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Capt. Smith moved, agreeably to his notice, seconded by the Colonial Treasurer, the following resolution :-

That in the opinion of this Council, the want of a Lighthouse to render the entrance of Port Nicholson more easily distinguishable, has been a main cause of the Shipwrecks that have taken place in the neighbourhood of the Port, and that it is of the utmost importance to the security of the shipping, the prosperity of commerce, and the preservation of human life, that a Lighthouse be immediately erected in such a situation in the vicinity of the harbour of Port Nicholson as to the Executive Government may seem most appropriate, and that it is most expedient that the proceeds of the extra duty imposed on Spirits (namely 1s. per gallon), which may be raised in the Port of Wellington be devoted for a period of eighteen months to the attainment of this desirable object.

Resolution adopted.

On the motion of the Colonial Treasurer, seconded by Col. M'Cleverty, the sum of £1400 placed on the Estimates for erection of Wellington Gaol, when Council resumed.

On the motion of the Colonial Secretary of New Munster, seconded by Mr. Cautley, the following Address to the Crown adopted:

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY,--

We, your Majesty's most loyal and dutiful subjects, the Members of the Legislative Council of New Zealand, in Council assembled, humbly solicit your Majesty's gracious attention to a matter of the highest importance to the prosperity of your Majesty's colony of New Zealand.

The subject we allude to is the disposal of your Majesty's demesne lands in these islands.

In transmitting to the Governor of New Zealand the Australian Waste Lands Act of 1842, your Majesty's then Secretary of State for the Colonies alluded with much truth and force to the “protracted discussions which had taken place respecting the settlement of waste lands in the Australian colonies; to the frequency with which the system had been changed, the complaints to which this mutability of purpose had given rise; to the experiments which in the gradual progress of experience may have been not imprudently hazarded, even though in the result such experiments were found to disappoint the hopes of their authors;— and to the accumulation, consequent upon all this, of a large body both of theoretical and practical knowledge of which it was then proposed to gather the fruits.” Lord Stanley then declared that “the bill in question had been passed into a law with scarcely a dissentient voice in either House of Parliament; that he had no reason to suppose that the general propriety of its provisions was disputed by any persons in this country to whose judgment on such topics any particular authority was due; and that he trusted he might with no unreasonable confidence anticipate important advantages from that enactment, both as respected the general interests of the empire at large and the local interests of the Australian provinces of the British Crown. He then particularizes one in especial of the benefits calculated to ensue in these words : “Of those advantages not the least important will be found in the guarantee at length given for stability and consistency of purpose in the administration of the land and the land revenues of the Crown in New Holland, and the adjacent islands. It is of course impossible that the system now established should be changed by any authority but that of Parliament. Her Majesty's Government have had no difficulty in advising the Queen thus to relinquish a power which experience has shown to be not unattended with the risk of immature and precipitate resolutions.”

In these sentiments we beg respectfully to assure your Majesty of our entire concurrence. In the hopes so reasonably excited in the breast of your Majesty's then Secretary of State, we believe the settlers of New Zealand fully participated, and looked forward with equal confidence to the advantages to be secured by the act in question. But it is with great regret we feel ourselves compelled to declare to your Majesty that the benefits, which the relinquishment by your Majesty of the power of administering the land and land revenues alluded to was calculated to produce, have not accrued to this colony; that the recurrence of the very evils pointed out by Lord Stanley, and to prevent which your Majesty so graciously resigned that power, has not been precluded; but that occasion has even been afforded thereby for the admission of other evils of even a graver character, not anticipated when the Australian Waste Lands Act was passed.

This unfavorable result of your Majesty's benevolent intentions is, in our opinion, to be attributed to the fact that Parliament has adopted the course of delegating the power relinquished by your Majesty to various bodies of your Majesty's subjects, who from many circumstances cannot be made sufficiently responsible for its exercise, and over whom it is difficult to establish the control necessary to secure the most beneficial administration of the funds it entrusts them with.

Now, the evils which actual experience has hitherto shown to be the result of this delegation of the power given to Parliament, consist in the virtual reproduction of the old vacillation and inconsistency in the disposal of the public land; of undue facilities for its acquisition existing in some parts of the country simultaneously with extreme and impolitic restrictions thereupon in other parts; of extensive and rapid fluctuations in the market value