House can only state that it recognises the
practical utility of many of them. It must
at the same time add, that as to a large pro-
portion of those measures, it is of opinion
that they involve questions of policy of such
magnitude that they ought to be submitted
to a Session of the General Assembly with
ample time before it for deliberation, and then
only by a Government enjoying the confi-
dence of the Legislature, and responsible to
it for the proper administration of whatever
Measures may be adopted.

But that which appears to this House to be
its most urgent and imperative duty, is to pro-
vide supplies for the public service-a matter
to which it would be its anxious wish to de-
vote its first and most careful attention.

Whilst the House thankfully acknowledges
the desire expressed by your Excellency to
give effect to the principle of Ministerial Res-
ponsibility in the conduct of Legislative and
Executive affairs, fit cannot refrain from ex-
pressing its regret that your Excellency
should have deemed yourself to be in such a
position as to be unable to concede its imme-
diate and complete establishment.

During the necessary interval which must
elapse before this object can be attained, this
House ventures to submit to your Excellency
its deliberate judgment, that such a partial
application of the principle as is proposed by
your Excellency will fail in its object, and
be attended with detriment to the public ser-
vice.

A mixed Executive as now constituted,
composed in part of irresponsible Officers and
in part of members drawn from a small mi-
nority of this House-a minority constructed
on a delusive theory of representation of
Provincial interests, is a form of Government
in which the House declares its absolute
want of confidence.

During the interval of suspense which we
fear is inevitable before the establishment of
Ministerial Responsibility, this House reluc-
tantly expresses its opinion that the Executive
Government of the Colony should be conti-
nued, as formerly, under the exclusive ma-
nagement of those public Officers who at pre-
sent derive their authority from, and are
responsible to Her Majesty.

This House has already conveyed to your
Excellency its opinion as to the expediency
of such a change; but as a choice of evils, it
deems it best to submit for a short space of
time to that alternative.

This House is ready to grant supplies to a
Government conducted by the old Executive
Officers, and it humbly prays your Excellency
to lay before it the necessary Estimates at the
earliest possible moment.

Further, this House begs to assure your
Excellency that it will devote the small space
of time during which it is possible for Mem-
bers to remain together, to the work of for-
warding such Legislative Measures as are of
the most urgent importance, and as can be
passed through the requisite stages within
the allotted time; and under the pressure of
existing circumstances, it will by all means
in its power facilitate the passage of such
public business.

(Signed) CHARLES CLIFFORD,
Speaker.

House of Representatives,
New Zealand, 1st Sept. 1854.

MESSAGE No. 4.

On the 2nd instant, the Officer administering
the Government, received an address from the
House of Representatives in answer to the Speech
with which he opened the second Session of the
General Assembly.

In order that no time might be lost in obtain-
ing for the people of New Zealand, the establish-
ment, by competent authority of Ministerial
Responsibility in the conduct of the Government,
the Officer Administering the Government ful-
filled without delay his promise given to the
House, and urgently pressed the subject upon the
consideration of Her Majesty's Government, and
at the same time, expressed his own earnest hope
that the wishes of the Assembly might have re-
ceived Her Majesty's gracious approval; and
that he might, ere long, have the pleasing task of
conveying to the inhabitants of these Islands, the
gratifying intelligence that the boon has been
conceded by the Crown and Parliament.

In the meantime, and with a view to secure
for the people of New Zealand, the practical
acknowledgement of the principle of Ministerial
Responsibility in the conduct of the Government,
the Officer Administering the Government, added
to the Executive Council some Members having
seats in the Assembly with the twofold object of
strengthening the General Government, and of
securing a due representation of the various Pro-
vinces in the Executive Government of the
Colony; and he laid before the Assembly in his
opening Address, the course of policy which the
Government thus constituted were prepared to
pursue.

The Officer administering the Government
learns with regret that these Measures which he
believed to be calculated to give contentment to
Her Majesty's subjects in the Colony, have not
received the approval of the House of Represen-
tatives.

Looking to the inconveniences suffered by the
greater number of the Members of the Assembly,
from an already protracted absence from their
homes, the Officer administering the Government
cannot expect that the House should be willing
to prolong their attendance, so far as to be able to
effect to any general course of policy which
might now be submitted for their adoption. He has
deemed it expedient, therefore, to propose that
the business of the Session should be confined to
the appropriation of the Public Revenues, and to
the passing of a few Measures of immediate prac-
tical importance not likely to lead to lengthened
discussion.

The Officer administering the Government, will
cause to be immediately laid before the house, a
carefully prepared statement of the financial con-
dition of the Colony, accompanied by an Appro-
priation Bill, and by an explanatory minute. The
public accounts have been made up to the 1st
July last, and it will appear from the statement
in question that there was on that day a clear
available balance of cash in the Colonial Chest of
£50,081 (Fifty thousand and eighty-one pounds.)

The Constitution Act provides, as the House is
aware, for the distribution of the surplus Land
Revenue, and of the surplus of the Revenue to