THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 50

Majesty for the public service. The Accounts for the last financial year,
and the Estimates for the current year, will be laid before you on an early
day. The Accounts of the Colony for the period from the 1st January
1853, to the 30th June 1856, have, as recommended by the Finance
Committee of last Session, been reconstructed upon principles which have
already received your approbation.

In conformity with the understanding when the Customs Duties Act
was passed, it is proposed to remedy such imperfections in the existing
Tariff as have been indicated by experience. These imperfections are,
I am able to state, less numerous than might reasonably have been
expected to occur on the introduction of an entirely new system of
collecting the duties on imports. A measure for the consolidation and
amendment of the Laws regulating the management of the Customs
will also be submitted for your consideration.

The great importance of an independent and efficient Audit of the
Public Accounts is beyond question, and a Bill will be proposed for
effecting this object.

HONORABLE GENTLEMEN, AND GENTLEMEN,—

The Electoral system of the Colony urgently requires revision.
A series of Bills will accordingly be laid before you, by which it is
proposed to provide for the periodical apportionment of the Represen-
tation, the improvement of the franchise—the reform of the mode
of Registration, —the impartial conduct of elections, —the determination
of controverted returns, and the prevention of bribery and corruption.
I am confident that measures framed for the purpose of placing the
Electoral Laws, as far as may be, above the effects of local jealousies
and party passions—of protecting electors in the honest discharge of their
public duty—and thus securing in their integrity the privileges and
liberties so justly valued by the colonists of this country, will receive
from you that attentive consideration which the importance of the subject
demands.

During the last year considerable evils, which I have greatly
deplored, have resulted from the inability of the Supreme Court (conse-
quent on the absence of one Judge, and the fatal illness of two others) to
provide for the efficient administration of the laws. These evils have for
the present been mitigated by the arrival of a Chief Justice and the
temporary appointment of another Judge, but it is obvious that a more
extended provision is now required to meet the present circumstances
of the Colony. The speedy and certain administration of Justice is the
most sacred duty of a Government, and I earnestly recommend to you
the consideration of measures for increasing the judicial strength
of the Supreme Court, and for the establishment of Local Courts of
inferior jurisdiction, so as to ensure throughout the Colony the
administration of Justice in a prompt and effective manner.

It has been felt to be a great hardship that the property in this
Colony of persons residing abroad cannot be made available for the
payment of their creditors, and that those who contract engagements
here can readily evade the fulfilment of them by continued absence from
the Country. Carefully considered Bills will be laid before you to remedy