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portunate, and recourse in many cases has been had to the Courts of Law; and the result is, that the receipts within the period referred to, amounted to no more than 13½ per cent. of the sums due. Under the most favorable circumstances, then, and with the most earnest solicitation, our present advances would scarcely be repaid within four or five years. If, however, we continue our operations on the present system, the debt will increase to an alarming extent, and there will arise, from this state of indebtedness, a never ending conflict between the Government and the people of a most demoralising and destructive character, opening a pathway for the machinations of the political science, and sapping the very foundation of our political and moral existence. It is better that we should at once bear the whole expense of immigration than expose the Province to so fearful a calamity.

If, however, we are indisposed to adopt either of these plans, we have yet another, which has been tried, and has proved eminently successful elsewhere.

The disposal of the Waste Lands of the Province and the introduction of immigrants are best considered in connection with each other. Even the most lavish expenditure on account of immigration will be useless unless our land regulations are liberal and attractive, as we shall merely become the agency by which our neighbors will be supplied at our expense. It is expedient, therefore, that we should consider the system of encouraging immigration by free grants of land to immigrants paying their own passage from Britain, on conditions of residence, and with this view, I will submit to you at an early period of the session, a proposal for effecting this object.

As in all probability this is the last occasion, for a reason which I will immediately mention, on which I shall open your deliberations, I cannot resist the opportunity of most earnestly inviting your attention to the expediency, I might almost say necessity, of offering every possible facility for the acquisition of land by men of limited means, and the laboring classes, and of preventing, at all hazards, our best agricultural land, that on the sea-board and running up the valleys, from passing into the hands of speculators. I have given much and anxious thought to this subject, and the more I consider it, the stronger is my conviction that the future wellbeing of the Province depends, in a great measure, on our present decision as to the disposal of the lands in question. I should experience no difficulty whatever in finding purchasers for the whole of these lands at prices considerably above the upset; but the country instead of becoming the abode of men, would remain depasturing land for sheep. The proposed immigration scheme will give you people in exchange for land; and, should the state of the revenues demand supplies, it would not be difficult to extinguish by negotiation, the title to some of the interior runs, unfitted for agriculture, and to dispose of them by auction to the highest bidder, thus introducing a very valuable class of settlers on properties of a moderate extent. The inevitable tendency of our present system, arising principally, it is supposed, from a defect in the legal phraseology of the conditions of sale, is to press sorely on the class which it is our truest wisdom to welcome, and without which the country, as regards its rightful occupant, becomes a mere desert. Every colony is bidding high for immigrants—we have an ample supply of land of an attractive character for all classes desirous of residing on it; we are yet in a position to preserve it by judicious sales for its only legitimate use, and we may still avoid the condition of at least one of the neighboring Provinces, which has no agricultural land for sale, and, therefore, no attraction for emigrants to visit its shores.

It was with regret that I was compelled to withhold my recommendation from your request, which, at the close of last session I forwarded to His Excellency the Governor, that he would be pleased to dissolve this Council. I will not refer to the past; but simply assure you that should you still desire this dissolution, and will fix the period for its taking place after the Electoral Roll shall have been revised, I shall have much pleasure in forwarding it with the expression of my hearty concurrence.

I have, I fear, gentlemen, detained you too long—but I could not refrain from being explicit on subjects of such grave importance as those which will be brought before you, and which I am sure will receive at your hands that attention which the public interests committed to your care, so urgently require, especially at a period when passing events require peculiar circumspection, far-seeing liberality of sentiment, and unswerving adhesion to Constitutional rights and principles.

I now declare this Council open for the despatch of business.

J. RICHARDSON,
Superintendent.

REPLY TO THE OPENING ADDRESS OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT, 22nd APRIL, 1862.

WE, the members of the Provincial Council, desire to express to your Honor our satisfaction at the rapid progress made by the Colony since our last session, in the development of its commerce, the increase of its population, and the augmentation of its revenue; and to concur with your Honor in the opinion that its prosperity may now be considered established on a permanent and satisfactory basis, notwithstanding the temporary decrease in the amount of gold brought up by Escort.

We congratulate your Honor on the peace and good order which, notwithstanding isolated instances of crime, have been maintained in the community—a result mainly to be attributed to the successful augmentation of a vigorous and efficient Police.

We are glad to perceive that the subject of Education has received your Honor’s attention, and we will be prepared to give any suggestions which may be brought before us for the improvement of our Educational System, and the extension and increase of its advantages our most earnest consideration.

The provision for increased Hospital and Gaol accommodation, the Land Regulations, the introduction of immigrants, with the relations of the Provincial to the General Government, and the various other matters adverted to in your Honor’s address, shall receive our most careful attention; and we trust to be able to co-operate with your Honor in the preparation of such measures as shall be adapted to our altered circumstances, and be calculated to promote and consolidate the prosperity and well-being of the community.

At the close of last Session we expressed a want of confidence in your Honor’s present advisers, but from difficulties to which we will not now revert, there was no new Executive formed. We trust that your Honor will now be able to make such arrangements as shall give you an Executive possessing the confidence of the majority of this Council, so that the business of the Province may be conducted in a constitutional manner.

ALEX. RENNIE, Speaker.

Printed for the Provincial Government by DANIEL CAMPBELL, Dunedin, Otago, N.Z.