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ported from the Public Works Ordinance of 1855 being deemed by His Excellency's advisers to be beyond the powers of the Provincial Legislature. The disallowance of this Ordinance, which continued the action of the Public Works Ordinance, leaves the latter in full force and operation; and as the district meetings were summoned under its provisions, no inconvenience will arise in the collection or expenditure of the rates leviable. It is, however, my intention during the recess, to ascertain more particularly the clauses of the Roads and Bridges Ordinance which may be deemed to come under the doubtful restrictions of the 19th section of the Constitution Act, and at the commencement of the next session to lay before you another bill for the same purpose, which shall be free from such objections, and render valid all proceedings which shall have been taken under the disallowed Ordinance.

The Deeds Registration Ordinance legalises the present practice of the Register Office in New Plymouth, and amends some of the inconvenient regulations of the Colonial Ordinance.

Under the provisions of the Education Commission Ordinance, I have appointed a Board of five gentlemen, (in whose ability for the proper discharge of the duties they have undertaken I have the fullest confidence,) to enquire into and consider the system of Education best adapted for the Province.

In connection with the subject of Education, may be mentioned the "Public Reserves Ordinance, 1857." You are probably aware that it was the desire of my predecessor to contract the boundaries of the Town (a desire concurred in by a large majority of the Council), and for this purpose he applied to the General Government to suspend the sale of town lands until the selected sections outside the projected new boundaries could be exchanged for land within them. In this application, however, he was unsuccessful; but the passing of the Waste Lands Act in 1854 gave to the Province an opportunity of recommending to the Governor its own land regulations. Advantage was taken of this power to reserve for educational objects the unsold town lands, parks, and belt, equal to about 280 acres, to be vested in the Superintendent under the "Public Reserves Act 1854," of the General Assembly. This Act gives to the Provincial Legislature authority to change the specific purposes for which reserves shall have been made, and this is now proposed to exercise by the Ordinance you have passed. The supposition that it was ever contemplated to apply to the one sole purpose of education all the lands reserved by the 18th clause of the Regulations can hardly be seriously entertained, when it is considered that in this reserve are included the present Court House and Gaol, the Superintendent's residence, and numerous town sections required for satisfying outstanding claims and for roads which are absolutely necessary, and have been in use for years. Had such been the intention, it would have been necessary to re-purchase all these lands from the Commissioners who may hereafter be appointed to administer the educational reserves, at a cost which the revenue of the Province could not well defray, so that we should be reduced to the necessity of incurring a heavy debt or levying a tax for the purchase of lands which were, in point of fact, reserved from sale that they might be available for the purposes I have named.

The Public Reserves Ordinance will place these lands at your disposal at your next sitting, and I rely with confidence on you to apply them judiciously to the various objects for which they were retained in the hands of the Government.

The Crown Grants Endorsement Bill was laid before you in order to remedy a defect in the title to lands sold for non-payment of rates leviable in respect of public works.

The Slaughter House, Dog Registration, and Licensing Amendment Ordinances are provisions for public convenience, health, and comfort.

The Custody of Crown Grants Bill was abandoned, as the object was subsequently more conveniently provided for in the Deeds Registration Ordinance.

The Town Sales Annulling Bill was abandoned, because the passing of it, after the almost unanimous refusal of the Council to sanction the accumulation of rates proposed in the Public Works Amendment Bill, would in many cases have left the Government without any means of recovering the rate.

I have now only to notice the Fencing Bill, which received the anxious attention of the Government, as a measure of practical utility on this subject is most urgently needed; but the different requirements of the lands in the several districts, and in their various stages of cultivation, render the framing of a system for the just apportionment of the liabilities, a matter of no ordinary difficulty and anxiety. I trust, however, that the next session will not close without some practical measure being adopted by you.

Acting upon a Resolution of the Council.