The quality of the work performed by the Survey Staff maintains the same high character for which it has been now for some years distinguished; the trigonometrical map of the Wanganui and Rangitikei districts, which has just been published, and a copy of which will be presented to you, affords an example of the work.

I cannot speak too highly of the steady perseverance which characterizes the officers of the Engineer Department; who are organized into several field parties, camping out until late in the season in unexplored parts of the country, and ably supervised by the Provincial Engineer. I direct your attention to the tracings which accompany his report:

I place before you a comparison of the estimated and actual revenue of the Province for the financial year ending the 31st March last, viz,:

From this statement it appears that the actual receipts exceeded my anticipations by £6,266 15s. 8d. on ordinary provincial income, and by £12,907 18s. 7d. on territorial income. Thus a total excess of actual over estimated income, amounting to no less a sum than £19,174 14s. 3d. accrued for the year ending 31st March last.

This result may be regarded as satisfactory, not merely because it shows an increase of income, but also because it enabled the Provincial Treasury to meet engagements which it contracted in the expectation that the considerable advances made by it to the Education Board and towards the completion of the Asylum at Mount View, would have been re-couped during the year. I shall presently have to refer to the circumstances under which these just expectations have been disappointed.

Such a result however, could not have been obtained, had it not been for the policy of the Provincial Government, which on taking office directed its attention to the necessity of aiding the revenue by direct taxation. That policy is now bearing fruit; and the Province is reaping the benefit of its efforts at self reliance, in the shape of a moderate but steadily progressing income, on which to depend for its ordinary services.

But the policy alone would have been insufficient, if unaided by careful administration; watchful and constant supervision on the part of the Treasury Department, has been necessary, and has been exerted; and the result I have been able to state, affords the best testimony to the energy of the officers of the Land and Survey Departments, on whose exertions the territorial income greatly depends.

I take this opportunity of tendering my thanks to the various officers of the Provincial Government throughout the Province, for their zeal and attention to public business during the past year. And not only to them, but also to all those persons who had dealings with the Provincial Government are my thanks due; for the patience with which they submitted to the inconvenience and loss inflicted on them by the General Government, who deprived them for several weeks (during which there were sufficient funds to pay all demands), of the monies justly due to them. It was not indeed, until the Supreme Court was called upon to interfere, that the various claimants received payment; when the Auditor unlocked the chest.

You are aware that the Parliament of the Colony in the last session voted £500,000 for the purchase of native territory in the North Island, of which £150,000 was apportioned to this Province. During the last twelve months I have to the best of my ability, co-operated with the Hon. D. McLean, in endeavoring to acquire territory. I attach so much importance, both from a Colonial and Provincial point of view, to the speedy extinguishment of the native title over certain tracts of country, that I wish I were able to report that more rapid progress had been made. The negotiations which have been going on more or less, during the last three years, for the country between Waikanae and the left bank of the Manawatu, are now I hope, after repeated adjournments of the Land Court, drawing to a close. The final arrangements for a block of 62,000 acres in the Seventy-mile bush, are to be made when the block shall have passed through the Court, which was to sit at Palmerston this month. There are other tracts of country in this Province, which ought to be acquired, if it be really intended to make the policy of Public Works and Immigration applicable to the inland districts. I am satisfied that the Honourable the Native Minister coincides in this view, and in the meantime we must wait.