[Inclosure.]
Waste Land Board Office,
Invercargill, 18th August, 1861.

Sir—I have the honour to request, by instruction from the Waste Land Board of Southland, that you will have the goodness to inform me what course of action is intended to be taken by your Government in the use of applications for land, Nos. 911 to 937—[total acreage, 18,657 A. 3 R.]—made during the interval of the Resolution of the Provincial Council of Otago to raise the price of land, and the assent thereto by the Governor’s proclamation; is being considered illegal by many of the applicants that payment should have been refused in their case at the rate of 10s. per acre.

I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
WALTER H. PEARSON,
Chief Commissioner.

His Honor the Superintendent of Southland.

RESOLUTION
Of Provincial Council, August 14, in reference to foregoing Message—

"That this Council recommended his Honor the Superintendent not to entertain any of those applications mentioned in his Message No. 1, of this date, at the rate of 10s. per acre."

THE EASTERN BOUNDARY.
The following is the Resolution in reference to this question passed by the Provincial Council on August 16—

Whereas the Province of Southland has much to the disappointment of the Provincial Council, been considerably curtailed, as regards the limits petitioned for, having at the present moment the Mataura River for its Eastern boundary; and

Whereas the district on the eastern bank of the Mataura is hemmed in at the back by a chain of Mountains running from the coast for about forty miles inland, passable, even for horsemen at two or three points only; and

Whereas the communication with Dunedin is consequently uncertain, tedious, and inconvenient; and

Whereas the estuary of the Mataura being difficult to enter and leave, the trade with it can at the present time be only prosecuted advantageously from some port in the neighbourhood, as the Bluff or Invercargill; and

Whereas its physical characteristics give the district east of the Mataura a community of commercial interests with the other parts of Southland, while it has little or none with Otago; and

Whereas there has been placed on the Estimates a sum for procuring a Steam Tug for Invercargill and the other ports which will still more closely connect the east side of the Mataura with this Province; and

Whereas petitions to the Governor and the two Houses of Assembly are now in course of signature by the inhabitants of that district, having for their object the political union with this Province of the said district east of the Mataura; and

Whereas a memorial from certain settlers in that part of said district extending to the Pomahaka, has been sent in, praying that a sum should be placed on the Estimates to assist in forming a road to connect their district with Invercargill, on the plea that their commercial interests are identical with those of the New Province:

It is resolved—That the members of the Provincial Council do request the members of Assembly for this Province to bring the matter before both Houses, and to use every endeavour to have the boundary altered as undermentioned—

Beginning on the Coast at Brothers Point, thence by a right line to Black Horn, thence by a right line passing through Bleak Hill to its point of intersection of the south-east boundary of Run 251, thence by the south-east boundary of Run 251 to the ‘Cairn’ at the source of the Kawera, thence by Kawera to its junction with Waipahi, thence by Waipahi to its point of intersection by the northern boundary of Run 131, thence by the northern boundary of Run 131 to the junction of Pukerau with Waikaka, thence northward by Waikaka to its fork, thence by the East Branch to Wendon Hill, thence by a right line to Black Umbrella, thence by a right line to White Umbrella, thence by a right line to Rocky Mount, thence by a right line to south end of Wakatipu Lake, thence by a right line to Eyre Peak, there joining the boundary of Southland as proclaimed in the New Zealand Gazette, 27th March 1861.

INSTRUCTIONS TO EMIGRATION AGENTS FOR THE PROVINCE OF SOUTHLAND IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.

1. Persons desirous of obtaining Assisted Passages to the Province of Southland in vessels under contract with the Provincial Government, may receive assistance on the following conditions—

(1.) Persons who shall produce to Emigration Agents satisfactory testi-