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gloomy anticipations; to learn that the receipts
have considerably exceeded the estimates, and
that our financial prospects for the future are
still more flattering.

The three-eighths gross Customs Receipts instead of yielding £12,000, have yielded £13,586.
The Pasture Licenses and Rents which I calculated at £2,500, have produced £4,414; the
Land Sales which I estimated at £20,000, have amounted to £24,737. The total receipts for
the year from all sources have been £49,000;
being £7000 in excess of my estimate, and
£25,000 more than or double the amount of
the receipts of the previous year of 1856. The
surplus which I estimated available for public
works at £20,000 has been not less than £30,000.
Satisfactory as this statement is in a financial
point of view, it is still more so as evidencing the
increasing prosperity of the Province and especially as proving that the public lands are
under Sir George Grey’s Regulations fairly
placed within the reach of all classes; the fact
that between 60 and 70,000 acres have during the
last year been purchased not by speculators, but
by bona fide Settlers for use and occupation,
affords a conclusive answer to those who allege
that the Waste Lands are monopolized and
closed against settlement.

A few years ago the credit of the whole
colony was at so low an ebb, that the power
of the Province to raise Loans on any terms was by
many more than doubted; last year I informed
the Council that Messrs. Gladstone & Co., had
negotiated the first Loan of £50,000 at par; I
have now the satisfaction to state that the bonds
of the second Loan of £50,000 have been disposed of by the Union Bank of Australia at a
premium of 5 per cent, and that the third Loan
of £25,000 would have been disposed of at the
same time and on the same terms had the Debentures arrived in London. You will thus
perceive how completely the credit of the Province has been established—how easy it will be
to raise any amount that may be required, provided the same policy of expending all Loans
and the greatest part of your Revenue on public
works be persisted in, and no measures be adopted calculated to impair the value of the security
pledged to the public creditor.

Although the large expenditure of the present Government is professedly regarded by
groups with alarm, and constitutes one of the
charges most frequently urged against it, I
must frankly confess it, that my only feeling in
referring to the expenditure of the past year, is
one of regret that we have been able to expend so little of the funds at our command, and that such large sums still remain in
the chest; comparatively speaking idle and unproductive; for the past abundantly testifies
that the more rapidly and extensively you open
up the communications of the country, the
more rapidly will the resources increase. The
expenditure during the past year amounted in
round numbers to £97,000. Of this something less than £20,000 sufficed to meet the
ordinary expenses of Government and the
interest on the loans; the remaining £77,000
having been devoted to public works and undertakings. Of this £77,000, there was expended on public buildings, £9,000; on roads,
£33,000; on immigration, £23,000; on surveys, £4,000; and the balance on the Light-
house, Steam, the Mail service, and other
public objects. The total amount expended on
public works since the establishment of the
Provincial Government has been £127,000; of
this £48,000 consisted of borrowed money,
and £79,000 of surplus revenue.

If it be admitted that, owing to the disturbance
in the labour market, occasioned by the
attraction of the Nelson gold-fields, to the
non-fulfilment of the contract for immigration
entered into with the agent of Messrs. Baines
and Co., and to the damages done by the
recent floods, the progress of the public works
has not been so great as it otherwise would
have been, still when contrasted with that of
previous years, it cannot but be deemed highly
satisfactory.

The road to the Makara was finished last
month. The Ohariu—the works on which
have presented greater difficulties than were
originally anticipated, will be completed within
three months. Perhaps no stronger evidence of
the value of roads, and of the utter worthlessness of the finest land until it is made accessible, could be adduced, than is afforded in
the case of the Ohariu district. A valley almost
equal in extent and in the fertility of its
soil to the Hutt, and at the same distance from
Wellington, remains waste and unoccupied for
some 17 years. But no sooner is a road
commenced than the value of the land is tripled
and quadrupled, and a population at once begins to pour into the district. The Ngahuranga,
which was seriously damaged by the inundation of December last, will also be opened by
the middle of June. To give an idea of the
formidable character of this great work, and to
account for its heavy expense (not less than
£3000 a mile) it is only necessary to state that
upwards of a mile and a half of rock of the
hardest description has had to be excavated,
involving the removal of not less than 240,000
tons of rock. The road between Wanganni and
the Rangitikei plains, a distance of 17 miles; and
which will be one of the most magnificent roads
in the whole Province, will be completed in
the course of four months. On the Great North-Eastern—the portion between the Mungaroa
and the Pakaratahi—has been nearly all reformed, the whole of the bridges and culverts
renewed, and the road widened sufficiently to
admit of dray traffic. On the Wairarapa side of
the Remutaka two substantial bridges have
been built, and when a third, in course of erection, is finished, the whole of the rivers and
streams between Wellington and Featherston
will be bridged with the exception of the Pakaratahi. The most difficult portions of the road
through Grey Town have been executed; and
the entire distance (70 miles) between Wellington and Masterton is now practicable for carts,
—the cost of the carriage of goods having, in
consequence, been reduced from £30 to £12 a
ton.

Not having received any detailed report of
the progress made on the roads in the Ahuriri,
I can only state generally that several of the
difficulties in the Patangata line have been removed, the cost of carriage having there also, been
reduced 25 or 30 per cent; that the force
employed on the Te Aute line is little short of
100 men,—and that as it is the intention of the
Government materially to increase it, there