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vincial estate. The following figures will help
to a conclusion, viz:—

Valuation of Estate of Province available for sale:

If, therefore, the province borrowed an additional £100,000, its whole indebtedness would amount to £358,000, while its estimated assets would amount to nearly three times the amount of its debt thus increased. It may be objected that this valuation is excessive on the ground that the remainder of the Provincial landed estate for sale only consists of lands which have been culled. But upon this point I call attention to the fact that the large expenditure which has been made and is proposed to be made provincially in the shape of public works, and the large undertaking which the colony is proposing both in public works and immigration are daily adding increased value to this residue of the estate.

But it may further be asked can the province bear the additional annual burden on its revenue to pay for interest and sinking fund; in other words, has the Provincial revenue any such elasticity? The additional charge may be stated at say £6,000. In answering this enquiry it will be fair here to take into account the increased power of payment which works of improvement such as those proposed would confer on the province. But apart from this consideration, I express a belief that a sounder system with regard to the financial relations between the General and Provincial Governments must be introduced and that the effect will be, considerably to improve the position of the latter.

I hold that the existing system of Provincial charges is unsound and that if the General Government assumes the administration of any colonial department, it should defray the charges of that department out of the colonial revenue. That if it thinks fit, for instance, to maintain at a considerable cost, a body of militia and volunteers in any province, it should defray the cost out of colonial revenue and not charge the maintenance of a colonial service against the particular province in which the office of the department may happen to be situated. Similar observations apply to the Customhouse departmental charges and those of other services. This is not the time or place to enter at large upon the consideration of this important question, and I content myself at present with observing that the former charges should have been transferred to the General Estimates contemporaneously with the introduction of the capitation allowance system.

Not only will a more wholesome state of finance be established if the provincial charge system be abolished; but I believe that an appreciable relief will be afforded. Under the present system calculations are rendered uncertain, and control impracticable for one power imposes charges on the other without recourse. This is the place to refer to another source of relief to the finances of the province; which, I may observe, it has been fashionable to squeeze on both sides—a process which

cannot fail to impair the elasticity of any body, if applied for a sufficient length of time. The cost of the Wellington gaol amounts to about £2140 per annum. It would be nearly a self-supporting institution were it not that whilst the entire province pays the cost, a particular portion of the province only reaps the benefit of the labor of the prisoners. I have had this labor carefully assessed, and its value to the City of Wellington amounts to £1283. Again, the maintenance of the Wellington Hospital costs the Provincial Government about £1900 per annum. Formerly the General Government bore a proportion of this charge in consideration of the relief given by the institution to natives. The province has been squeezed on this side by the withdrawal of that aid. In all countries with which I am acquainted, hospitals are a strictly local charge. The City of Wellington has become possessed of its municipal rights; the time, therefore, has arrived for it to bear its equivalent burdens. Further, the care of the destitute and the burial of paupers is a strictly local charge, and I know of no exceptional reason why the cost of the relief of the poor of the city of Wellington should be borne by the inhabitants of the rest of the province in addition to that of their own poor, who at present are relieved by charitable individuals in the respective neighborhoods. Up to the present time the cost for charitable aid has been a considerable charge on the whole province.

As Superintendent of the province, I have to hold the scales equally; and whether the overweight presses from the side of the General Government or town municipalities, it becomes my duty to point out whenever and wherever the public burdens press unequally.

I do not propose to pursue this question further now; I believe, however, that I have indicated sufficient to show that in a great many directions the provincial revenue has an elastic capacity.

I pass on to notice briefly the principal measures which have been carefully prepared with the advice of the Executive Council, and already been placed in the printer’s hands, and will be shortly laid before you, by means of which it is proposed to give legislative effect to the policy of the present Government. They may be shortly styled: Sale of reclaimed land, education, educational reserves, district highways, toll bars, tramways, railway reserves, land on deferred payments, and for special settlements. The first bill proposes to confer authority to enable the estate in question to be made productive. The two next deal with the all-important question of education. It is proposed to establish an educational board, and the bill is in many respects similar to an act which is said to have worked well in the province of Nelson. It is proposed to utilize to some extent the educational reserves by creating a fund for the purpose of rewarding those scholars who have distinguished themselves in the provincial schools, and assisting them to obtain a high class of education. The District Highways Bill recognizes the liability of the whole landed European property of the province to contribute towards the maintenance of the district highways. Hitherto the district boards have been struggling and weak bodies, unable to contend successfully against recusant ratepayers. They have hitherto done good service in the work of colonization; for they have made and maintained by their own self-imposed rates, assisted by grants in aid, upwards of 200 miles of road within the province. And if they now surrender the acreage rate for a valuation rate on lands and landed property, they will receive in lieu thereof the great boon of a general contribution from all; for it is proposed that the anomalous exemption from land tax of owners of land abutting on the main trunk lines shall cease. I express a hope that the time is not