20

months must elapse before their investigations will be
accomplished.

14. Mr. Travers having lately made a journey,
    accompanied, on the part of the Government, by Mr.
    Maling, of the Surrey Office, to endeavour to find a
    pass from Lake Tennyson to the Grey country, and
    having succeeded in finding one into what in all pro-
    bability is a valley down which a tributary of the
    Grey river flows, the Government immediately de-
    spatched Mr. Lewis and Mr. Maling to endeavour to
    place beyond all doubt the interesting point left un-
    decided by Mr. Travers. If, as is to be hoped and
    expected, this route be found to lead into the Grey
    country, and to continue as open and easy as Mr.
    Travers describes that part he visited, it will be most
    desirable to improve it into a complete bridle-track as
    soon as possible. A sum will be placed on the Esti-
    mates for your approval to effect this object, in case
    of a favourable result to Mr. Lewis's exploration.

15. To complete, then, the bridle-road connecting
    the Nelson districts proper with Golden Bay and the
    gold fields; and the middle road connecting Nelson
    with Canterbury; to open a similar line of road by
    Mr. Mackay's route to the west, or some possible im-
    provement of it, to the Buller and the Grey districts,
    and by Mr. Travers's route on the east to the Grey
    District; these are the great works for extending and
    improving our means of communication with the out-
    lying portions of the province, which I would earnestly
    recommend to your attention. And another work
    which I may class in importance with these, will be
    the formation of a dray-road reported practicable by
    the Provincial Secretary and the Provincial Engineer,
    connecting the Amuri district with a shipping place at
    Gore Bay, through which, it is hoped, the exports and
    imports of that valuable district will flow in future,
    instead of the distant coast town of Kaipoi. Instruc-
    tions have been given for the laying out of a township
    at Gore Bay, and a vote for the road and for moorings
    to be laid down in the Bay will be placed on the Esti-
    mates.

16. A very small amount of legislation will be pro-
    posed to you by Government during this session. I
    have always been averse to the practice of unnecessary
    legislation, and of loading our statute books with
    enactments that run any chance of being found super-
    fluous. The most important subjects on which some
    legislation may be requisite, have been taken out of
    your hands and entrusted to the General Assembly.
    On some of those you legislated last session, but as
    they affected the Crown Lands, your enactments, hav-
    ing been reserved by me for His Excellency's opinion
    thereon, were disallowed. These Acts were, The
    Land for Compensation Act, 1859, the Naval and Mi-
    litary Settlers Act, 1859, and The Compensation for
    Roads Act, 1859. All these are still required. But
    the subject of the first has been so frequently brought
    under your notice and occupied so much of your
    time, and the justice of the claim it refers to has been
    so generally recognised, that I regret the necessity
    should still exist of my bringing it again before you.
    It would be useless for you again to legislate upon it;
    but I would recommend a preparation by the Coun-
    cil of a memorial to His Excellency, praying that this
    Act, and the Naval and Military Settlers Act, or
    others embodying the same provisions, may be laid
    before the General Assembly for their adoption.

17. Bills will be submitted to you for the protection
    of Bridle Roads, and the Licensing of Drivers of Ve-
    hicles plying for hire. There is another subject on
    which you may usefully legislate. In order to give
    every assistance and encouragement to the praise-
    worthy efforts of a portion of the public to foster in

the community a knowledge of the use of the rifle, as
a means of defence in case of need, I should advise
that a sum of £1,000 to begin with should be placed
on the estimates to be expended in the purchase of
rifles of the most approved kind, which should be lent
to the Volunteer Corps, on certain security being
given for their return, or payment of the prime cost, to
the Government. I would propose that an annual
public competition should take place for prizes for
the best rifle-shooting; such prizes to consist either
of these rifles, or others of a more superior make and
finish, but in all cases to be given only for the exhi-
bition of a certain defined degree of proficiency in the
use of the implement. It would be as well if these
arrangements, and the principle of the distribution of
the prizes, were embodied in a short Act, which
would ensure consistency in the proceedings, and
give greater confidence to the public in the proper
management of them.

18. In conclusion, gentlemen, you will allow me to
    allude to the encouraging prospects for the future of
    the province, even should its dismemberment, by the
    creation of Marlborough, be maintained. The quan-
    tity of chrome ore in the Dun Mountain, its having
    been found at the Croixelles, and the confidence of
    the persons most directly interested in their power
    of exporting it at a remunerative profit, lead us to
    hope that a considerable addition to our prosperity
    may be afforded thereby.

Another mineral of the very greatest value, with
respect to which every succeeding exploration con-
firms our anticipation that it will form one of the
staple productions of our province in peculiar, is coal.
The coal at Pakawau was pronounced by Dr. Hoch-
stetter the only true black coal he had seen in the
colony; and that from the Grey River, of which
samples have been lately forwarded, is said to be
superior to the Pakawau coal. Its position near the
mouth of the Grey, from the description received of
it, appears to afford every facility for working and ex-
porting it. If Mr. Burnett's report upon these
points be favourable, I shall ask you to enable me, by
voting a sum of money for the purpose, to send a
vessel with a party of miners to the Grey, to procure
a sufficient quantity of the coal to make its merits
thoroughly known and appreciated. With the steam
vessels constantly plying round the coasts of the co-
lony, and the ready market obviously existing for this
mineral, it will be somewhat surprising if capitalists
be not speedily found to turn to account the pro-
mising indications above alluded to.

Lastly, the additional experience gained since
your last session strongly corroborates the opinion
that gold will be found more extensively distributed
through the province than was at first anticipated.
Its recent discovery in the Buller district, and also
in the Wangapeka district, in the neighbourhood of
that discovered some time since in the Baton river,
appears to afford conclusive evidence of the auriferous
character of the country intervening between the
northern and southern portions of the province; and
without in any degree wishing to excite any unwar-
rantable enthusiasm in reference to the paying quality
of the country referred to, it is quite within the
bounds of probability, that to great time will elapse
ere the improved methods now in operation amongst
some of the most successful diggers at the Aorere
gold fields will be brought to bear upon the districts
alluded to, and result in proving their value as a labour
field and means of subsistence for a large population.

I now declare this Council open for the despatch
of business.

J. P. ROBINSON,
Superintendent.