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of management and administration ought to be the rule and not the exception, so far as railways are concerned. Viewed, therefore, by the light of the special laws on the subject, there was nothing unreasonable in making the application for delegation to which I have referred, unless, indeed, it be deemed unreasonable in any one to ask for the control of that expenditure for which he is obliged ultimately to provide. I repeat a statement which I have frequently had occasion to make, viz., that for one authority to spend and another to provide the means for that expenditure, without having the power to control it, is a rotten system of finance. Such a system is the mother of extravagance, and although, when dealing with the annual estimates presented to the House of Representatives (which although large are quite insignificant when compared with the proposed railway expenditure) almost all members agreed last session to abolish the system of provincial charges, we are nevertheless now, I am afraid, about to drift into what may be termed a truly gigantic system of provincial charges. The truth is, that you cannot safely separate the task of finding money and the exercise of control over its expenditure. The two must go together in any sound system of finance. The attempt to separate them has throughout been the weak point in New Zealand finance, and if the system be persisted in and enlarged, your finance will ultimately break down.

If the provinces are to be charged with railway expenditure, the provincial authorities must take part in the administration, and if you have still any doubt as to what was originally intended, when the consent of the Colonial Parliament was first obtained to the theory of this vast scheme of public works, I need only refer you to the principles so plainly laid down in section 6, Part II, of the “Immigration and Public Works Act, (1870).”

After the full explanation which I have thus afforded you of the provincial administration in all its phases for the past year, you have, I submit, placed before you the best materials with which you could be supplied, to enable you to judge of the proposals which I am about to make for the ensuing year; and of the degree of confidence which you may be prepared to extend to the Provincial Government for the purpose of carrying into execution any such proposals. It is an act of simple justice for me to state here that I could not possibly have accomplished what has been done, had it not been aided by the untiring energy of the Provincial Secretary.

The bills which it is the intention of the Provincial Executive to introduce this session have been carefully prepared. They are already printed, and most, if not all of them, have been circulated amongst members of Council. You need not therefore be delayed a single day before proceeding to the work of the session. The following is the list of them, viz:—

1. Interim Appropriation Act.
2. Diseased Sheep Act.
3. Impounding Act.
4. Wellington Cemetery Act.
5. Wanganui Hospital Act.
6. Wanganui Wharf.
7. Land Office Site Sale Act.
8. Reclaimed Land Act.
9. Waste Lands Occupation Rent Act.
10. Obsolete and Invalid Acts Repealed.
11. Amendment of Toll Gate Acts.
12. Act to declare mode of Enforcing Penalties.
13. Wanganui Toll Bridge Act.
14. Fencing Act.
15. Benevolent Societies Incorporation Act.

These bills are not generally of a character such as to require me to do more than remark briefly on some of them. “The Wellington Cemetery Act” is in my opinion very important in a sanitary point of view. Whatever might have been the consideration which originally directed the choice of the site, there can be no doubt that to continue much longer the use, for purposes of interment, of a piece of ground sloping towards the centre of a town whose population is steadily increasing, will be highly injurious to the health of the inhabitants. At the same time, if this important change is to be made, it cannot be expected that it is to be effected at the sole cost of the rest of the province. It is as much a local affair as the drainage of a town, and I have accordingly only proposed a vote of £500, which will be wholly inadequate to do more than enable certain preliminary steps to be taken.

The condition of the Wanganui Hospital Building was found to be very bad, and the management of the Hospital estate unsatisfactory. During the course of enquiry which the Provincial Government instituted, it appeared that the grant to the late trustees was invalid. A fresh grant was therefore applied for, and the General Government has caused a grant to be issued to the Superintendent. The Hospital estate is a very valuable one, if properly managed, and the object of the present Bill is to encourage the inhabitants of the town of Wanganui to assume the management of their purely local affairs.