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doned their cause, and without any excuse offered to the Court, absented himself from it, a course for which he was very severely and most justly censured by the Court. Under these circumstances the claimants in each case as it was called on declined to proceed, and the whole of the remaining cases were either dismissed by the Court or withdrawn by the claimants: The Court then closed its session and adjourned sine die.

While it is to be regretted that all the cases were not adjudicated on and finally disposed of, I will now I presume rest with the advisers of the minority to do what further action they think necessary in the matter; for it is quite certain that the sellers whose rights have been so fully admitted by the Court, will not brook further delay; but will insist upon the Crown being put into immediate possession of the block, and upon their rents which have been impounded since 1863, and which now must amount to nearly £2000 being at once paid up by the squatters. The Ngatiapas have in fact, I understand, already commenced to mark off the boundaries.

It is unnecessary for me to acknowledge the important services rendered by Mr Fox to the Province, in undertaking to conduct this case through the Land Court, for I know full well that those services will be most warmly recognised and appreciated by you.

Assuming that the Block will be at the disposal of the Province in the course of a very few months, I am anxious both with a view to allay the very natural impatience and irritation of the members of the Small Farm Association at the long delay that has already taken place, and also with reference to the financial requirements of the Government, that no time should be lost in laying the whole Block open for settlement. I propose, therefore, that as soon as the thirty thousand acres promised to the Small Farm Association have been selected, and there is no reason why the selection should not be made at once, subject to reserves to be made for the sellers and for non-sellers, that roads and the same time lines of road should be marked out and a trigonometrical survey of the whole district made—a work which I am given to understand can be executed in three months; and that then all the members of the various associations who shall, on a day to be fixed, and the sooner it is fixed the better, have paid up the full purchase money of the allotments they have applied for, shall be called upon to make their selections without waiting for detailed surveys; priority of selection to be determined by ballot. To this proposal I am satisfied no objection will be made on the part of the small farmers who really intend settling upon their land, while the advantage to the Government will be, that they will not be called upon to waste the public funds in executing a detailed survey, not required for the purposes either of selection or settlement.

To illustrate the absurdity and reckless waste of public money by requiring these detailed surveys I may mention that while the Government has gone to the expense of surveying some 6000 acres in the Moroa Block, in allotments varying from 45 to 55 acres a block of over 1000 acres has been bought by one individual.

But in addition to this proposal I would again press upon your consideration, both on the ground of justice and in a financial point of view, the claims of the settlers who have taken up their quarters on the block, a pre-emptive right over their homesteads at £1 an acre to the extent of 640 acres.

Turning now to a far less satisfactory topic I need not tell you that the general depression under which the Colony has for some time past been staggering, has been felt in this Province almost as severely as in other parts—that consequently my last year’s estimate of revenue has fallen miserably short—that few of the various sources of revenue have yielded the amount I calculated upon, and further that in order to carry out those public works which were absolutely essential or to which the public faith was solemnly pledged, it has been necessary to have recourse to an overdraft at the bank, which amounted on the 31st of March last—the end of our financial year, to in round numbers £12,000.

The principal deficiency is in the Land Sales’ Receipts, which, estimated at £35,000 only, amounted to £14,000. This falling off is attributable to the diminution of the purchasing power of the settlers—to the delay in the settlement of the Manawatu district—and also in a very great degree to so much native land being brought into the market under the system of direct purchase. The ordinary revenue was diminished to the extent of £6000, by the Colonial Treasurer succeeding last session in carrying a proposal that Nelson and Wellington should each pay a moiety of the debt of £12,000, due to the General Government by the Province of Marlborough, under the plea that part of the Customs’ Duties which ought or might have been paid in Marlborough, had been paid in Nelson and Wellington. Had it not been for this act of spoliation—for I can designate it by no other term—seeing that the principle upon which it was perpetrated while applicable to all Provinces was applied only to Nelson and Wellington, the falling off in your territorial revenue, large as it is, would not have been of any serious importance. At any rate your Bank overdraft at the end of the financial year would not have exceeded £6000.

Nevertheless the financial difficulty under which we are at present labouring can only be deemed a temporary one; for the census returns recently taken show that the Province has made greater strides—has made a more rapid and substantial progress in all the elements of wealth and prosperity during the last three years, than it has ever made during any previous period of eight or ten years.

The result of these returns, for which I cannot refrain from bringing them under your notice.

Taking first the population returns, you will find that the increase of population between December 1864 and December 1867 has been in the city of Wellington 2807 persons, or 60.3 per cent; in the district of Porirua 539 or 24.2 per cent; in the Rangitikei, 1239 or 97.4 per cent; in Wanganui 1519 or 62.8 per cent; in the Hutt 113 or 6.4 per cent; in the Wairarapa 897 or 41.2 per cent; and in the whole Province 7114 or 47.56 per cent.

Or to place these population returns in another form, you find that the population of the City of Wellington was in December 1867, 7460, as against 4653 in December 1864; of Porirua 2762 as against 2223; of Rangitikei, 2511 as against 1272; of Wanganui 3938 as against 2419; of the Hutt 2207 as against 2094; of the Wairarapa 3072 as against 2175, and of the whole Province 21,950 as against 14,837 in 1864.

The other returns show equally satisfactory results. The increase of houses since 1864 is 4299, or 109.7 per cent, the total number being 7304; the total number of acres fenced in is 366,388 as against 127,350; of acres under crop 134,888 as against 95,415. The increase in the number of horses is 3241 or 40 per cent; in cattle (in spite of the large export to the neighboring Provinces) 10,697 or 24 per cent; and in sheep 442,524 or 83.2 per cent—the total number of horses being 10,597, of cattle 56,211, and of sheep 754,026.

The state of education of each thousand is—persons who cannot read 242; can read only 80; can read and write 676, but as Mr Woodward justly observes, although from the return it appears that there are 242 persons out of every thousand who cannot read, there are 175 out of every thousand who are under five years of age.

With such evidence of steady and substantial progress, I see no ground for despondency as to