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The correspondence between the General and Provincial Governments, relative to the proclamation of additional Hundreds, will be laid before you, and through it you will be informed that his Excellency the Governor has declined for the present to give effect to the resolutions passed by your House during its last Session. Further resolutions on this subject will be presented by the Government for your approval.

It is of importance that I should direct your attention to the contract which has been entered into, on behalf of the General Government, for a Panama mail service. I will cause a copy of this contract to be laid upon the table of the House, in order that you may consider its provisions and principles, and their bearing upon the interests of the country.

It affords me much pleasure to inform you that there is every probability of the Industrial Exhibition, for which this Council granted a liberal vote at its last Session, being carried out to a successful issue. The building which is to be temporarily used for the purpose is advancing rapidly towards completion, and I have received assurances from various parts of the Colony that the several Provinces will give the undertaking their hearty support.

The Estimates which will be presented to you have been prepared with much care, after a minute investigation of the probable sources of revenue, and with reference to the requirements of the Public Service; and I have to recommend them to your best consideration and deliberate judgment.

Several measures will be submitted to you by the Government, the most important of which are:—

1. Roads Bill.
2. Road Lines Bill.
3. Municipal Council Bill.
4. Education Bill.
5. Education Reserves Bill.
6. Criminals Bill.
7. Medical Practitioners’ Bill.
8. Cemeteries Bill.
9. Ferries Bill.
10. Cattle Bill.
11. Bush Fires Bill.
12. Licensing Bill.
13. Superintendent’s Indemnity Bill.
14. Hawkers’ Bill.
15. Appropriation Bill.

The following Bills will be also introduced as amendments to existing Ordinances, viz.:—

1. Turnpikes Ordinance Amendment Bill.
2. Police Regulations Ordinance Amendment Bill.
3. Kerosene and Paraffine Oil Ordinance Amendment Bill.
4. Dunedin Building Ordinance Amendment Bill.

I cannot close this address without referring to the death of the late Mr. Crawford, one of our Provincial Agents in Great Britain. This gentleman died in Edinburgh on the 17th day of November last. I feel assured that you will join me in an expression of sympathy with his family, and of regret for the loss of one who has faithfully served the Province during a period of many years.

The late Mr. Crawford having been appointed to his office by Ordinance of the Provincial Council, you will be invited to unite with the Government in adopting such steps as may be rendered necessary by his decease.

I now committ the work of the Session to your hands, with the fullest confidence in your earnest desire to promote the secure advancement and best interests of the Province; and my sincere prayer is that the Almighty Ruler of the Universe may direct and prosper all your consultations,—that all things may be so ordered and settled, by your endeavours, upon the best and surest foundation,—that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be established amongst us for all generations.

John Hyde Harris.

Superintendent.

REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT.

We rejoice with your Honor that the evidences of improvement which are everywhere manifest, sufficiently indicate the sound progress made by the Province during the past year.

We regret that the state of the money market, together with other causes, mentioned by your Honor, has so far interfered with the sale of our Debentures in London. We fully appreciate the importance of this question, and the serious character of the embarrassment which may be caused should they continue unsold, and Public Works be in consequence suspended. We coincide, however, with your Honor in the confidence you express in the thorough soundness and stability of the Province, and have no doubt, that the temporary financial difficulties with which it is threatened may be averted by prompt and decisive action. We shall join with your Honor in devoting our earnest consideration to this end.

We concur with your Honor in the propriety of maturely considering the mode in which future loans for public purposes may be most advantageously raised. The suggestions made by your Honor shall have our careful attention, in order that a suitable system may be adopted for future operations, and the Provincial Loans be based upon principles financially and politically sound.

The reports of the various Commissions appointed by your Honor shall receive our mature consideration.

The resolutions on Railways based on the report of the Commission on Roads and their construction, shall, when submitted to us receive the attention which the importance of the subject demands.

We join with your Honor in the satisfaction expressed at the extension of Road communication effected during the past year; and are glad to find that in a few months an unbroken line will exist between Dunedin and Queenstown, thus opening up communication between the chief city and some of the most valuable Gold-fields of the Province.

When the estimates are laid before us, we will direct our attention to the various portions specially mentioned by your Honor, and will give to the whole our most careful consideration.

We hear with pleasure of the valuable additions made during the recess to our Geographical knowledge of the western portions of the Province, and regret that the character of the entrance to Martin’s Bay and of the surrounding country, do not in your Honor’s opinion justify any immediate steps being taken to encourage settlement in that direction.

We join with your Honor in the confidence expressed in the future of the Gold-fields of the Province, and in the belief, that they will for many years to come, prove a source of remunerative employment for thousands of its population.

The new Land Regulations, and especially those portions of them referred to by your Honor, shall have our full consideration.

We shall also be prepared to give due attention to such Resolutions respecting the Proclamation of additional Hundreds, as may be laid before us.

We fully appreciate the importance of a Panama Mail Service to New Zealand, and shall be prepared to give to any papers on the subject, which your Honor may lay before us, our careful consideration.

We join with your Honor in the hope that the Industrial Exhibition may be carried out to a successful issue, and we rejoice to hear that the several Provinces are likely to give the undertaking their hearty support.

The various Bills which will be submitted to us shall meet with mature deliberation.