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A Bill will be submitted to you for the purpose of introducing certain amendments, which further experience has shown to be necessary in "The Educational Ordinance, 1871."

You will be gratified to learn that the country has largely availed itself of the provision made by you under that Ordinance for the erection of new schools, no less than eighteen new districts having been formed since the month of September last. Liberal as your votes were for this purpose, I find it necessary, at the instance of the Board of Education, to recommend further appropriations during your present Session.

I shall again ask your consideration of a Bill for vesting the Educational Reserves in the Board of Education.

In accordance with the resolution passed by you last Session, recommending the reservation of 100,000 acres of pastoral country for the purposes of a School of Technical Science, you will be asked to consider the specific reserves which you may deem it advisable to make.

The proposal is one the desirableness of which is, I think, open to grave doubts. As I am advised, the legal rights of the pastoral tenants would absolutely cease on the reservation of land held by them; and without express sanction of law it would not, I think, be proper to deal with reserves made for educational purposes otherwise than so as to promote to the utmost the objects of the trust. As I understand the resolution forwarded by you to me, you consider, and I think rightly, that the pastoral tenant would not be fairly dealt with if action were taken to destroy his tenure, and allow of competition in respect of grazing rights during the term of his holding; and you propose, so soon as the land is Crown-granted to the Province, to make legal provision against such a course. Before you were enabled to deal with the land by Ordinance, a period might elapse during which there would be no law to prevent that being done which you would consider unfair to the present holder, and it would be open for that to be done which might be detrimental to the settlement of the country. Much land that is not now considered available for settlement may become so by greater facilities of communication and other circumstances. Already the discovery of considerable seams of coal in various parts of the Province leads us to hope that further industries may shortly be developed, and greater inducement for settlement may be created. The whole question, in all its bearings, will no doubt have your most careful attention.

The high price that has been commanded by wool in the English market, the absence of speculation, and the steady prosecution of the existing industries of the country, have brought about a period of sound prosperity in the Province, which is a subject for great congratulation. A natural consequence has been a considerable increase of the revenue derived from the sales of waste lands. Since the 1st October, the commencement of the financial year, they have amounted to nearly £45,000, a sum considerably in excess of what was anticipated as the amount for the whole year. Under these circumstances, I shall recommend to you several appropriations in addition to those made by "The Appropriation Ordinance" of January last.

Among others, I am of opinion that, having in view the increased traffic which will be brought over the railway into the harbour of Lyttelton, it is desirable that further jetty accommodation should be provided, to facilitate the export of grain and other produce.

I shall propose to you to appropriate a subsidy towards making a water race to bring a stream from the Pareora or the Opihi River to the town of Timaru. This work, if successfully executed, will be productive of advantages beyond those of a water supply to the inhabitants of the Borough.

I shall also ask you to vote a further sum towards the completion of the main roads to Akaroa, including a portion not hitherto open through the Taï Tapu district.