In conformity with a practice which I have been careful to adopt, and have endeavoured to extend, I present to you the following annual Reports, viz:—

A. Report of Crown Lands Commissioner.
B. „ Chief Surveyor.
C. „ Provincial Engineer.
D. „ Chairman of Education Board.
E. „ Principal of Wellington College.
F. „ Provincial Surgeon and Architect to Hospital Trustees.
G. „ Medical Officer of Asylum.
H. „ Immigration Officer.
J. „ Inspector of Police.
K. „ Warden of Gaol.
L. „ Harbour Master.

M. Correspondence relative to the selection of 80,000 acres of land by the General Government.

I am indebted to the courtesy of the Chairman of the Board of Education and the Principal of the Wellington College for furnishing me with Reports, which I have no official authority to require from them. Whilst all these Reports, without exception, contain valuable detailed information of the progress made during the past year in the departments and institutions to which they severally refer, and also furnish a collective view of the work accomplished within the year, and, in a great measure, speak for themselves, nevertheless the subjects referred to in some of these Reports require special notice.

The considerable amount realised by land sales within the year, referred to in the report of the Crown Lands Commissioner, is not the result of mere happy accident. The policy now adopted, so far as our circumstances will admit, in the administration of land selling, is to so render the estate of waste lands under our control fit for profitable occupation by previous survey and the laying off and forming of roads, as to make the purchase of land a less speculative and more attractive investment; and the expenditure so incurred, prior to sale, is found to be recouped by the enhanced prices realised at sale. The foundation of this policy was laid in 1864, when the Provincial Council passed on the 1st of July, a resolution “That none of the land whatever, within the Manawatu Blocks shall be offered for sale until after it shall have been surveyed, marked off on the ground, mapped, and numbered, and main district lines of road similarly defined.”

The old “rough and ready” system of getting rid of land is now sought to be replaced by a more careful and cultivated system. The introduction of the improved method has necessarily been slow and precarious; but during the last year it has been pursued with greater perseverance and success than in any previous year. I take this opportunity of expressing my obligations to the General Government for the prompt assistance rendered by it in enabling the Provincial Government, during the recess, to reserve a considerable area of land for future sale on the improved plan I have referred to.

You are aware, probably, that the General Government selected Major Palmer to report on the surveys of New Zealand; a copy of this report will be laid on the table. In that report you will find a very truthful statement of the past and present conditions of the various Survey Departments, and it clearly points out the causes which have led most of the departments to fall into such deplorable confusion as he depicts.

With respect to Wellington Major Palmer, states that the system of surveying pursued is a sound one, that in the course of ten years 1,099,000 acres have been correctly mapped, and that all previous blunders have been swept aside by a Trigonometrical Survey.