36

of the Executive Government varied
from 7\u00bd to 8\u00bd per cent. of that expen-
diture; and on the expenditure of the
current year, if the Estimates before
you are, adhered to, it will be less than
4 per cent. So that out of the whole
expenditure during the ensuing year,
96 per cent. will consist of expen-
ces which may be incurred or not,
as you please, but which have nothing
whatever to do with the form of Go-
vernment, and will equally be incurred
under one form of Government or an-
other. I think then you will perceive,
gentlemen, that nothing can be more
fallacious than the idea that the form
of Government you have maintained
during the past four years is an expen-
sive one.

Amongst the various subjects with
which you have dealt, there are two to
which I will specially allude, and upon
which I am able to congratulate you
on the result of your legislation. The
first is the Waste Lands.

You have had to make laws for the
management of the Waste Lands which
should at once open the country to the
small farmer and working settler, and
at the same time afford such security
to the squatter as would induce him to
pursue his lucrative though speculative
trade. You had to satisfy claims and
to protect interests often supposed to
be hostile or incompatible. It must be
admitted your policy has been most
successful. Not only have none of the
squatting settlers abandoned their pur-
suits, but every acre of new country is
applied for at pastoral purposes as
soon as discovered; whilst at the same
time land is being sold in small lots
for agricultural purposes, quite as
quickly as the utmost wants of the
Province demand; more quickly even
than it can be profitably occupied by
the purchasers. I think I may say,
there is such a general sense of stability
and security in the present arrange-
ments, a feeling that the interests of
the pastoral settlers are protected,
whilst those of the agriculturist are
not in the slightest degree interfered
with, a feeling that justice has been
done to all parties and interests, that
we may anticipate the maintainance of
the present laws in all their main
features for many years to come.

Whilst adverting to the Waste
Lands I desire to draw your attention
to a correspondence between the Super-
tendent and the Waste Lands Board,
which will be laid before you,

My chief object in this correspond-
ence has been that there should be a
clear understanding as to the duties
and position of the Waste Lands
Board, and as to the rights of the
public. The Waste Lands now prac-
tically belong to the people. An
applicant for waste land does not go
to the Board asking as a favor to be
allowed to purchase land, but demand-
ing, as a right, to be put in possession
of land which the law makes his own
upon certain conditions. The Board
sit there judicially, simply to decide
whether the requisite conditions are
fulfilled, and to record the sale; and
there can be no doubt that any person
who is wrongfully prevented from
occupying land as a pastoral settler
or as a freehold purchaser has an
action against the Board for de-
priving him of his rights. I believe
this state of the law to be immeasurably
the greatest boon which has been con-
ferred upon a colonial community: it
places at once the most absolute bar
to all unfairness or land jobbing, be-
cause no man can be deprived of his
right to land not already sold or re-
served, and which he has once applied
for. I feel assured that you, gentle-
men, will preserve for the people this
great right which they have now
acquired, and that you will agree with
me in thinking that this principle can-
not be too clearly enunciated.

In case an action is brought against
the Board, I have been asked to give a
general guarantee of indemnity. I
have of course declined to do so. The
only funds out of which I could give
such an indemnity are at your disposal,
not at mine; and I could not take on
myself to depart from a rule you have
already laid down, and the wisdom of
which seems to me indisputable, namely
that officers of government who incur
legal expenses through their own
faults, must bear the loss themselves.

But I do not mean to say that the
Board should be compelled to pay all
the costs of actions in which they may
become involved by mistakes honestly
made, after all due care on their part
to do what is right. I simply assert
that the Superintendent can give them
no general guarantee, but that in every
case of the kind it will become your
duty to decide whether you will depart
from the general rule you have laid
down for the guidance of myself and
my successors, and will order such
costs to be paid. I shall leave it to