as being, in fact, the very point upon which the character and conduct of the rising generation will so materially depend. Not only do religion and education constitute the means of developing, fostering, and raising the physical, intellectual, and moral capabilities of man—of fitly preparing him for the duties and trials of life,—of teaching him to become a good subject, a good citizen, and a good member of the family circle, but they are also the barriers, and the only barriers, which interpose between him and the commission of crime; and it has been well observed, therefore, that "there is no evil which may not be feared from ignorance, and no good which may not be expected from a well educated community."

Another question to which I would invite your attention (and it is one of vital importance to the prosperity and progress of the Province) is that of emigration; with peace and tranquillity reigning around us, with the necessaries of life in abundance, and at moderate prices, with large tracts of fine and fertile country waiting only to be occupied, and with a climate which may vie in healthiness with the most salubrious in the world, there is yet one great drawback to our prosperity—one, until removed, insuperable bar to our onward progress; we have no emigration. The natural result of this is, that labour, and more especially skilled labour, is both exorbitantly dear and difficult to be obtained, and the best energies of the settlers are cramped and restricted by an inability to carry out improvements, or extend their operations. In other colonies, and in the Northern Province of this colony, the proceeds of the sales of land constitute a fund from which the means of promoting emigration are provided, but in this Province, owing to the peculiar arrangements which exist in reference to the demesne lands, no lands are sold in the Province, and no such fund exists. I, of course, exclude from consideration in these remarks the Otago district, where the New Zealand Company are still sending out emigrants; and I exclude also the prospective Canterbury settlement, not because an emigration in connection with those settlements will not be productive of indirect advantage to all the others, but because there is every probability that they may shortly be erected into separate Provinces; and I both think that each Province should have a distinct emigration fund of its own, and I believe that such a fund might be obtainable in all, if the usual facilities were afforded for the sale of land within the Provinces themselves.

I should be happy to find that you can make any recommendations or suggestions for remedying for the future the serious drawback upon the prosperity of the Province which I have pointed out, and I feel assured that the Directors of the New Zealand Company would attach great weight to any representations coming from such a quarter.

In connection with the subject of land, it will be my duty to lay before you copies of a correspondence which has taken place between the Local Government and the Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company in reference to providing funds to meet the necessary expenses of acquiring tracts of country from the natives, to enable that body to carry on its colonising operations; and I shall have to ask you to make such provision from the revenues of the Province for the purpose, or to take such other steps as you may think the exigencies of the case to require.

Of the principal laws which I propose to submit to your consideration during this session, an outline has already appeared in the Government Gazette; for I was desirous that the settlers should have the opportunity of considering and expressing their opinions, upon questions in which their interests were materially involved, prior to the provisions which it was proposed to introduce into the ordinances relating to those questions being brought forward for discussion and enactment in the Council. Every care has been taken in the preparation of the bills which will be laid before you, to adapt them, as far as possible, to the circumstances and wants of the Province;—but they may yet be capable of much improvement, and it will be your duty to supply such additions, or alterations as your practical experience and local knowledge may lead you to believe will render them more efficient or more generally useful.

Commending, then, to your best attention, the varied and important interests upon which you are called upon to deliberate, and confiding in your active and zealous discharge of the trust committed to you, I rely with confidence on you for advice and assistance; and I beg to assure you, on my part, of my earnest desire to co-operate with you in your efforts to promote the welfare, and advance the prosperity of the Province.

E. EYRE

Legislative Council Chamber,
Wellington, 1st May, 1849.

On the motion of Mr. Ludlam, it was ordered, that his Excellency’s address to the Council be printed.

His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor laid on the table a correspondence between the Local Government and the Principal Agent of the New Zealand Company.

On the motion of Mr. Ludlam, the correspondence was ordered to be printed.