986 THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. [No. 48

our colony's credit stands pre-eminent in London, public and private indebtedness
diminishes relatively to our numbers, and the unemployed are proportionately fewer
than in almost any other civilised country. Figures collected at the ports of entry
and departure for the last five months show that the influx from Australia of men
in search of employment has for the present virtually ceased.

Once more I am enabled to state that the provision made last year for carrying
on the public service has proved much more than sufficient. The accounts will
show you both a gross and a net surplus of revenue over expenditure of a most
solid and gratifying kind.

Certain proposals will be laid before you, whose object will be to enable the
Government to carry on the absolutely needful work of settlement without either
impairing the colony's credit or laying intolerable burdens upon the taxpayer.

It appears to my Advisers that the time has arrived for the State to be no longer
satisfied with carrying on, as well as its finances permit, a certain share of the work
of colonisation. Some effort should now be made by which the Government,
without incurring dangerous obligations, may aid private enterprise to avail itself,
on reasonable terms, of the vast supplies of English capital the holders of which are
only awaiting openings for secure investment.

The scandalous mismanagement which led to the suspension of an important
company bearing the name of this colony has impressed upon my Advisers the
necessity for safeguarding shareholders and the public against loose methods of
company management. A measure will be introduced for this purpose.

You will be asked to take up an important work begun, but left unfinished, by
the late Parliament. I refer to the business of making the Native land laws simpler,
and the methods of acquiring Native land easier and speedier. In the opinion of
my Ministers the time has come when private dealings in Native land should
entirely cease, and when every title granted for such lands should be given directly
from the Government under the Land Transfer Act. I notice with pleasure that
the action of the validation law of last year promises to be as satisfactory to the
settlers on the East Coast as was the effect of the West Coast Settlement Act to
those on the opposite side of this Island. Still, my Advisers think that a fair share
of your time this session cannot be better devoted than to the Native-lands question. Exhaustive inquiries among the Maori race seem to show that the tribes
generally are ready and willing to co-operate in this matter.

Hand-in-hand with the steady acquisition of Native land must go the repurchase
of private lands for closer settlement. Three years ago my predecessor drew the
attention of the late Parliament to this. Since then the results of acquiring the
valuable Cheviot Estate and certain other smaller areas have been so entirely
successful as to lead my Advisers to ask you for further powers to enable them to
carry on the work with all needful vigour. To this end the Land for Settlements
Bill rejected last year will again be brought forward, with certain extensions and
improvements.

You will be pleased to learn that the process of settling the waste lands of the
Crown has gone on during the past year with unabated speed, and with genuinely
good results.

You will be asked also to pass into law measures for enabling the Agricultural
Department to effectually help and regulate the rapidly-growing dairy industry by a
system of grading and cool-storage. Other Bills, intended to be of practical use to
farmers and stockowners, will be laid before you.

The yield from our goldfields cannot be said to have increased during the past
year; yet, by improvements in appliances, as well as in the methods of treatment in
both alluvial and quartz mining, considerable areas have been worked successfully
which could not in former years have yielded profit.

A Bill will be laid before you which it is hoped will aid in attaching to the soil
the miners now spread over our gold-bearing country. If, by improving their
present unsatisfactory occupation tenures, they can be given an interest and stake
in the land, it is thought that the change will tend to the good at once of themselves, the mining districts, and the colony.

You will be afforded full opportunity to consider the liquor question. A Bill
will be brought in to consolidate and amend the licensing law, and simplify the