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I am prepared to communicate to you by message my views on the immediate establish- ment of a High School.

You are probably aware that acting under the discretion accorded to me by a resolution of your house, I lost no time in withdrawing assistance from Immigration, except in the case of females above ten years of age. The Emigration Agent is actively engaged in collecting outstanding debts, with a reasonable prospect of success, and he has been instructed to take instant legal measures to recover these—believed to be but few in number— who, unmindful of their obligations to the Government, have invested their earnings in land or stock; in such cases the Government will not hesitate to act in protection of the public property; but, in other cases, where sufficient cause for not promptly meeting the debt can be shown, an extension of time will be granted on renewed bonds, duly guaranteed. Undoubtedly unpopular, as this measure may be, it is a duty to put an effectual stop to a state of things which, by creating an indebtedness of the community to the State, has a tendency to undermine the purity of the Electoral Body, and to introduce an influence highly injurious to the prosperity of the Province.

To meet the requirements of the Survey Department, I shall ask you to continue your present heavy expenditure which may rather be defined an investment payable on the sale of surveyed land. You are aware that His Excellency the Governor has acceded to my request for additional and extended Hundreds: to the survey of these, the still available land in the old districts, and the laying out of roads already sanctioned by you, and now more than ever necessary, the duties of this department will be chiefly confined.

The reconstructed administration of the Department of Roads and Bridges only came into operation at a period when the season did not admit of a continuance of road making. The thoughtless have complained of the state of the roads during the past winter, but it was in vain to hope that unmetalled roads could stand the traffic continuously passed along them, and even if remedial measures had been practicable it should be remembered that labour was extremely scarce and exorbitantly high. It would not be difficult to expend in one year as much revenue, both actual and anticipative, as you would appropriate to this department, but I cannot recommend such a lavish expenditure as would cripple your future exertions, and probably throw upon a glutted market a large body of dissatisfied and disappointed labourers, allured by the prospect of continued employment, whose presence, while adding to our difficulties, would have an highly injurious effect on the condition of those immigrants whom we have from time to time invited to these shores on the express assurance that there was a reasonable prospect of obtaining remunerative wages. A blow struck in this quarter would be not only unwise and ungenerous, but subversive of the objects for which the settlement was founded. As soon as I receive your approval of the appropriations I shall suggest, I will proceed vigorously to carry out the works[.]

Question; in the mean time, to meet a pressing emergency, arising from the sudden and large influx of population, I have employed as many labourers as offered themselves, principally in the execution of those works which had already received your sanction. Our chief object will be to open out and simply make traversable as many communications as possible between the sea coast and the gold districts, directing our principal attention and expenditure to that main line which connects the centres of population throughout the Province while, at the same time, the funds derivable from all quarters, and in anticipation of our future resources, should be so judiciously and impartially administered that no district may have reason to complain that its communication with the nearest port has been neglected in order to foster the interests of a distant but more influential locality.

The demand for increased accommodation in Public Buildings and offices has been more than the Superintendent of that Department could overlook. I shall have to ask you for considerable sums on account of the Hospital, Gaol, Lunatic Asylum, Barracks, and other Buildings, the construction and enlargement of which are urgently required.

An extension of the Harbour Department has been absolutely necessary, and has been temporarily met. Communications have been received from the Chamber of Commerce and the Harbour Master, urging the erection of a Light House at the heads, and the establishment of signal stations at the months of the Taieri and Clutha Rivers to indicate the state of the bar; there is no doubt that both of these objects are of considerable importance, and should be undertaken at as early a period as circumstances will permit.

I am not in a position at present to make any definite communication on the subject of Inter-Colonial Steam Navigation, except that I have called for tenders for the performance of a monthly service with Melbourne. It is not improbable that, even with our increased steam communication, a small subsidy may be required from the Government. I shall ask you to early out former appropriations, and subsidize steamers for coastal navigation, and also for the Taieri and Clutha rivers.

Since I last met you, I have received the sanction of His Excellency the Governor to several Bills which I had reserved for the signification of His pleasure thereon; and among them the “Dunedin Church Lands Bill, 1861”—the assent to which I opposed for reasons which you will perceive in the letter which I will cause to be laid before you.

It was not my intention to submit any new Ordinances for your consideration during the present session, but the sudden influx of population, amounting to 12,000 after deductions, though of a most orderly and highly respectable character, has been accompanied as will ever be the case in similar circumstances, by a class of an entirely opposite description, whose sole object is to prey upon society.

In order to meet this emergency and nip the evil in the bud, I have had several Bills prepared which will arm the administrators of the law with powers equal to the occasion.

Though somewhat disheartened by repeated