no clearly defined political parties, and where the matters under discussion are for the most part of a social and local character upon which individuals may agree or differ without respect to party principle,—such an attempt is not only impossible in itself, but is invested with an appearance of absurdity to lookers on. But without going to the length of adopting all the forms and fashions of party government, I maintain that you have enjoyed in this Province, even in a greater measure than other parts of New Zealand, all the benefits of a real and practical responsibility of the Executive to the Legislature, and through the Legislature, to the people. I earnestly hope you will never consent to any alteration in a form of government which has secured this responsibility. You cannot overlook the fact that in that Province where the doctrine of responsible government has been completely set aside, there party has been most violent, and government more unpopular and inefficient than in any other.

So far as the Executive Government of the Provinces is created by the Provincial Legislature, the object to be gained is very simple. The Constitution Act, by giving to the Superintendent alone the right of issuing any public money, virtually places the whole Executive power of the Province in his hands. Your object then must be to secure a harmony of action between the Superintendent and the Provincial Council, and to secure a responsibility to the Council for his acts. I know of no practical way by which this can be accomplished, except by requiring him always to act by the advice of a Committee of the Provincial Council, which must necessarily, if harmony between the Superintendent and the Provincial Council be attained, consist of the members of that body, generally looked up to as its leaders, and enjoying the confidence and esteem of the community. That seems to me the best practical Government which you can adopt in these communities. It is the least formal and expensive form of Government which can be trusted with the exercise of some great powers, and which offers sufficient guarantee for their moderate and prudent exercise.

I am aware it has been thought by some few persons, that this form of Government is costly. Those only can hold such an opinion who have neglected to study the public accounts. So essential do I think it, that there should be no mistake on the minds of the people in this matter, that I have placed the accounts for the past year, and the Estimates for the present year, before you, in a form which shows the public expenditure on account of the Executive Government, the Legislative, and so on, under separate heads. I find that the cost of the Executive Government during the first half-year ending in March, 1854, was 25 per cent. of the whole expenditure of the Province. In the three subsequent years the cost