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number of Government schools has increased from 140 to 154, and the number of teachers from 219 to 266. The attendance of pupils has increased from 11,451 to 13,681.

The annual report of the Education Department, which will be laid on your table, embodies much interesting information, and many important suggestions, which I shall be glad to see given effect to.

There are a number of other Bills to be introduced by the Government, for the most part of a technical character, and to which I need not now further advert.

I understand that your assent will be asked to several important Bills, having for their object the construction and working of Branch Railways by public companies by means of their own capital.

I hail such enterprises as being of the utmost importance, and as demanding every encouragement at the hands of the Legislature, seeing that the State is not itself in a position to undertake them.

In all such Bills due care should be taken to provide that the Railway may be acquired upon fair terms by the Government at any time, should it be deemed expedient, and also that the Government should have the power to regulate the charges and running of the line, so as to guard against extortion on the one hand, and secure the public convenience on the other.

During the past year the Executive Government has devoted much of its attention to the proper working and organisation of the Railway Department—a Department which is gradually developing itself into one of the most important in the State—and upon the efficient administration of which both the safety and comfort of the public very much depend.

I need scarcely point out how important it is, at the commencement of our Railway organisation, that there may be established, through all its ramifications, the most perfect order and system.

In the attainment of this end, the Government is much indebted to the valuable advice and assistance of the Railway Manager, Mr. W. Conyers, whose services, I regret to say, we are about to lose.

Last Session you voted a sum of money as the salary of a Mining Surveyor; I accordingly placed myself in communication with the Government of Victoria with the view of obtaining an experienced man for the office.

It was found, however, that the sum voted was insufficient to secure for one year the services of Mr. G. H. F. Ulrich, Consulting Mining Geologist of Victoria, the gentleman who was recommended.

Under the circumstances, therefore, it was deemed advisable to employ Mr. Ulrich to the extent to which the amount voted would go.

His Report, from which, it is to be hoped, much benefit may result, will be placed before you. It would, I feel assured, be a great boon to the Province could Mr. Ulrich be induced to settle here, in connection with a School of Mines, for the establishment of which it is intended to solicit your approval this Session.

I am sure you will agree with me in regretting the loss which the Province has sustained by the death of Mr. John Auld, one of the earliest and most enthusiastic promoters of the settlement of Otago, a man of high character and standing, who has been of vast service to the Province in various ways, and whom it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

Mr. Auld's death, there is reason to fear, was brought about in the service of the Province, being the result of an accident which befell him when personally inspecting the arrangements for the late shipments of Salmon Ova.

The question of a successor to Mr. Auld in the British Agency of the Province will be submitted to you.

Last year I suggested that an Asylum should be established for inebriates, and that incurable lunatics should be removed from Dunedin to the country; also, that provision should be made for the custody and reformation of children apart from the Industrial School. Small votes were passed by you for these several objects.

Although nothing has yet been done in these directions, the Government has not lost sight of them. The difficulty has been the acquisition of a suitable locality within a short distance from Dunedin by rail, where a sufficient area of land might be had, so as to render the Institutions self-supporting.