NELSON GOVERNMENT GAZETTE. 39

to the administration of the Superintendent of Marlborough
or of Nelson, while sales of land would, as in the Wangapeka
case, be valid or invalid as they might prove to be on either
side of the border.

On the subject of the forcible resistance offered by the
miners to the survey of the sold land, ordered by the Com-
missioner of Crown Lands in the performance of his ordinary
duties, I shall only say that by that ill-advised action a great
injury has been inflicted upon this province, and a greater still
upon the miners themselves, by the long and wearisome delay
which it occasioned in the settlement of the dispute. At that
time a proclamation declaring the Wangapeka a goldfield
had been prepared and would have been issued immediately
upon the survey being completed, while, in the meantime,
miners\' rights were issued, so that those persons who had
taken up the ground could have held possession unless and
until the purchasers could show a better title, and this, after
a delay of nearly six months, entailing discouragement and loss
to the whole province, and especially to the miners themselves,
is the position of affairs at this moment.

5. Another amendment in the Land Act, to which your sanction
   will be asked, is the repeal of the provision made in section
   70 for the sale of auriferous land by auction, together with
   some minor alterations in the preceding part of the same
   section.

6. Your attention will also be called to the desirability of
   empowering the Waste Lands Board to issue licenses for cutting
   flax on Crown lands on payment of a small fee per acre. In
   order to make this regulation operative within goldfields,
   where the want of it is perhaps more particularly felt, the
   assent of the Assembly will also be required to an amendment
   in the 48th section of the Goldfields Act, 1866.

7. A bill consolidating the various Country Roads Acts,
   and including some amendments agreed upon by the late
   Council, has been prepared. I am, however, advised that the
   4th clause of \"The Provincial Acts Validation Act Con-
   tinuance Act, 1869,\" will not authorise the Provincial Legis-
   lature to re-enact the clauses which establish Courts of Appeal,
   and that some further legislation by the General Assembly
   will be necessary before the bill now referred to can have legal
   effect. In the meantime, I think it will be advisable that you
   should pass the bill with such amendments as you consider
   necessary, and I will endeavor to obtain the required sanction
   of the Assembly during the approaching session.

8. A short Bill amending the 17th section of the Waterworks
   Act, which requires that a fixed rate should be levied and paid
   annually without reference to the amount actually required
   for the payment of interest upon the loan and the expense of
   maintaining the works, will be among the few measures sub-
   mitted to you.

As I found that the high rate fixed by the Act was greatly
restricting the use of the water, and thereby, to no small
extent, defeating its own object, while it was felt to be a heavy
burden in a time of general depression, I felt assured that I
should be only anticipating your wishes by making such a
reduction in the rate as could be safely ventured upon without
waiting for the correction of what seems to have been an
oversight in the Act. The same result could have been
arrived at by reducing the assessed value of the rated pro-
perty, but I thought the reduction of the rate was the most
straightforward way of meeting the difficulty, and therefore
the best.

I am glad to be able to inform you that the collections
under the decreased rate are rapidly approaching the sum
realised under the higher one, while the usefulness of the
water-supply is greatly extended by the reduction.

In the collection of the rate also I have ventured to deviate
from the letter of the Act, which requires that the rate should
be paid annually. Finding that this provision would be
productive of much inconvenience, I authorised the collection
in quarterly payments, and propose that an amendment to
that effect be made in the Act.

9. A long correspondence on the subject of the Nelson, Cobden,
   and Westport Railway will be laid upon your table. Nego-
   tiations, which for a considerable time promised to be produc-
   tive of a successful result, have, as you will observe with
   regret, been abruptly broken off; but I learn from private
   sources that the scheme is becoming better understood in

London, and is looked upon with much more favor by capi-
talists than it was in the first instance. The modifications in
the Act of 1868 which were proposed by Colonel Maude,
namely, the extension of the area the selection of land as
far north as the Mokihinui, and the grant of a block of land
in payment of the expenses incurred in the formation of a com-
pany appearing to me to be reasonable, I introduced a bill
giving the Superintendent the necessary powers to concede them
into the House of Representatives, which ultimately received the
assent of the Legislature.

I think the terms we have offered are now at least quite
sufficiently liberal, and I do not consider that the Province
would be justified in granting any further material con-
cession.

The Colonial Government having kindly offered the
assistance of the New Zealand Commissioners now in England
to assist in removing any obstacles which may exist in
carrying out this important work, which is perhaps rather of
a Colonial than of a Provincial character, I gladly accepted
the proffered assistance. The Government has further
intimated the possibility of including the Nelson and Cobden
line in a general scheme of railways for the colony, which it
appears is now under their consideration.

10. On the assent of the Governor being given to the Floating
    Dock Act, passed in the last session of the Council, I inserted
    an advertisement in some of the leading New Zealand and
    Australian newspapers, inviting proposals for the construc-
    tion of a Dry Dock, Patent Slip, or Floating Dock at the
    Port of Nelson. The definite proposal I have received
    is for the erection of a small Patent slip, under conditions
    to which I have agreed, as you will see from the correspon-
    dence on the subject. It therefore only remains for the
    projectors to carry their scheme into execution, which I
    trust they will be prepared to do without delay.

11. The increased and increasing number of patients requiring
    treatment for lunacy has necessitated the enlargement of
    the very inconvenient and unsatisfactory building at present
    in use as an Asylum. I can nevertheless only look upon
    these arrangements as of a temporary character, and trust
    that before long the Colonial Government will see the
    necessity of establishing a Central Lunatic Asylum, in which
    patients from all parts of the Colony could be treated in a
    manner conducive to their recovery as well as their safe
    custody, which I fear can scarcely be said of any of the
    Provincial Asylums now in existence. Should you agree
    with me in this view, a resolution to that effect forwarded
    to the Colonial Government would have much weight, and
    might, not improbably, induce them to take action in this
    important matter during the coming session of the General
    Assembly.

I should perhaps remind you that I am authorised by
\"The Lunatic Asylum Act, 1862,\" to support the sum of £5000,
of \"The Public Debts Act, 1867,\" to borrow a sum of £5000,
for the purpose of erecting a suitable building, but I refrain
from acting upon it, on account of the inefficiency of small
asylums, as well as of the large annual expense which the
maintenance of such an establishment would involve.

12. The scarcity of water upon many parts of the goldfields of
    the colony, and the consequent unproductiveness of much
    ground that would otherwise be profitably worked, is exciting
    an equal interest in the gold-producing districts. The
    large expenditure required to lead a sufficient body of water
    to supply the wants of a district over perhaps twenty or
    thirty miles of rough country, and the uncertainty
    of an adequate return, have hitherto proved a bar to the con-
    struction of aqueducts of sufficient magnitude to be of general
    public utility, and the interference of Government, either by
    the construction of such works at the public expense, or by
    guaranteeing a moderate rate of interest upon private capital
    employed upon them, appears to be urgently required. From
    the former course this province at all events is debarred by the
    want of funds for the purpose, and from the latter all the
    provinces alike are prohibited by the \"Public Debts Act,

During the last session of the General Assembly a committee
of the House of Representatives was appointed to consider and
report upon this question, but owing to delay in the arrival of
required information from the Australian Colonies, the com-