very considerably in excess of their estimate. This circumstance affords an additional pleasing illustration of the prosperity of the Province.

The most important business to which I shall invite your attention during this short session is the provision of means for the prosecution of Public Works now in progress, as also of those additional works which I shall recommend as being immediately necessary to the extension of our commerce, and the opening up of new districts for settlement. You will be gratified to learn that our financial condition is equal to the execution of public works to a much greater extent than could be advantageously entertained with the labour now available. And after a large expenditure on rapid immigration, I calculate on such a balance remaining in the Treasury as will permit of the immediate employment of all immigrants whose services on their arrival may not be required in the ordinary avocations of the Province.

The correspondence which has passed between the Provincial Government and the Inspector of the Union Bank of Australia relative to the Loan authorised by an Ordinance of the Provincial Council, Session VII, No. 3, will be laid before you, from which you will gather that it has been expedient to cancel the debentures printed in Canterbury and substitute another form prepared at the suggestion of the Inspector of the Union Bank of Australia, in conference with Mr. Fitz Gerald, the accredited Agent of the Province. The new forms having arrived are in course of completion. Arrangements have, as you will ascertain, been made to prevent any inconvenience or delay interfering with the operations of the Emigration Agent on his arrival in England. Meanwhile, it is a source of satisfaction to me to acquaint you that Mr. Selfe, a gentleman to whom we are much indebted for his many disinterested good offices, has provided for our immediate exigencies by the despatch of the Roehampton, with a considerable number of useful emigrants, whose arrival may be looked for during the ensuing month. On referring to the accounts of the Canterbury Association's Estate you will find that,

in accordance with a resolution of the Provincial Council, I have directed a further payment in liquidation of the capital sum due to the members of the late Canterbury Association.

The ordinary expenditure of the Province, so far as I can at present judge will be only very slightly in excess of that the present financial year, and only to such an extent as is absolutely necessary to maintain the enlarged operations of Government.

On the estimates for public works, you will perceive, among the larger items, a considerable sum suggested for expenditure on the improvements of our principal Port, improvements that are indispensable to the transaction of our very considerable commerce. Another for the erection of a bridge across the main branch of the river Waimakiriri, and a work of the greatest public utility. I also propose to ask your sanction for the employment of a considerable sum for providing access to the several large pastoral districts recently discovered—in laying out and improving the great trunk roads, North and South—the improvement of the River Heathcote—the establishment of a thorough system of arterial drainage—the extension of inter-provincial postal communication—and the encouragement of steam navigation. You will be diligently furnished with every information as to the nature and cost, and the necessity for, each of these undertakings, which I doubt not you will cordially assist me to effectively carry out.

Before you enter on the business of this, your first session, I would state that I am by no means insensible to the inconvenience that must result to many gentlemen of your number by reason of your being called at this season of the year. During the progress of your duties, I believe you will discover the expediency of the step I have taken. I trust that during all the period of my association with you in the conduct of the Government of this Province there may subsist the same good understanding and mutual self respect that so happily characterized the intercourse of the late Superintendent and Council, and that, like them, we may, at the close of our public labours leave lasting evidence of united earnestness and integrity in the discharge of our respective functions.

It is now my duty to declare this Council duly opened for the despatch of business.

WILLIAM SEFTON MOORHOUSE,
Superintendent.