17

us to make the total revenue of the province, for the
present financial year, very much exceed the Esti-
mates I laid before you last May. By calculating the
revenue of the present month at only an average of the
eleven preceding months, the total revenue for the cur-
rent financial year would be £16,062 12s. 4d., but this
does not include any portion of the customs revenue
collected at the Grey, and I have reason to be-
lieve that the revenue from all sources during the
present month will so much exceed the average of
the last eleven, that the total revenue for the year, if
3-16ths of the Grey customs should be received, will
be little, if any, short of £54,000; and although this
amount is less than has in former years been realised
by the sale of our landed estate alone, it shows our
province to be in a very much more sound financial
condition than it has ever appeared in before. Meet-
ing all its ordinary expenses by its ordinary revenue,
and having a large surplus to expend on public
works and permanent improvements, besides ex-
pending the sum of £5,200 in the education of its
rising population, and paying the first instalment to-
wards the liquidation of the debt that I think un-
wisely, contracted when a very large revenue was
being received from the sale of Crown lands.

13. The smallness of the revenue received for land
    during the year, may be partly attributed to a change
    in the members and policy of the Waste Lands Board,
    which has caused land to be assessed at a price that
    it will ultimately realise rather than at such a low
    figure as to insure, and, in the case of runholders, al-
    most to compel its immediate sale. A change which
    naturally decreases the present, but will be likely
    to increase or rather prolong the future income from
    our landed estate. The great demand for sur-
    veys and resurveys of land that has long since been
    paid for, and the expensive character of the necessary
    survey of what yet remains in the possession of the
    province, forbid me to lead you to expect that
    anything like a large nett revenue will ever again be
    obtained from this source, although, by a reversal
    of the present system of assessment, a temporary
    increase, could at any time be realised.

14. In December last year, I was advised by the
    Agent of the Union Bank of Australia, to issue de-
    bentures on the 1st of January in the present year,
    to the amount authorised under the Nelson Water
    Works Loan Act, and to forward them to Melbourne
    for sale. I have not yet heard of more than £1,700
    being sold in that colony, but some enquiry has been
    made for them in the City of Nelson, in consequence
    of which I have requested that £10,000 worth of the
    debentures should be returned here, and so confident
    do I feel that the sound and flourishing condition of
    this Province will soon be sufficiently evident to cause
    those debentures to be sought for, that I have ven-
    tured to send order to Melbourne for such portions
    of the plant as will be first required, hoping soon to
    have sufficient funds in hand to enable me to send to
    England for the remainder; but in any case I think
    it best to request to Melbourne for, as by com-
    mencing at the Port and coming up to the Brook-
    street stream, the pipes could be made sufficiently
    serviceable to at once repay interest of money, and
    be of much service to the shipping, even should the
    money not presently be found to complete the whole
    design. I have thought this course more desirable
    and even more prudent than paying interest on any
    unemployed money, until the whole should be re-
    ceived.

15. David Rough, Oswald Curtis, and W. C. Hodg-
    son, Esquires, have been appointed trustees under the
    eleventh section of the "Waterworks Loan Act," for
    the investment of all sums set apart as sinking fund,
    the liquidation of all sums set apart as sinking fund,
    authorised to be paid out of the province-
    cial revenue for the liquidation of the loan raised un-
    der the "Nelson Debentures Act, 1858," viz., two
    per cent. per annum, will be handed over to those
    gentlemen for investment.

16. The large number of steamers and other vessels
    attracted to the Grey by the gold-fields, has led to
    a great demand for the coal of that district, and
    caused its quality to be more generally known and
    appreciated; the result of which is that a
    company has been formed in Ballarat for working
    the coal upon an extensive scale, to which company
    a lease has been granted by the Waste Lands Board,
    particulars of which will be laid before you.

17. The Grey and the Buller coal have at length
    been tested at the Woolwich dockyard, and a copy of
    the report of the Chief Engineer in that establishment
    will be at once placed upon your table. There are
    many reasons for believing that the coal as it eventu-
    ally reached the Dockyard was hardly a fair sample,
    certainly not equal to what could now be sent from
    the Grey; yet Mr. Trickett, the Chief Engineer, re-
    ports, that "the evaporative power of this coal is
    about the average of that of the North of England
    coal as supplied to the service."

18. The boring on the West side of Mount Roch-
    fort, for the purpose of meeting the coal on the sea-
    ward side of that hill, was suddenly and without
    authority abandoned by the man who had been en-
    gaged in England as a borer, after a great deal of
    money had been spent upon it, and affording indica-
    tions which Mr. Burnett considered highly favorable.
    As a portion of the tools were left in the bore-hole
    and filled in with sand, it was considered impracti-
    cable to continue the same bore, and under all the
    circumstances I did not consider it desirable to com-
    mence a new one.

19. The settlers of the West Coast, both north and
    south of the Grey river, have erected at the Grey-
    month, by voluntary subscription, a building to be
    used as a hospital. Although the building has been
    erected in the Canterbury Province, I am informed
    that it is the intention of the managing committee
    to receive patients from both provinces, and subject
    to that condition, I have promised to recommend
    that this province should contribute a fair share to-
    wards the expense of the maintenance of the establish-
    ment.

It is my intention to place on the Estimates the
sum of £2,500 for the erection of a new hospital in
this city. My reasons for recommending this vote
were explained when I addressed the Council at the
commencement of last session. I have received some
assistance both not official, letters from
the Bishop of Nelson, upon the general question of
hospital management and support, and an indebted
to His Lordship for some generous offers of voluntary
assistance both towards building and maintenance. I
entirely agree that an institution such as an insti-
tution should at least partly be supported and super-
intended by voluntary efforts, and it would afford me
much pleasure to see a more general interest taken
in the welfare of an institution so adapted to alleviate
the distress of our suffering fellow-colonists.

20. In consequence of the great deficiency of meat
    to supply the demand of our large additional popula-
    tion, particularly on the West Coast, I found it ne-
    cessary to permit the importation of cattle from Aus-
    tralia, and a proclamation was issued for that pur-
    pose on the 31st day of October last. The island
    known as the "Rabbit Island," has been proclaimed
    a quarantine ground for cattle, and I hope it will be
    found possible to prevent the introduction of disease
    amongst the herds of this province.