JUNE 20.]

THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE.

675

HONOURABLE GENTLEMEN OF THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, —

There will be laid before you for your consideration a number of Bills
dealing with matters of great public interest.

My Advisers are of opinion that the time has arrived when alterations should
be made in the constitution of the Legislative Council. They regard the present
mode of appointing members, and their appointment for life, as unsatisfactory, and
not in keeping with the rest of our Constitution. A Bill will therefore be submitted
for your consideration making alterations in these and other respects.

My Advisers are also of opinion that the time has come when the laws
regulating the election of members of the House of Representatives should be
reviewed and a new departure taken. A Bill will be submitted for your con-
sideration which will provide for a mode of election founded upon what is commonly
known as the Hare system. The Bill will also amend the qualification required
for electors, make new provision as to the mode of registration, and provide a
more effective means of purifying the rolls. My Advisers believe that these and the
other provisions which the Bill contains will render it possible for the public will
to be expressed by elections.

My Advisers believe that, until a measure classifying the Civil servants, and
providing for their promotion and remuneration upon defined principles, shall have
been passed into law, the Civil Service can never be placed upon a proper footing.
They also believe that this question is intimately connected with the economical
carrying-on of all public departments, and they have therefore prepared a Bill dealing
with the whole question.

A subject which has been found difficult to deal with in all countries—that of
the management of hospitals and the distribution of charitable aid—has engaged
much public attention throughout the colony. A Bill has been prepared in accor-
dance with what my Advisers believe to be the principles which have been found
by experience to insure relief of deserving persons, and at the same time to avoid
the danger of increasing the evil which is incident to indiscriminate aid. Your
careful and patient consideration will be asked for this difficult subject.

My Advisers have had the property-tax under their earnest consideration.
While the state of the colony's finances renders it impossible to forego any consider-
able part of the revenue derivable from this tax, they recognise that some of the
provisions of the Property Assessment Acts ought to be amended, with a view to
removing objections which experience has shown can reasonably be made to them.
There will therefore be submitted to you a Bill dealing with this important matter.

Among other measures there will be presented to you for consideration Bills
dealing with the law of copyright in New Zealand; for consolidating and amending
the law relating to patents and trade-marks; for regulating the registration of
medical practitioners, and constituting a Medical Council; for improving the mode
of registering transfers of personal property; and for consolidating and amending the
law of bankruptcy.

I commend all these matters to your careful consideration, and I assure you of
my earnest desire to co-operate with you in your efforts to promote the welfare and
prosperity of the colony; and I pray that your labours may, by the blessing of God,
conduce to the well-being and the happiness of its inhabitants.

By Authority: GEORGE DIDSBURY, Government Printer, Wellington.