46

interior districts, and the great facilities
which will be afforded by them, when completed, to settlers intending to locate there.
In Captain Russell’s last report, that officer
informs me that about 30 chains of unfinished
side cutting in the Horokiwi valley, and
about ten more chains near Duck creek,
are the only obstacles now existing to the
passage of a dray from Wellington to Rangitikei, and these it is expected will be removed, and the road opened, during the
next three months.

On the Wairarapa road, also, the most
vigorous exertions have been made during
the summer months, and great progress been
effected. I hope, therefore, if nothing unforeseen occurs to interfere with a renewal
in the spring of those active measures which
have necessarily been suspended during the
winter months, that in the course of the ensuing summer the Horokiwi line will be
fully metalled and completed, and that of
the Wairarapa cleared and levelled quite
into the valley, so as to be open for carts,
and in a state sufficiently advanced to hold
out the prospect of its final completion during the succeeding summer.

Another important line of road is also
shortly about to be commenced, for the purpose of connecting the Waitohe with the
Wairau, by means of which, when completed, a short and easy access will be open
from the extensive and already occupied
plains of the latter to a good and convenient
port at the former.

In examining the returns which will be
laid before you, you cannot fail to notice, as
a subject of sincere congratulation, the very
small amount of crime committed in the
Province as compared with its population,
small even as compared with previous years;
for I find that, in 1844, the convictions before the Supreme Court were 19, in 1847
they were only 11, and in 1848 only 10. I
refer to this more particularly now from the
recent occurrence of the crime of murder,
an offence which is occasionally committed
in every country, though happily most rare
in this; whilst the immediate detection and
speedy punishment of the criminal cannot
fail to have a salutary effect, and tend to
deter others from such crimes in future.

Startling, therefore, as the interruption to
our ordinary quietude has been in the in-
stance I allude to, I see nothing in it beyond an occurrence which might and which
does take place occasionally everywhere;
there is nothing which ought to alarm or
deter intending emigrants from coming to
our shores; and indeed I believe that at this
moment there is no country in the world
where life and property are more secure than
they are in New Zealand.

It has been a matter of deep regret to me
that this Province has so long laboured un-
der a deficiency of Ministers of religion, and
of the means of Christian education. In
the Wellington district alone the European
population, exclusive of the military and
their families, numbers 4500 souls, of these
no less than 2500 have returned themselves
in the last census as belonging to the communion of the Church of England, and yet
to supply the spiritual wants of these 2500
there has been, until recently, but a single
clergyman. I need hardly point out to you
the multifarious and onerous duties attaching to such a charge. To officiate at two
churches in the town more than a mile
apart, and two in the country, of which one
is five, and the other nine miles distant, and
each in a different direction, to attend the
hospital and jail, and to visit the poor and
afflicted, are some of the more apparent and
palpable of these duties,--others, and scarcely
less important ones, in connection with the
younger portion of the community, will readily
suggest themselves to you, and you
will at once perceive how utterly impossible
it was that one individual should discharge
them all, however active and zealous he
might be; and I believe the one individual
upon whom this fearful amount of respons-
bility was thrown, to have been most active
and zealous to the limits of physical capa-
bility. Lamentable, however, as this state
of things was, it was not the worst to which
the portion of the community I am speaking
of were liable, for the contingency of illness,
absence, or any of the many causes which
occur to interrupt the ordinary pursuits of
life, no provision was made, and it did so
happen, that on one occasion, for three successive Sabbaths there was not an officiating
clergyman of the Church of England in
Wellington; and for the whole of that period, therefore, more than one half of the
population of the principal settlement of New
Munster were deprived of all services or
ministrations of religion whatever.

To obviate, if possible, the recurrence of
any similar contingency, and at least to
secure for the public institutions that re-
ligious attendance which every Government
is bound to provide, I have appointed a Colonial
Chaplain; and it affords me much
pleasure to be able to state that, in consequence of such appointment, an additional
clergyman will for the future always be stationed in the district.

Intimately associated with the subject of
religion, and second only to it in importance,
is that of education, an object for
which as yet even less provision has been
made in the Province, and more especially
in this portion of it, than for religion. I
would earnestly commend both these subjects
to your most serious consideration, as in-
volving interests of the highest importance
to the future welfare of the Province, and