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much a subject of congratulation if we had sold £34,984 worth of land to an individual, as
I do now that we have disposed of the same amount to a number of persons, who, owing to
the present improved mode of disposal of the land, will be able to occupy beneficially
and without delay. One of the returns attached to the report of the Commissioner of Crown
Lands shows the total revenue receipts from sales of land in the Manawatu to have amounted,
from the time of its cession by the natives to date, to £52,660 (exclusive of Colonel Feilding’s
contract). Now we must guard ourselves from concluding that there has been a realised
profit to the Province of anything like that amount. Quite the reverse. The late Superintendent, in his speech to the Council on the 2nd June, 1866, referring to the Manawatu
District, says: "This estate (if you include expenses of survey) will, before a single acre
has been brought into the market, have cost you at least sixty thousand pounds." This
was said six years ago, and if the interest the Province has been paying since then be taken
into account a much more sombre tint will be imparted to the view of the profits accruing to
the Provincial Treasury on the purchase. There is a return attached to the report of the
Commissioner of Crown Lands which I commend to your attention. It appears that
during the past year nearly the same amount has been realised from the sales of land in
the Manawatu District as in the Wairarapa and East Coast District, viz., about £10,000
in each; and that whilst in the Wellington District the sales of land realised £423 10s.,
the sales in the Wanganui and Turakina Districts together only reached the sum
of £140 10s.

Whilst the report of the Commissioner of Crown Lands shows that considerable
progress has been made last year in the disposal of the arrears of survey; a glance at the
lithographed map of the Eastern half of the Province shows the work to be that of men
accomplished in their profession.

The detailed statement of the public works, completed or in course of construction,
during the past year, under the careful direction of the Provincial Engineer, cannot be
regarded as otherwise than very satisfactory, and gives encouragement to believe that the
large increase which has become necessary in that department will lead to corresponding
results in the ensuing year.

The reports from the Hospital and the Asylum are interesting, and when the new
Asylum is occupied, and should a new Hospital be built, as proposed, the administration of
their institutions will not be attended with the drawbacks and difficulties with which they
have had to contend for many years past. I may here mention that the building at present
occupied by the Wellington College, and situated on the reserve intended for the new
Hospital, has been purchased at a valuation for £800, which valuation has been paid for in
land. I may also inform you that, acting on the authority vested in me on that behalf, I
have reserved for the endowment of common schools in the Province a number of sections
situated in different districts, the schedule of which appears in the Provincial Gazette of
28th October, 1872.

The report of the Warden of the Gaol exhibits a result which is most satisfactory in
an economical point of view, and both it and that of the Inspector of Police are highly
interesting, as bearing a united testimony to the diminution of crime during the past
year.

Although I am not prepared to lay before you any reports connected with the Land
Purchase Department, yet you must not therefore conclude that no efforts have been made
in that direction. You are aware that negotiations of this kind are tedious, and that
in dealings with the natives it is above all things necessary to be patient. Whilst, there-
fore, I am unwilling to raise expectations, the realisation of which might be delayed from
the nature of the case, I may nevertheless state that for several months past most important
negotiations have been going on in different parts of the Province. That a Native Land
Court has been sitting, under Judges Rogan and Smith, at Foxton, and that the length of
time over which those sittings have extended, and the large concourse of natives in attendance,
and the number of witnesses examined, bear testimony to the surprising patience
which must have been exercised in the investigation of titles, which have been a source of
contention between the native tribes in this Province for at least one generation. Further,
that Mr. Grindell has been for some time engaged (with the consent of the Hon. Donald
McLean) in preliminary negotiations respecting several blocks of land, negotiations
which have required the exercise of great patience and perseverance. Although, therefore,
I refrain from anticipating the final result, you will nevertheless be asked to give your
conditional sanction to the raising of money to enable roads and bridges to be constructed
along the new territory when acquired; for you will, I believe, agree with me that so long
as native territory remains in the hands of the native owners, unalienated and untaxed,
we should not be justified in taxing ourselves to construct roads through it and to build
bridges over its rivers.