powers, in certain cases, as are conferred on the other administering the Government of the Colony for the time being if invested in a third time and passed.

His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor desired the following reply to be subset to the resolutions of the Committee on Education:—

I have perused with much interest and attention the very able report and the resolutions based upon it, prepared by the sub-committees on Education, and adopted by the Executive Council of this Province, and I have endeavoured to give the best deliberation which the short time allowed since their receipts were laid upon the table has enabled me to bestow to a subject of such magnitude and importance. The considerations which have principally suggested themselves to me and to which I cannot but attach great weight, are the following:—

First. That a law is already in existence for the purpose of promoting Education, that Act has extended to the whole colony, and that it was framed and passed by a Legislature acting for the whole of New Zealand, without therefore attaching any undue degree of pertinacity to the Ordinance to which I refer, I think we ought not lightly or rashly to reverse any law of which the efficiency or its suitability to the circumstances of the colony had not been tested for found defective, and I venture to suggest that the Education Ordinance, Session 6, No. 10, has only been in existence for about a year and a half, that there has been as far as I am aware only one representation under it at Auckland, and that it deserves a more lengthened trial.

Second. Because when the time came for carrying the law into effect the Executive Council of the Province declined to concur in some appropriations being made in accordance with its provisions. It cannot therefore be asserted that the existing law is insufficient or unsuitable, because it has not been used. Whether the law embodies the best system which could be desired for the colony is another question, and one which involves so many and such important considerations, that I confess I am unwilling to express an opinion without giving the subject a much longer and more mature consideration than I have yet had the opportunity of bestowing upon it.

Secondly. Supposing the existing law to be found insufficient or defective, I think it should be shown that it could not be so amended as to remedy those defects without subjecting altogether as a whole the system which it establishes. In their third resolution the Council express an opinion that the present Education Ordinance, considered with reference to the European population, requires amendment, but their subsequent resolutions recommend the substitution of a different and totally opposite system from that embodied in that Ordinance. Where changes so great are proposed on so subject of such general interest and of such vital importance to the future welfare of the whole community, the more especially when that subject is one upon which opinion is still fluctuating and far from being settled, I venture to think that the subject should be left to the Legislature without giving the people an opportunity of expressing their opinion prior to the Council being called upon to alter the law.

It appears to me that under any circumstances it would be unwise to introduce a Bill to alter the existing law, so rashly at the close of the session, when there is not time responsible to ensure the most of public opinion, especially when the Bill itself under consideration be prepared, and when the Council would scarcely have sufficient time to consider and deliberate upon a question of such magnitude and importance, without unduly trespassing upon the time and attention of those honorable members whose valuable services for the public good have already been so much required.

It is true that the present system has been subject of repeated and most earnest discussion in other colonies and inconveniences, and which, after the ready and zealous manner in which they have already devoted themselves to the public service, I think the Government would be unjustified in calling them to.

I look upon Education as one of those general subjects upon which it is desirable that a uniformity of legislation should exist throughout the whole colony, and the more I consider that although it may be quite within the scope of the Provincial Council to legislate upon this subject, it is one which would be more appropriately considered and decided upon by the General Assembly.

For the above reasons, and others which it is unnecessary for me to enter upon at present, I regret that I do not feel myself justified in acceding to the request of the Legislative Council to introduce a Bill during the present session embodying the principles contained in the resolution adopted by the Council on the 11th instant. I am quite willing to admit the excellence of some of those suggestions, but I have again doubts as to the fitness of any measure inconsistent or founded upon them, would be suitable to the present state and circumstances of New Zealand, where the population is so scattered and the expense of carrying out the transportation would be so much greater than the revenue of the Province is likely to be able to meet for some years to come, even if no other difficulties (and I confess there appear to be many) existed; on the other hand, the principle of compulsory education involves, to Englishmen at least, too new and startling a