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shall be compelled to resign the Government, leaving nothing of a permanent nature done in this matter. The system at present in operation is the very worst which can be adopted. It is a system of giving just enough assistance to paralyse all independent exertion, without giving enough to establish a thoroughly efficient system of education; and its worst feature is, that it offers no prospect of permanence, the salaries of the masters being dependent from year to year on the political views and sympathies of the party in power.

I have abandoned the hope that any general system will be adopted by this Council, and I am compelled to confess with much disappointment, that on this subject, which has always seemed to me of infinitely greater moment to the future welfare of the country than any other which you can consider, there is a feeling of lukewarmness and indifference, not so much in your Council, as amongst the people generally. Unsatisfactory as are the schools in many respects, the people have not availed themselves of them as they might have done, for in no respect are they more unsatisfactory than in the smallness of the number of children in attendance, in proportion to the sums expended by the Government.

A correspondence will be laid before you with the Bishop of Christchurch and the Presbyterian and Wesleyan Ministers, and the report of the Inspector of Schools will be in your hands.

There are however some things, gentlemen, which in the absence of a general law for providing Schools, I think we might effect in the present Session. The first is to set aside a Reserve of Land for every District, sufficient to support a good School, so soon as the land shall obtain its normal value. I do not think 500 acres for Lyttelton, a similar reserve for Christchurch, 300 for Kaiapoi, and 200 for every other district, would be too large a quantity. If you should approve of such a plan, I would proceed to make such reserves without delay, leaving the question as to how the proceeds of the lands were to be dealt with to a future occasion.

The next thing I would ask you to do is to make your vote for Education purposes for five years, instead of for one year. This will give a certain degree of permanence to the system which will have the best effect on the schools generally; and I think you might look to the Revenues being in a great measure relieved from the charge of education by the increase in value of the land endowments, at the end of that time. And the third thing is to sanction the payment of a fixed salary for that time to an Inspector of Schools. Without such an officer I am quite persuaded that the money you vote will be, comparatively speaking, wasted.

You will perceive that the Bishop of Christchurch would prefer the grant for Church Schools to be made in one sum, leaving it to his discretion to apportion it. I think this would be a good plan, but I would suggest at the same time whether it would not be wise to affix a condition to all grants for schools, that they should be made to depend on the sum raised by the inhabitants of the District. I do not know how else you can thoroughly enlist the co-operation of the inhabitants in the maintenance of the Schools, and without that co-operation, I am persuaded the money will be wasted.

Without adopting any general system of education, I should be very glad if one General school could be established in Christchurch, to which parents of all denominations could send their children, and another of the same kind in Lyttelton:—the clergy of the several denominations giving religious instructions to the children of their own congregations at specified times, either in a class room, or, what would be still better, in their Churches. You will see by the correspondence that all denominations would gladly agree to such a plan. To carry it out it will be necessary to build and furnish a school-room in Christchurch, a thing greatly needed, for one great drawback to both the Schools here, is the want of a sufficient schoolroom, and of proper school-room furniture. I think such a school, properly conducted, would do much towards preparing the public mind for some general system of Education in a future year.

I now turn to the immediate business of the present Session, and I am happy to inform you that your duties will be very light. The only bills to be laid before you on the part of the Government are two Bills of a local nature, involving no matters of principle. The one is for making Kaiapoi a town for certain purposes, the other is for making a road through Cathedral Square, and enabling the Government to recover possession of the centre plot of land by exchanging Waste Lands for it.

The principal items of discussion will be the Estimates for the year, and those especially showing the Extraordinary Expenditure. I am glad to be able to state that your revenues this year may be estimated at £28,000, which, with the loan of £30,000, will enable you to spend £58,000 in the course of the ensuing year.