80

£120,000. In this latter sum is included £30,000, the proceeds of the sale of the foreshore proposed to be made to the Corporation of the City of Wellington. Under the head of Special Income, the amount of £74,750 is expected to be received; £74,550 of this amount being receivable from the Trust and Loan Company, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of reclamation, for which I was authorised to contract. This sum is already ear-marked for a special object, and is only introduced in order that a specific appropriation may be made, which it is contended, (as I think, in error,) does not at present legally exist. After therefore, excluding this last amount, and including the credit balances, (to which I referred at the commencement of my speech) viz., £16,197 10s. and £8,435 16s. 6d., there will remain, if my calculations are realised, the sum of £172,383 6s. 6d. for you to appropriate for the service of the year 1875-76.

It may perhaps be doubted whether the estimate of £90,000 will be realised from the sales of land within the year. I think, however, that there is a fair prospect of reaching the amount estimated, although it is certainly considerable. And it is encouraging to recollect that the sales of land last year realised, in cash and scrip, £91,127 13s. 3d. But the prospect of realisation will undoubtedly be much improved, if the Native title should be speedily extinguished over the blocks to which I have already referred. We shall also be materially assisted in attaining our object, if we are enabled to release the 160,000 acres of the Provincial Estate, which are now tied up and held as security for a proposed advance of £66,000. You will be asked to vote the sums necessary to enable me to repay the advances available to be made under "The Provincial Public Works Advances Act, 1874." If you sanction the proposal, and the General Government consents, a considerable estate of 160,000 acres will revert to you, which is at present indefinitely tied up. I refer you to the correspondence in Appendix M. You are aware that by the Act referred to, the General Government was to hold security for the repayment of the advances it was authorised to make, to the extent of £66,000, over 80,000 acres of land, which it was to have the right to select out of 160,000 acres, in blocks of 20,000 acres each. The General Government decided to retain £25,000 for cost of survey, and £10,000 for district roads, which I may observe would be quite useless unless the main trunk line, to which I have referred as being left in an unfinished state, were completed; thus leaving only £31,000 to be expended on certain public works. It will, I believe, be a long time before the several selections of 20,000 acres can be definitely fixed; undoubtedly, a considerable amount of money will be wasted in fruitless survey; and I strongly recommend you to concur in the proposal which I have made, to repay so much of the authorised advance as has already been received by the Province, and to re-enter upon your land and convert the estate to useful purposes.

In the estimate of expenditure you will find the following increases, viz:—

Salaries increased ... £496 6 0

Increase of staff in the following establishments, viz:—

Police ...
Hospital ...
Wellington Harbour ...
Rangitikei Pilot ... £1141 18 0

Increase of cost of maintenance for the following services, viz:—

Mount View Asylum ...
Gaols at Wellington and Wanganui ...
Charitable Aid ... £1683 0 0

Having regard to the growth of the departmental work and of the different establishments referred to, I think that you will consider that the increases proposed are reasonable.

There is an item for exploration of £1000, in reference to which I desire to explain to you the views of the Government. There is a large tract of country, extending over the ranges to the West of the Wairarapa plains, which is of a generally broken