With regard to the general departmental administration, I append (Appendix F) reports from the following officers, viz.:—

Commissioner of Crown Lands
Chief Surveyor
Provincial Surgeon
Medical Officer of Asylum
Provincial Engineer
Inspector of Police
Warden of Wellington Gaol

I have already referred you to the report of the Provincial Engineer; and you will gather from these various reports a better idea of the state of the provincial administration than I could convey to you in any other terms. Many of them contain very valuable information, and you will, I am sure, read them all with interest.

I may here mention that the Provincial Government has at last succeeded, after a lapse of six years, in placing the Hutt Small Farm Association members on their land at Manawatu, and bringing the block under the operation of the deferred payment system. I have reason to believe, from the admirable character of the site and soil, that the block will be successfully settled.

But, outside the action of the Provincial Government taken in respect of Acts of the General Assembly and Provincial Acts, a considerable amount of administrative effort has been exerted in other directions; not always, it is true, with success, but at least with good intentions; and you will expect a report of them to form part of the account I have to render you of the past year’s administration. When you recollect that the native title has not been extinguished over very much more than two-sevenths of the territory of this province, you will agree with me that there is nothing more important for this part of New Zealand, whether regarded from a colonial or a provincial point of view, than the acquisition of land for colonization purposes. What I mean by colonisation, is the planting on the soil of regular settlements of new people, and the opening up communication by roads. Entertaining, as I do, such views, I applied, very shortly after I entered upon the duties of Superintendent, to the General Government for authority to negotiate with the native owners for the acquisition of territory, especially with reference to the Seventy Mile Bush. I was informed that a negotiation was then pending, under the conduct of the Superintendent of Hawke’s Bay, and that I might rest assured that everything possible would be done for the interests of Wellington in that respect, as for those of Hawke’s Bay; and that it would be unwise to interfere with the existing arrangements. I was satisfied with the explanation, and the result has shown that the province has every reason to be satisfied with the negotiations, which have ended in the purchase of and payment for nearly the whole of that important territory.

This territory, I may observe, is to be specially pledged for railway works within the province.

Subsequently I received overtures from many natives in different parts of the province, to whom my career as a public man had been more or less known, and I attended, by special invitation, a large and influential meeting of natives at Otaki, where the subject of purchase was fully discussed.

The General Government ultimately recognised the desirability of authorising me to negotiate for the purchase of native lands. I am able to report that agreements to sell three small blocks in the Wairarapa have been already signed by the natives, and that other useful blocks in the same district are under negotiation with the natives for me by Mr Hill.

Numerous offers have also been sent in by native owners of lands on the West Coast, between Otaki and Manawatu, to Mr Grindle, whose valuable services have for that purpose been freely placed at my disposal by the General Government. I append copy of his report. (Appendix G.) Should these negotiations be successful, I anticipate that great strides will be made in the colonization of the province, to the benefit of the native as well as the European; for I propose to make it a stipulation of the purchase of the territory from Otaki to Manawatu, binding on the Government, that one-half of the proceeds of the re-sale of the land purchased shall be expended in opening up the territory, if purchased, by means of roads and bridges.

I am happy to be able to report to you that the General Government, at my request, has effected the purchase of the Pare Karetu block, consisting of 46,975 acres. It is situated on the Turakina River, and has been reported on very favourably to me. I refer you to an official intimation received from the Honorable the Colonial Secretary, informing me of the purchase of the block on account of the province. (Appendix H.)

In close connection with the subject of the acquisition of land for colonization purposes, stands the question of the settlement of the residue of the confiscated lands within this province.