of Denmark, for I was informed the other day that the Bishop was prepared to bring out from Denmark, and the Duchies recently wrested from it, at least eight hundred families of the agricultural class who would pay their own passages, and would be possessed of an adequate amount of capital, provided he could be guaranteed a suitable block of land for them on their arrival on reasonable terms.

The usual reports from the various departments will at once be laid before you. From the Paymaster of Roads report you will learn that during the past year some thirty-seven miles of new roads have been formed, making the total length of the roads in the Province 330 miles. The District Highways Boards have worked so admirably, have done such great service, that it is a matter of very deep concern to me that the pressing demands upon your finances will render it impossible to propose this year any special grants, though I hope the grants in aid may be continued on the same liberal scale as hitherto.

By the report from the Immigration Department, you will learn that 243 adults have received assisted passages, principally on the condition of paying only one-half of the cost of their passage within twelve months after their arrival, and that of those sent for by their friends many have been deterred from emigrating by the native disturbances in the North. As these disturbances have now ceased, the application of settlers for passages for their friends may be anticipated to be both more numerous and more readily accepted. It is a source of much regret that the female immigration contemplated by this and many other of the Provinces, under the auspices of Miss Rye, and to assist which you have on more than one occasion voted the necessary funds, seems to have been abandoned by that lady.

In the very full and able report of the Inspector of Schools you will find many valuable suggestions, and will also gather that under his supervision great efficiency in the masters, greater discipline in the schools, a higher standard of education, and the correction of many abuses, which for want of inspection, had gradually crept into the management. I doubt, however, whether we are not carrying the subsidising system too far, whether we are not pauperising education, and thus defeating the object we have in view, by lowering its value in the eyes of those for the benefit of whose children this liberal aid is given. It appears to me that such centres of population as Wanganui and the Hutt ought not to be entitled to, and ought not to claim any aid from the Government—that these schools ought long before this to have been made self-supporting.

I am glad to find that a movement is on foot in this city to carry out the trusts of the deed under which Sir George Grey, as far back as 1853, set apart certain lands already yielding an income of some £200, as an endowment for a College Grammar School, in which the highest branches of education were to be taught.

But I am especially anxious to call your attention to the unsatisfactory state of the educational endowments made, if not solely, yet peculiarly for the benefit of the natives. Sir George Grey (I think in 1853) set apart some 240 acres of the town of Wanganui as an endowment for an industrial school, open on certain conditions, to all races. The land at the present moment is worth at the very lowest estimate, £10,000, and is, I understand, yielding a considerable annual rental. But no industrial school is in existence. Sir George Grey gave, in 1853, to the Wesleyan Church, some seventy-five acres of the town belt of Wellington, as an endowment for an industrial school for both races. The establishment of such a school has never been attempted, and the reserve, as you know, has recently been purchased by the Province for £3,500. Certain lands at Porirua were given to the Church of England by the natives themselves, as an endowment for a native college. The lands are let as a sheep-walk. But the college is not established, and nobody knows how the accruing rents of this and other endowments are being appropriated; and I believe that the same story holds good with respect to certain endowment lands in the Wairarapa.

In calling attention to these facts, it is very far from my intention to impute the slightest blame to the trustees of these endowments, for I doubt if in any single instance these trusts could have been carried out. All I wish to assert is, that considerable funds are accruing from certain endowments made for natives, and that these funds ought to be expended for their benefit. I venture, at the same time, to throw out as a suggestion that the whole of the several endowments could not be better employed than in establishing one great educational institution for the natives in this Province, say at Otaki, where the whole of the natives’ children might be, not merely educated, but well fed and clothed.

I candidly confess that I know of no other means of retarding the extinction of the native race.

The Council having decided last session that the Provincial Government Buildings should be erected on land to be reclaimed near the Odd Fellows’ Hall, I have not hesitated to exercise the power vested in me by the Harbor Reserves Act, Session VIII, and to accept a tender for the reclamation, not merely of the proposed site, but of some fourteen acres, and I feel satisfied that when you consider the wasteful expense incurred in reclaiming small pieces, and the value of the block in process of reclamation, that you will acknowledge that in every respect, especially in an economic point of view, it would have been unwise to have gone on with the work on a smaller scale. The total cost, including the formation of streets, &c., will be £26,000, and the value of the land, taken at a valuation considerably below prices it has hitherto realised, is estimated at £55,000.

And here allow me, though it is not my intention to place on the present estimates any sum for Government buildings, to express a hope that the question of the site may be reconsidered. Having regard to the value of the public records, especially of the survey department, and to the material of the building being wood, it does appear, in order to avoid the risk of fire, the Government buildings should be as far as possible isolated. It is certainly not conducive to the conduct of the Government business that the offices should be in a crowded thoroughfare, and it is certainly extremely desirable that all public buildings, if they have any pretensions to architectural beauty, should be placed where they can be seen to the greatest advantage. Moreover, I submit that the site in question is far too valuable to be devoted to such a purpose.

Though the whole of the material of the Patent Slip has either arrived or is on its way, I regret to inform you that some little delay is likely to take place in its erection. The contractors having in consequence (as they allege), of their having been deceived as to the nature of the site, called upon the Government to be at the expense of forming artificial foundations. Mr. Stewart’s report, however, is clear and conclusive, that so far from their having been any misrepresentation, the contractors were expressly advised that, owing to the absence of rock, the foundations of the slip would require to be of a particular description, viz., either an iron frame or wood frame sheathed. I feel, therefore, confident that immediately on the arrival of Mr. Kennard, who is, I understand, expected next month, the great work now rendered more than ever necessary by the Panama service being all but an fait accompli, will be proceeded with.

There being no longer any prospect of Wanganui becoming or desiring to become a separate Province, and the Bridge Committee having undertaken to dispose of debentures to the requisite amount, I felt myself justified in instructing, by the March mail, the Messrs. Stephenson, of London, to call for tenders for the material for the bridge, and also for the erection—intimating at the same time my wish that the acceptance of a tender for the erection