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their labours having been suddenly brought to an end (by proceedings to which it is unnecessary to refer) before the inquiry was half completed, the only result was, to strengthen the impression of the House of Representatives, that the past expenditure had not been in accordance either with Sir George Grey’s regulations, or with the Constitution Act.

3. After repeated applications for an adjustment of the accounts between the General Government and this Province, I at length received your despatch of the 22nd January, 1855; in which you stated that the Sub-Treasurer had been authorized to pay into the Provincial chest the sum of six thousand seven hundred and ninety eight pounds, fourteen shillings, and eightpence, being the amount due to the Province of Wellington on account of the surplus revenues of the nine months ended the 30th June, 1854; but in your subsequent despatch of the 8th March, 1855, you informed me that, in consequence of the large expenditure on the purchase of Native Lands during the present year, His Excellency had countermanded his previous instructions, and ordered the Sub-Treasurer not to pay any portion of the debt due to this Province, and which ought to have been liquidated nine months before.

4. In reply to my letter of the 5th December, 1854, asking for further information on one or two points connected with His Excellency’s financial arrangements, you intimate, amongst other things (in your despatch of the 18th January, 1855), that the Land Account has been adjusted in accordance with the Constitution Act; but when I request you to favor me with a statement of the account so adjusted, you inform me (in your despatch dated 22nd March, 1855) that the Land Accounts have not been finally adjusted.

5. From returns which have been furnished me by the Crown Commissioner at Wellington, of the Revenue and Expenditure of the Wellington Land Fund, from the 29th March, 1853, to 31st March, 1855, it appears that the total land revenue for that period amounted to £40,871 4s. 6d.; that of this amount there was paid for Native Land purchases £19,996 11s., and to the Provincial Government the sum of £1,825 16s. 3d. Now, bearing in mind that the cost of extinguishing the native titles is by the Constitution Act a first charge upon the land revenue of the whole colony, and looking to the amount of Land Revenue distributed to the Provincial Governments of other Provinces, I submit that these returns afford the most conclusive evidence not only that the land accounts have not been adjusted in accordance with the Constitution Act, but also that this Province has been hitherto most unjustly deprived of a very large portion of its revenue.

6. In the meantime, the Provincial Government, relying upon the assurance of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, that the accounts had been adjusted in accordance with the Constitution Act, and that the debt of six thousand seven hundred and ninety eight pounds fourteen shillings and eightpence due to them for nearly a year past would be paid, have contracted obligations which otherwise they would not have been justified in incurring.

Under these circumstances I venture, most respectfully, but most earnestly, to request that His Excellency will be pleased to inform me whether it is the intention of His Excellency’s Government to pay the debt due to this Province on the 30th of last June, and if so, within what period. I have, &c.

(Signed) I. E. FEATHERSTON,
Superintendent.

The Hon. the Colonial Secretary.

Colonial Secretary’s Office, Auckland,
9th July, 1855.

Sir,—I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Honor’s letter of the 26th ultimo, calling attention to the “very unsatisfactory state of the financial relations at present existing” between the General and Provincial Government of the Province of Wellington, and in reply, I am directed by His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government to make the following remarks:—

Your Honor in recapitulating certain facts connected with this subject states, that under the late Governor’s arrangements the accounts between the General and Provincial Governments were to have been adjusted at the end of each quarter, but that these regulations have been wholly disregarded, and that, up to the present time, the General Government has not furnished any statement of accounts intelligible to any one of the Provinces.

The regulations here alluded to, direct when the accounts of the Revenue of each quarter reach the Treasurer of New Zealand, a final account would be made out, showing the gross Revenue