Act to abate the Dog Nuisance, and to make
other provisions to abate such nuisance.
An Act to amend the Thistle Act, Session III.
No. 6.
An Act to provide for protection against fire
in Towns and populous places.
And that I have reserved the Act intituled,
"An Act to alter the Electoral District of
Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay," for the signi-
fication of His Excellency’s pleasure thereon.

Before closing this last Session, I cannot for-
bear congratulating you upon the entire success
which has attended the experiment of increas-
ing your numbers, or thanking you for the ear-
nest manner in which you have applied your-
selves to the discharge of your high trust, and
for the important services you have rendered.

If the legislation embodied in the Acts to
which I have just assented, be, comparatively
speaking, of an unimportant character, still I
venture to say, that the discussions that have
taken place—the measures you have adopted—
the spirit of progress which has presided over all
your deliberations, cannot fail to exercise a
greater influence upon the future of this Province
than the proceedings of all previous Sessions.

To give full effect to the policy which I laid
before the Council, when I first met it—in-
volving, as that policy did, the creation of the
public credit, the raising of loans, the execu-
tion of great public works, and the introduction
of a steady supply of labour,—was necessarily a
work of time, and entailed, I need scarcely say,
upon those entrusted with its execution, no or-
dinary amount of anxiety and responsibility.

If then, it was gratifying to me in opening
this Session to be able to announce, that in spite
of difficulties which many deemed insurmount-
able—in spite of predictions of failure often
hazarded—in spite of the strenuous efforts of a
few to decry and depreciate the resources of the
Province, we had succeeded in overcoming every
difficulty; that we had so fully established the
credit of the Province, that we were prepared to
place at your disposal funds to a greater amount
than you could well employ; that we were in a
position to undertake the immediate execution
of all the works that had ever been suggested;
and that we had already commenced a stream of
immigration which might be increased to any
extent, you will readily understand, that it is still
more gratifying to me to find, that this enlarged
Council, after having reviewed the whole scheme,
after having submitted every portion of it to
the ordeal of Select Committees: after having
scrutinized the measures adopted by Govern-
ment to carry it out, has not only stamped the
whole policy with its cordial approval, but has
proposed to give to it a still further develop-
ment.

For I feel assured that in increasing the Loan
to One Hundred and Twenty-five Thousand
pounds, an amount wholly insignificant when
you consider the rapidity with which the re-
sources of the Province are being developed—
in urging the Government to undertake numer-
ous other public works (besides those specified
in my opening address), works all calculated to
open up and render available for settlement, the
several districts of the Province; and especially
in adopting the proposals relative to Immigration
you have simply ratified and confirmed the
decision upon the whole scheme, at which the
vast majority of the settlers have already ar-
rived.

The discussions which have taken place on
the pasturage Regulations, will, I doubt not,
have tended to remove much misapprehension
as to the conditions on which Depasturing Li-
censes are held—will have indicated your deter-
mination to maintain inviolate the public faith,
and while conferring undue advantages upon
no class, not to sacrifice or injure the chief
source of the present wealth and prosperity of
this Province.

Thc steps you have taken for the immediate
erection of a Lighthouse on Pencarrow Head,
by which you will render your magnificent har-
bour easy of access at all hours:—the provision
you have made for increasing the efficiency of
the Harbour department, and especially the
sanction you have given to the arrangements
entered into by the Provincial Government for
the monthly conveyance of the English mails
from Melbourne to Wellington afford sufficient
evidence, that you have not been unmindful of
the interests of the mercantile portion of the
community.

I have to thank you for having enabled me,
by the sum you have voted for building the
House of General Assembly, to redeem the
pledge which I gave on behalf of the Province
to the House of Representatives. The liberality
of this appropriation will, I trust, satisfy the
other Provinces of the South, that Wellington
is both able and willing to defray out of its own
funds all the expenses of transferring both the
General Assembly and the seat of Government
to this, the most central position of the colony.

Neither can I refrain from expressing my
grateful sense of the warm support you have
afforded me in the remonstrances, I have felt it
my duty to address to the General Government
in regard to their non-purchase of lands, which the
natives are anxious to sell and the Province to
acquire. Should these representations, thus
endorsed by you, prove unavailing, I would fain
hope that the appeal you have forwarded to her
Majesty’s Government will not be made in vain ;
but, in the meantime, I frankly avow, that ra-
ther than diminish the trust at present reposed
by the natives in the Local Government,—rather
than jeopardize the friendly relations at present
subsisting between the two races,—I shall not
hesitate to purchase whatever lands the natives
may press upon my acceptance.

By these and other measures, to which I
need not now refer; by—in short—the sanction
you have given to the several proposals of the
Government, I not only feel confident that the
rapid progress of this province is effectually se-
cured, but I farther feel, that before our term of
office expires, every promise we have made will
have been fulfilled—every pledge redeemed,—
nay, that all the expectations we have ever held
out will have been more than realized.

It only remains for me, with the same sincer-
ity as on previous occasions, to beg you to ac-
cept my warmest thanks for the uniform kind-
ness and courtesy you have shown me, and for
the cordial manner in which you have co-oper-
ated.