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of the amount to be raised by loan, and to allow a more comprehensive appropriation of the money to the opening of the Coal Field, wherever it may prove most advantageous. There has not yet been time for a reply to this application. In the meanwhile, the whole subject will naturally receive your closest attention.

7. The sum voted for plans and estimates of a proposed railway to the Wairoa Bridge has been expended, and the Report and plans of Mr. FitzGibbon, the engineer of the Dun Mountain Company, will be placed in your hands. These documents will be of great use in considering the larger enterprises which I have just brought under your notice.

8. The General Government has issued a circular inviting the Provincial Governments to join in the construction of an Electric Telegraph throughout this Island. The advantages to Commerce, to the administration of justice, and to affairs generally, both public and private, which this instrument will afford, are to be had at such a comparatively trifling cost, and the proposals of the General Government are so equitable, that I think you will be able readily to accede to them.

9. In connection with any large expenditure for Public Works, it will be right to consider the subject of Immigration. Here we have an opportunity of doing something to supply a shortcoming, with which I think we are chargeable as a community, in reference to our distressed fellow-countrymen at home, my attention has been particularly directed to this matter by a letter from a Society, now being formed, in England to assist emigration to the British Colonies, from which it appears that the general want of employment in the spinning and weaving trades, is compelling many of the artizans to endeavor to leave the mother country. When the Estimates are laid before you, you will find a proposal to devote a sum of £5,000 to Immigration, a portion of which may be applied to assisting necessitous persons of this class to settle among us. Holding as I do the opinion that the Waste Lands of the Colonies are not the private estate of the first settlers, but a trust for the whole British nation, I would gladly see a part of them devoted to this purpose, if any plan can be devised by which moderate grants can be made to deserving and distressed people from the manufacturing districts, who are suffering from political convulsions, or changes in the course of trade and fashion. I think you will agree with me that it is our sacred duty, and should be our pride, to exert ourselves actively and judiciously to help our countrymen, whose patience and self-respect under protracted and grievous privation have won the admiration of the whole civilised world.

10. A Bill to Amend the Education Act has been drafted by your own instructions and will be introduced at once. With one important feature, namely, that which would authorise the raising of extra local rates by the householders of any District where it is desired to increase the scanty salary of the teacher in the Public School, I cordially agree; and acting on a request made to me by the Central Board of Education, I propose to ask an extra vote for Education this Session, that more adequate remuneration, which the state of markets and of wages in other occupations loudly calls for, may not be delayed until the Bill can be made law and put into operation.

11. A Bill to prevent the spread of Scab among Sheep has been drawn, and, as it embodies the experience of some of the largest and most successful flockowners in the Province, I have little doubt it will receive your careful attention.

12. The Waste Lands Regulations Amendment Bill of your last Session, after passing without serious alteration through the House of Representatives, was rejected by the Legislative Council. Any Bill affecting Crown Land is necessarily very long in becoming law, and as the meeting of the General Assembly is probably distant, in order to take advantage of the latest experience, I propose to defer the subject till your next Session, which will be summoned early enough to enable you to consider the matter before the Assembly meets again.

13. You will be asked to vote a large sum this year for the amendment of and the Surveys, and the establishment of Trigonometrical Stations throughout the country, by which means errors of any magnitude will be prevented in future. Most of you must have personal knowledge how urgently this work is needed, and the large funds available this year encourage us to deal promptly with a growing evil.

14. You will also be asked to legislate for the purpose of obtaining funds for supplying this town with water. The propositions to be laid before you for this purpose, will be based on enquiries made by yourselves in a former Session, and on the assent of a large part of those interested in the matter.

Gentlemen, I now leave you to your deliberations, and declare this Council open for the despatch of business.

J. P. ROBINSON,
Superintendent.

PRINTED BY R. LUCAS, BRIDGE STREET, NELSON.