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calculate upon the same, or indeed any resistance whatever in carrying out fresh contracts. My hope is that with this warning before them the Boards will see the necessity of restricting their operations during the present year to within the narrowest possible limits, and thereby enable the Government to pay off the present overdraft, and to restore the equilibrium between expenditure and revenue.

Clearly now to the question of finance: I have already told you that the estimate of Revenue for the last year has not been realised. The receipts estimated at £135,823 have only amounted to £105,293, while the expenditure has been £117,203, the excess of expenditure over Revenue having been provided for by the overdraft at the Bank. I have also explained that the deficiency in the estimated receipts mainly arises from the land sales having only (from causes specified) amounted to some £14,000 instead of (as estimated) £35,000; and from the Province being forced to pay £6000 of the Marlborough debt to the General Government.

With regard to the Revenue for the current year, I estimate one half of the consolidated revenue, after deducting provincial charges paid by the General Government at £42,000; licenses, £3,700; pilotage, £1,800; sheep assessment, £1,400; hospital and lunatic asylum, £300; incidental receipts, £3,000; toll bar, £2,000; Queen’s warehouse and wharf, £4,000; rates on land £4,000; making a total under the head of Ordinary revenue of £62,100; from special sources, reclaimed land, £8,000; Hawke’s Bay interest, £2,500; balances due from General Government, £3,600; Panama Company, £1,000; and land sales and pasture licenses, £20,000; giving a total estimated revenue of £97,200; but in submitting this estimate it is right to mention that it is based on the assumption that by the short time the Manawatu block will be open for settlement, and that the suggestions I have made in regard to the Small Farm Association and the squatters will be adopted. Should such not be the case, then my estimate of land revenue must be reduced by some five thousand pounds.

Taking the ordinary expenses of Government at £22,349; Permanent appropriations, that is interest and sinking fund on Loans, £23,151; Land Purchase Department, £1,200; Land Department, £1,804; Surveys, £6,000; Engineers’ Department, £1,969. Under the head of sundry undertakings, the chief items being for Education, Queen’s Wharf, &c., £7,692; for Roads, £15,500. For sundry works—the principal votes being for Wanganui Bridge, Contingencies, Queen’s Wharf, Balance of Contract, Repairs, &c., £18,865, giving an estimated expenditure of £98,590, to meet which there is an estimated revenue of £97,200.

But in addition to this deficiency (and you will find it difficult to materially reduce the expenditure) no provision is made for paying off, or even reducing the Bank overdraft below the amount at which it stood on the 31st March—nor do I see my way clear to do so out of current revenue. What I propose is, therefore, that as the excess of expenditure over revenue has been mainly caused by the large sums paid on account of the wharf and the reclaimed land, amounting in the aggregate to £54,000, that we should at once recoup to the Province a portion of this outlay by exercising the power of borrowing given by the “Harbor Reserves Amendment Act,” Session 8, No. 14. By that Act the Superintendent is authorised from time to time to raise by mortgage on the security of the Harbor Reserves any sums of money that may be required, either for the reclamation, or for the erection of the Wharf. This power has already, you are aware, been exercised to the extent of £35,000—but as the Mutual Investment Society, from which the money was borrowed, received by foreclosure, some half of the proceeds from the sale of the Reclaimed Land, it is calculated that by the end of the present financial year our debt to the Society will be reduced to £25,000. So that even should we raise upon the security of the land still unreclaimed a further sum of £15,000, the present mortgage would only be increased by £5000. Nor must it be forgotten that the value of the unsold portion of the land already reclaimed is estimated at £56,000, and of the frontage of the Reserve still unreclaimed with a depth of 100 feet at £18,750. Should this proposal meet with your sanction, it will enable us to tide over our present difficulties, to pay off the overdraft, to continue that the equivalents to the District Boards, and to meet the expenditure now submitted to you.

I have gone into these financial questions thus fully, because I am anxious to disabuse your minds of the impression that the Province is laboring under permanent financial embarrassment, and also because I am equally anxious to impress upon you the necessity of postponing the acquisition of sundry public works to a more convenient season.

As the term for which the Superintendent and Provincial Council were elected will expire in May next, it will be necessary that I should convene you together some time in March, in order that the usual provision may be made for carrying on the public service. And now I may say that I hope by that time I shall be able to congratulate you upon the cessation of the present depression—upon the entire re-establishment of our finances, and upon our being in a position to hand over the province to our successors in a more healthy and prosperous state than it has ever attained to.

In conclusion, it would be no less unbecoming than contrary to those sentiments of loyalty which animate myself in common with the rest of this community, if I did not avail myself of the first public opportunity I have had, to express my regret that an imperative attendance on the Native Land Court at Otaki prevented my taking part in those demonstrations, which the news of the attempted assassination of H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh at Sydney called forth. In common with yourselves I deeply regret that the pleasure with which we had long looked forward to his Royal Highness’ visit to this Colony and Province, should have been destroyed by so cruel and cowardly a deed, and I trust you will permit me the satisfaction of joining with you in an address of congratulation to Her Majesty, on the happy prospect there now is of her welcoming home his Royal Highness in safety.

I. E. FEATHERSTON,
Superintendent.
Superintendent’s Office,
May 10th, 1868.

Tenders.

Provincial Secretary’s Office,
Wellington, May 15th, 1868.

THE following Tenders are published for general information:—

W. HICKSON,
Provincial Secretary.

METALLING AND CLEARING PORTION OF 240 CHAINS OF ROAD ON THE WEST TARANAKI.

The Whole.

Bennett & Maynard... £199 15 0 Accepted
R. Fairbrother ... 195 10 0 Declined
J. W. Bennington ... 234 10 0 ...
J. Udy, (per chain)... 17 3 ...