114

• tant fact to which we would draw your Excellen-
cy's attention is that the legislative measures
brought before this House by your Excellency's
late advisers, were of such a character that this
House would not have acceded to them, except
in full reliance upon the complete establish-
ment of Ministerial Responsibility by the retire-
ment of the present holders of office, when re-
quired, a reliance resting not only on published
and official documents, but on assurances given
to us by your Excellency's representatives in this
House that such would be the case.
an immediate change, and in accordance with
those pledges which we have referred to as
having been given in your Excellency's name,
we pray you not to interpose any obstacle in
the way of the accomplishment of so desirable an
object.

The necessity of such change has been made ap-
parent from the actual state of the various de-
partments of the Executive Government, and
the condition of public affairs as disclosed in
the course of the business of the Session.
There appears to be no systematic plan for
the management of Native affairs or for effecting
purchases of land from the Natives; the
Department of Finance is without order or ar-
rangement—nor, so far as we can learn, is there
any effectual check over public expenditure. The
Waste Lands Department requires thorough re-
organization; not merely from its defective state,
but in order to adapt it to recent changes. Com-
plaints are heard from many quarters of
the state of the Survey Department. There
is no effectual system of Public Audit, and
a difficulty is experienced in ascertaining
the real state of the public accounts. Owing to
this state of disorder and inefficiency, this
House cannot, at this moment ascertain
the true state of the Colony's outstanding
liabilities. The accounts laid before us shew
wide discrepancies between the actual condition
of the public finances and that stated in your
Excellency's opening address. Charges hitherto
unknown to the public have been hitherto in-
curred which threaten to absorb the larger part
of the territorial revenue of the Southern Pro-
vinces. Debentures on the public revenue are
stated to be outstanding, issued without authority
of law; claims on account of old debts, ex-
ceeding in the whole 100,000l., still hang
over the colony; a large mass of old land
claims remain unsettled, as it is alleged by
default of the Government, and little or no
progress has been made towards setting at rest
disputes arising out of old land grants which
it is feared may give rise to Native disturbances.

Not only is there difficulty in ascertaining the
extent of charges on the territorial revenue in
the form of land scrip; but the issue of land
scrip appears to be without any effectual check,
control, or limit. A large per centage of the
territorial revenue has been bargained away
to the Natives without legal authority; Public
Reserves have been improperly alienated; the
Native Reserves are without regulation by law.

To sum up the case, the whole organization
of Government has appeared to this House in a
state of weakness and disorder demanding strong
and immediate measures, both for restoring it to
healthy and vigorous action, and for adapting it
to the recent Constitutional changes.

Under existing circumstances the present offi-
cers of the Executive Government cannot, in the
judgment of this House continue to direct pub-
lic affairs so as to satisfy the colony or win the
confidence of the legislature. They have been
hitherto merely the instruments of a system of
arbitrary rule, nor can it be expected that officers
under whose management disorders and abuses
have grown up should be the ready and proper
instruments for correcting them.

Permit us to assure your Excellency in the
most earnest (though, we trust, not disrespectful)
language, that the interests of the colony demand

We, for our part, are ready to fulfil so much
of the engagement as belongs to us; we are
prepared to secure to the retiring officers suitable
pensions, and upon receiving your Excellency's
assurance in reply to this Address that those
gentlemen will no longer stand as an obstacle
in the way of the publie service, we will forth-
with pass through our House a measure for seou-
ring such pensions. That being done, the compact
made between your Excellency and this House
is one of which we ask the fulfilment.

Your Excellency will observe that in the fore-
going appeal this House has carefully guarded
itself against touching upon those controverted
questions between your Excellency and your late
advisers in this House, to which your Excellency's
message refers. We have studiously and inten-
tionally drawn that line which it appears to us
fitting on our part to observe.

The compact made by your Excellency with
this House is one distinct from all private
understandings and arrangements between your
Excellency and your individual ministers. Our
claim on your Excellency rests on no such
grounds. It rests on published and official doc-
uments, interpreted and explained to us openly
and publicly by your Excellency's responsible
advisers in this House, upon the faith of which
compact the whole business of legislation has
proceeded during this session.

In truth we do not think that matters of
personal controversy between your Excellency
and your Ministers ought to be brought before
this House as if for judicial decision or arbitra-
ment. This House is an unfit body to determine
such questions, whether as a court of honour, or
as a judicial tribunal. It has no means of ascer-
taining accurately the true facts. It can but
listen with deep pain to controverted statements
of fact on either side. To arbitrate, as your Ex-
cellency would seem to ask of this House, in
such a matter, is an office which we respectfully
decline; and we cannot but express our regret
that your Excellency should have been advised
to make such an appeal.

We venture thus unreservedly to address your
Excellency in reference to the terms of your
Excellency's Message, because it has been pub-
licly announced to us by Mr. E. G. Wakefield,
a member of this House, that that Message was
prepared and presented to this House under his
advice; that he alone is responsible for it, and that
he alone has been your Excellency's adviser in
this matter. We trust we may be pardoned under
these circumstances for expressing our sentiments
in reference to that Message in other language
than if it had been the spontaneous expression of
your Excellency's own mind, dictated by your
own unbiassed sentiments of honour and gene-
rosity.

Having thus ventured to submit to your Ex-
cellency arguments grounded on the consideration
of past and existing circumstances, we turn to
the future, appealing to your Excellency under
a deep and solemn conviction of the responsibility
which rests no less upon your Excellency than
upon ourselves under the present critical posi-
tion of the Colony. Dismissing all that has
past, we pray your Excellency to look at the
question as now standing on new ground, and
surrounded with new circumstances, and therefore
justifying new concessions. Will your Excel-
lency deem it wise to return to the original state