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From the report of the Provincial Engineer you will learn, that during the last two years about sixteen miles of road have been made, nearly six of which have been executed during the present year; and further, that contracts have been accepted for opening out more than two miles of the Rimutaka within the next three months. When you consider, that to repair the damages which all the public works sustained at the commencement of the year, it was necessary to expend large funds, and to stop all works then in progress, you must admit, that the extent of road made under such circumstances, is of itself ample proof of the invaluable services rendered by Mr. Roy.

Nor is the financial position of the Province less satisfactory. The Provincial Government, as you are well aware, was launched little more than two years ago, not only with an empty Treasury, but with considerable liabilities in the shape of existing contracts. During the period which has since elapsed, above £25,000 have been expended on public undertakings; and yet I meet you now with a balance in the chest of upwards of £15,000. And here permit me to tender, on the part of the inhabitants of the Province, my warm acknowledgments to Governor Browne, for having immediately, on assuming the administration of the Government, ordered the payment of the debt, (so far as it was ascertained,) which has been so long unjustly withheld, to the grave embarrassment of the Local Government, and to the still more serious detriment of the Province. The amount already paid is £13,000; but I apprehend, that when the accounts are finally adjusted, the Province will be found entitled to a considerable balance.

Believing that until the relations of the General and Provincial Governments have been definitively settled, or at any rate, until we know the results of the approaching Session of the General Assembly, it would be unwise in us, unnecessarily to increase our legislation, I propose submitting but few Bills to your consideration, but shall more especially press upon you the prosecution of various public works.

The first Bill will, in accordance with my pledge of last Session, be "to enlarge the Council." The Bill will, I fear, disappoint those who expected to find in it, proposals, for sub-dividing the existing electoral districts—for adopting a new principle of apportionment—or who looked for some scheme for representing the minority equally with the majority: but when the gravity of the principles involved in these questions—the important bearing they will exercise upon the future interests of the Province is considered—I am satisfied, that all who sincerely advocate an enlargement of the Council, will be prepared to admit, that these are precisely the very questions, which ought to be left to the deliberation and decision of the enlarged Council. I have therefore limited my proposal, to an addition of twelve Members, distributing them in proportion to the number of electors on the present Roll of each district. In the mean time, in order to obviate as far as possible, the inconveniences necessarily incidental to such extensive electoral districts, and to prevent the virtual disfranchisement which they unquestionably entail, I have multiplied the polling places in each district, and shall be prepared to establish additional ones, whenever the voters of any locality may desire it.

As some difficulty has been experienced in carrying out the provisions of the Road Act, another Bill will be submitted to you, the object of which is to condense the previous Act,—to simplify the machinery for working it,—and generally to render it more easily applicable in the hands of settlers in the rural districts, on whom the duty of putting it into operation devolves (in conformity with the decentralizing principle adopted by the Provincial Government,) and who cannot always refer to legal authorities, when administrative difficulties occur.

It is proposed to repeal the existing Cattle Trespass and Impounding Ordinances, which are in many particulars inconsistent; and on the interpretation of which many doubts have from time to time arisen; the principle of those ordinances was also, it is conceived, erroneous, casting on the injured party the obligation

of protecting himself against the acts of the wrong-doer, instead of carrying out that principle, equally well known to the civil law of Rome, and the common law of England, "that a man shall so use and keep his own property as not to injure his neighbour." It is proposed to restore parties to that position from which the early legislation of the colony departed; and at the same time to simplify the remedies for the infringement of the law by condensing and amending the provisions relating to impounding.

So many complaints and objections have been urged against the "Scab Act," as tending to discourage if not absolutely prohibit the importation of sheep—to give an unfair monopoly to the present flockowners—to raise the price of all meat to the consumer—and to inflict unnecessary injury upon those whose sheep are diseased, that I would recommend that the subject should be referred to a select Committee, with a view of ascertaining how far these objections are well founded, and whether a general system of dressing, calculated to eradicate the disease may not be enforced; and further, whether the restrictions at present imposed on the removal of diseased or suspected flocks to fresh runs, and upon their importation, may not be modified with advantage to the public, and without injury to the owners of clean flocks. The present law is undoubtedly opposed to all the evidence adduced before a recent Committee of the Legislature of Victoria; for according to the report of that Committee, there is little difficulty in effecting a cure of the disease, if a proper system of dressing be made compulsory, and little or no danger in permitting sheep to travel for a certain specified time after dressing.

Being convinced that the chief business of Government can never be performed by the Executive of the Province; but that those matters which most influence the happiness of the inhabitants ought, in reality, to be transacted by Select men, or in the small Governments of Townships;—believing that the ultimate success of the Constitution will mainly depend, upon the mass of the people being accustomed to consider the social business, as an important item in every man's business, I am anxious to seize every opportunity of denuding the Provincial Executive of power, and of vesting it in local bodies. It is with this object, and in compliance with the wishes of the settlers at Wanganui, that a Bill will be brought in, to confer certain municipal powers, upon an elected board, and to entrust to that Board, amongst other things, the expenditure of all monies which you may vote for their district purposes. But I repeat, that holding as I do, that to the inhabitants of each district, no matter how few in number they may be, ought to be confided the management of everything connected with, and affecting the well-being of their neighbourhood, considered merely as a neighbourhood, and unconnected either with the Province generally, or the districts or neighbourhoods immediately surrounding them;—advocating, on precisely the same ground, that I claim for the Local Government the exclusive administration of all affairs relating to the Province only, the conferring upon each district or township the exclusive management of all matters affecting itself alone,—I shall not be satisfied until a system similar to the American, under which, as soon as ever a few families are congregated together, they are empowered to raise local taxes, and to elect local officers, has been introduced into every part of this Province.

It would have been satisfactory, had I been able to report, that the inhabitants of the Province had availed themselves to a greater extent than they have done, of the Educational machinery, and the pecuniary grant provided by the last session. The causes which have contributed to this, (so much to be deplored) appear to be, 1st, general apathy,—the natural consequence of having been so long without the means of education, and which prevents too many from appreciating the vital necessity, of extending knowledge among a population possessed of democratic institutions; 2nd, the sparseness of the population in several parts of the Province, and the value of the labour of children in families struggling with the first difficulties, of new settlements; and 3rd, political and sectarian opposition in certain quarters. That the last, though easily trace-