and weighed, in as far as I could, the diverse interests and prejudices which were to be consulted; finally, with a full sense of the deep responsibility which rested on me in attempting to introduce Representative Institutions throughout the whole of a Colony so peculiarly circumstanced as New Zealand is, with so large a native population, I caused a measure to be prepared, which was the best that my experience suggested to me; and although I have no doubt that many of its details may be beneficially amended, I have not yet been able myself to devise, nor have I had presented to me, any plan which I can regard as so applicable to the circumstances of the Colony as that which I shall submit for your consideration.

I am glad to have it in my power to state in reference to the General Council for the whole of these Islands, that I understand that her Majesty's Government will, in the present session of Parliament, bring forward a measure for the creation of such a Council; and there can, I think, be no doubt but if any subordinate measure for the constitution of Provincial Councils which you may pass should be found faulty, either in its general principles, or in its details, full power will be given to the General Council to amend and modify such a measure in any manner that it may think fit.

I recommend to your earliest consideration the draft of a measure I have had prepared to amend the existing law which regulates marriages in the colony of New Zealand. The present law is not satisfactory to the members of a considerable number of congregations, and after frequent conferences with the leading members of such congregations, so that I might thoroughly acquaint myself with their feelings and wishes, I directed that the bill which I shall lay upon the table should be drawn for your consideration. I have every reason to believe that the measure now proposed would be received as, in all respects, a most wise and satisfactory one by all classes of her Majesty's subjects.

Representations having been made to me from various parts of New Zealand, and especially from the Provincial Legislative Council of New Munster, to the effect that the substitution of a fixed system of levying Customs duties, in lieu of the ad valorem duties at present levied, would prove a great advantage at once to trade and to the revenue, I have caused a bill in relation to this subject to be prepared for your consideration.

This measure is altogether based upon the Report upon Customs duties which was drawn up by a Committee of the Legislative Council of this Province, and which was found to have been so ably and carefully prepared, that it was thought better to lay it before this Council exactly in the form in which it came from the Committee who drew it up.

By an Ordinance which was passed in the year 1848, the Legislature vested in me, as Governor-in-Chief, the sole control of the Post Office establishment in these colonies, as also the power of fixing, altering, and abolishing the rates of colonial postage. It was at that time, I believe, the intention of the Legislature that, so soon as I had established a postal system which was found in practice advantageous to the country and satisfactory to the public, a new law should be enacted providing for the continuance and maintenance of the system which I might so establish.

I will cause to be laid on the table copies of the proclamations which I have issued for the regulation of Post Offices, and for fixing the rates of colonial postage; and it will then rest with you to determine whether you will leave for some time longer in operation the existing Postage Ordinance, for the purpose of enabling me, in conjunction with the Right Honorable the Postmaster-General, fully to carry out a postal system by which letters may be prepaid in New Zealand to any part of Great Britain, or in that country to any part of New Zealand; or whether you will enact a new law upon this subject, confirming the present system of postal arrangements, or establishing some other system which may appear to you more likely to promote the interests of the colony.

In order that in coming to a decision upon this subject you may be put in possession of the latest information regarding it, copies will be laid upon the table of a correspondence between the Postmaster-General and the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, from which you will find that the question of the amelioration of the postal arrangements between Great Britain and her colonial possessions is at the present time receiving the anxious consideration of the Home Government.

I have been directed by Her Majesty's Government to propose for your consideration a bill for taking a census of the inhabitants of the New Zealand Islands, in the course of the present year.

It was intended in the year 1851 to take a census of the population of the whole British Empire, and I feel satisfied that you will, in so far as depends upon you, afford every assistance towards the accomplishment of an object of such great national interest. Some difficulties will probably be experienced in obtaining an approximately correct census of the native population of these Islands; but I rely upon your knowledge and experience for suggesting the best mode of accomplishing this object, in so far as it may be found practicable to do so.