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After my recent visit to Patea, I had an interview with Ministers, and expressed to them my opinion in the fullest manner. There is no subject which, in my opinion, is of more pressing interest, whether regarded colonially or provincially, than the speedy and judicious settlement of the residue of the confiscated land within the province by a strong settlement of Englishmen. I have asked the General Government to transfer that land to me on fair terms, and I trust that my application may not be in vain.

After the many years during which the Manawatu question has held a prominent place in the official speeches of your Superintendent, I wish I could inform you that the ghost was at length finally laid. I do hope, however, that I am now able to state that, so far as the natives are concerned, every question of dispute has been agreed to be settled. I wish at the same time that I was able to report that the surveys of the reserves had been completed. If all land took as long to survey as those reserves, a very serious if not prohibitory tax would be entailed on purchasers. I requested the Commissioner of Crown Lands to proceed to that district and report to me; and since his arrival there he has telegraphed to me that he expects that the surveys of the reserves will be completed by the 30th June. I cannot, however, dismiss this subject of the Manawatu difficulty without expressing my sense of the very great personal trouble which the Hon Mr M’Lean has taken during the past year to finally adjust the various difficult complications. There has existed a triangular contention, from which I stood aside for a while, lest I might add to the complications already existing, and so embarrass the adjustment of native claims. The native element has now been eliminated from the contention, and it is reduced to a duel (a friendly one, I hope) between the General and Provincial Governments. There can be no doubt that the province has in the meantime sustained a serious loss; the question is who is to be ultimately saddled with it.

I may mention here that in company with the Provincial Secretary I have visited during the recess the various parts of the province, as I intimated to you when I last addressed you my intention of doing, so far as opportunity might offer. I believe that these official visits have been productive of much good; and I might refer to many particulars if time permitted. But I can not refrain from briefly alluding to one instance.

For some years, the building dignified by the name of the Wanganui gaol has not been in any respect suitable for the purpose; and I succeeded in negotiating with the Hon. D. M’Lean for the purchase of the Rutland stockade. This has now been successfully converted into a gaol; which is at once healthy, commodious and every way fitted for the purpose; and a stigma which rested on the province has been thus removed.

One of the vital questions affecting this province, and indeed New Zealand at large, is that of the construction of railways. You are aware that the representatives of this province generally and the members of the Provincial Government in particular, have from the first advocated the construction of railways. They have at the same time, in common with many others outside the limits of this province, recognised that the success or failure of the scheme proposed was entirely a question of administration. And here I cannot help expressing my regret that the Colonial Government did not adopt the sound and friendly advice which on two occasions was urged by an influential deputation, of which I was chairman, the session before last. I do not pretend to know what arrangements have been made or what progress has been attained in other provinces; but I am aware that within this province the Colonial Government has entered into a contract for the construction of a valuable line of tramway from Palmerston North to Foxton; and that they have opened up a most important line of communication through the country to Hawke’s Bay; some parts of which they have finished both cheaply and well. With reference, however, to the progress of the important line of railway from Wellington to Masterton, I can only refer you to a letter, which will be placed before you, from the Hon the Colonial Secretary, stating that the data for a contract for fifteen miles—from Pipitea to the Upper Hutt—will be immediately furnished to Mr Brogden’s firm. (Appendix I.) The Provincial Secretary was present at two interviews which I had with the Government, when I asked for a delegation of power to enable me to have made a survey and specification for contract for the construction of the entire length of line. This proposal, however, after some consideration was positively declined. Notwithstanding the limitation introduced by the Immigration and Public Works Act Amendment Act, 1871, by which the powers of Superintendents are restricted, and they are not permitted (and very properly so, in my opinion) to stand in the way of and obstruct immigration; yet, you will observe, not only that such transfer of power respecting immigration was very properly accompanied by a transfer of cost, and that henceforward the General Government, which was to control, was required at the same time to provide the cost of the immigration service which it aspired to administer; but you will further observe that all that portion of the railway policy which charges the provinces with the cost of railway works within their boundaries is still carefully maintained in the amended Act, and that elaborate regulations are incorporated in the body of the Act for bringing to charge against provinces in future all and sundry railway outlay. It follows, therefore, that if one part of the Act is to be deemed consistent in spirit with another part of it, a delegation of powers