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It may perhaps be well before indicating some of the measures intended to be submitted for your consideration, that I should explain the steps already taken to carry out your recommendations of last Session relating to Steam and Immigration. In referring to the arrangements made, shortly after the close of the Session by the Superintendent of Nelson and myself, with the Agents of Messrs. Willis & Co., by which the services of the steamer Nelson were secured, and Steam Communication established between the several settlements for at least a year, I merely do so in order to express my conviction, that although the results, from causes with which you are fully acquainted, have not been so satisfactory as we anticipated, yet that the amount of traffic in passengers and goods, already created, has so far exceeded the estimates of the most sanguine, as to render it extremely improbable that Steam will ever abandon our shores.

I hoped at one time that in opening the present Session, I should have had to congratulate you upon the establishment of Steam Communication not only between the several provinces, but also between Cook’s Strait and Australia, for during my recent visit at Auckland I had, in conjunction with the Superintendent of Nelson, so far arranged for the William Denny, to run between Wellington, Nelson, and Melbourne, that the agreement was actually engrossed ready for signature, when the inhabitants of Auckland, with a spirit of enterprise as creditable to themselves as it is worthy of our imitation, purchased the vessel; the disappointment need not, however, be of long duration, for the arrival of the Zingari, with its owner on board, will I trust, enable you to make arrangements far more advantageous than those proposed with regard to the William Denny. As far as I could ascertain the views of the owner of the Zingari, I believe I am justified in stating, that he would in consideration of a bonus of £6000 (of which the Superintendent of Nelson has already expressed his willingness to pay half) be prepared to place a steamer of ample tonnage and power between Cook’s Straits and Melbourne, and also to run the Zingari between Nelson, Wellington, and Canterbury.

If such be the satisfactory position in which we already stand in relation to steam communication, I can refer with feelings of equal satisfaction to what has been done in the way of internal communication. I am aware indeed that many complain that the Government have not pushed the roads as they ought to have done, but when it is borne in mind that the Government have not merely had to contend with the same scarcity of labour with which private individuals have often found themselves unable to cope,—a dearth of labour which has almost acted as a bar to contracts,—but that it has had to guard against the danger of raising wages to such an amount, as would have effectually put a stop to all the operations—whether agricultural or pastoral—of the settlers, I think that the fact of eleven miles of road having been made during the last twelve months, is a sufficient answer to any charges that can be urged against the Government on this point. It most assuredly renders it unnecessary for me to pay any tribute to the services of Mr. Roy, to whose indefatigable exertions and zeal the credit of having effected so much under such difficult and disheartening circumstances, is alone due. I doubt, indeed, whether in all the other Provinces so great an extent of road has been made during the same period.

Within the last few weeks contracts for more than a mile of the Rimutaka Road have been accepted; and at the present time some seventy natives are employed on it, so that should we be enabled to retain such a force for the next few months, there is every prospect, nay, a certainty, of the road being made passable for drays during the ensuing year, thus removing the great stumbling-block in the way of the Small Farm Settlements.

I am happy also to inform you that arrangements have been made, provided Native labour can be obtained for commencing operations on the Rangitikei and Wangaehu line on the 5th of next month.

With reference to Immigration, the results of the efforts of the Government are, that under the “Loan System,” explained in the published regulations, two hundred and sixty-one persons have been sent for from England, and under the “Bounty System,” contracts have been made for the introduction of nearly three hundred from Port Phillip, an agent having been despatched to make a proper selection, and to ascertain to what extent Port Phillip may be relied upon as a market for the supply of labour. Judging, however, from the latest accounts of the sufferings and privations of the labouring class in Melbourne, there seems little doubt, that if steam communication be established, and the passage money advanced by way of loan, that almost any amount of population might be imported during the next twelve months. It is satisfactory also to know that already, without any assistance from Government, a tide of immigration has set in so steadily to this province, that the excess of immigrants over emigrants during the past year, amounted to four hundred and ninety-seven persons.

While I fully concur in your recommendation as to the expediency of increasing the number of the Members of this Council, I yet do not feel that I am in a position to carry it out during the present session, for it is not merely a question of the number of members, but of making a fair distribution of the representation. Now when you consider that in this Province, which is more or less settled throughout its whole extent, all claims to vote must be sent in to the Resident Magistrate, either at Wellington, the Hutt, or Wanganui, when you remember the imperfect state, or rather the utter absence, of postal communication, it must be evident to you, that the difficulties in the way of registering claims amount to a virtual disfranchisement of a very considerable portion of the population. I doubt myself whether the present Electoral Roll comprises two-thirds of those who really possess the elective franchise—to distribute the representation according to it would be a manifest injustice.

The course therefore I propose to adopt, is to ask you to fix by resolution, the number of members of which the Council shall consist; to determine the principle upon which the Representation is to be distributed—whether in proportion to the population, or to the number of electors; to determine within what period a fresh distribution shall be made; and also to lay before you a Bill making provision for taking the Census, and for affording facilities for the registration of claims to vote for members of the House of Representatives and of the Provincial Council.

I am aware that the proposal that the Government should undertake the formation of the Electoral Roll is an unusual one—but after the attempt made in the General Assembly, by certain parties, availing themselves of the notoriously imperfect state of the Electoral Roll in the Southern Provinces, to pass a Bill by which the Province of Auckland (the Electoral Roll of which from eight-tenths of its population being concentrated around Auckland within a radius of twenty miles was complete) would have been entitled to such an increase in the number of its members as would have virtually placed in the hands of its Representatives the entire Legislative power of the General Assembly—I submit that we are bound, in order to frustrate any future attempt to swamp the Southern Provinces, to make our Electoral Roll as perfect as possible.

I cannot dismiss the question of increasing the number of members without alluding to the fact that since this Council was opened, and the policy of the Government announced, there have been ten vacancies, and only one seat filled; I need not say how gratifying it has been to me to find that my fellow-settlers have by such repeated verdicts stamped their approval of my administration.

Whatever differences of opinion may exist on some of the topics upon which I have touched, there can be none upon one point. Unless some means can be discovered of converting the usual effects of causes into opposite events, all must admit that such a Constitution as has been granted to this colony, can only be made to produce its legitimate fruits, by being worked by an enlightened and educated community. If therefore there be one duty more incumbent upon us than another it is,