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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.

885

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

NEW ZEALAND.

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RFPORTS EXHIBITING THE PAST AND PRESENT

The second land question is that of the Rangitikei, a district lying between the Rangitikei and the Wangachu rivers, and containing about 500,000 acres of land, of which" Mr. M Lean (the Commissioner employed on behalf of the Government in negociating the purchase) con- siders "a very large portion to be of a most fertile and valuable description, capable of main- taining a numerous European population, and superior to any other part of the island for cattle runs For the acquisition of this district the arrangements are so far advanced that the pur- chase money is named, and a surveyor engaged in marking out the native reserves. I have every reason to believe, therefore, that in a few days at the utmost, the purchase will be finally concluded, and the first instalment of the purchase money pail.

Two very fine and extensive tracts of country will thus be secured for the purposes of colo- nization; and as both are suitable for immediate occupation by stock, they will probably become rapidly located, and a considerable impetus be given to grazing pursuits, a branch of industry of the highest importance in a colony adapted to such occupations, both for the purpose of securing abundant and cheap food, and as a means of creating a valuable and certain export.

In connexion with this subject, I would briefly bring under your notice the rapid progress which has recently been made on the two great lines of road leading to the interior districts, and the great facilities which will be afforded by them, when completed, to settlers intending to locate there. In Captain Russell's last Report, that officer informs me that about 30 chains of unfinished side cutting in the Horokiwi valley, and about ten more chains near Duck Creek, are the only obstacles now existing to the passage of a dray from Wellington to Rangitikei, and these it is expected will be removed, and the road opened during the next three months.

On the Wairarapa road also the most vigorous exertions have been made during the summer months, and great progress been effected." I hope, therefore, if nothing unforseen occurs to interfere with a renewal in the spring of those active measures which havo necessarily been suspended during the winter months, that in the course of the ensuing summer the Horokiwi line will be fully metalled and completed, and that of the Wairarapa cleared and levelled quite into the valley, so as to be open for carts, and in a state sufficiently advanced to hold out the prospect of its final completion during the succeeding summer.

Another important line of road is also shortly about to be commenced, for the purpose of connecting the Waitole with the Wairou, by means of which, when completed, a short and easy access will be open from the extensive and already occupied plains of the latter to a good and convenient port at the former.

In examining the returns which will be laid before you, you cannot fail to notice, as a subject* of sincere congratulation, the very small amount of crime committed in the province as compared with its population, small even as compared with previous years; for I find that, in 1844, the convictious before the Supreme Court were 19, in 1847 they were only 11, and in 1848 only 10. I refer to this more particularly now from the recent occurrence of the crime of murder, an offence which is occasionally committed in every country, though happily most rare in this; whilst the immediate detection and speedy punishment of the criminal cannot fail to have a salutary effect, and tend to deter others from such crimes in future.

Startling, therefore, as the interruption to our ordinary quietude has been in the instance I allude to, I see nothing in it beyond an occurrence which might and which does take place occasionally everywhere; there is nothing which ought to alarm or deter intending emigrants from coming to our shores; and indeed I believe that at this moment there is no country in the world where life and property are more secure than they are in New Zealand.

It has been a matter of deep regret to me that this province has so long laboured under a deficiency of ministers of religion, and of the means of Christian education. In the Wellington district along the European population, exclusive of the military and their families, numbers 4,500 souls; of the-e no less than 2,500 have returned themselves in the last census as belonging to the communion of the Church of England, and yet to supply the spiritual wants of these 2.500 there has been, until recently, but a single clergyman. I need hardly point out to you the multifarious and onerous duties attaching to such a charge. To officiate at two churches in the town more than a mile apart, and two in the country, of which one is five and the other nine miles distant, and each in a different direction, to attend the hospital and gaol, and to visit the poor and afflicted, are some of the more apparent and palpable of these duties; others, and scarcely less important ones, in connexion with the younger portion of the com. munity, will readily suggest themselves to you, and you will at once perceive how utterly impossible it was that one individual should discharge them all, however active and zealous he might be; and I believe the one individual upon whom this fearful amount of responsibility was thrown, to have been most active and zealous to the limits of physical capability. Lamentable, however, as this state of things was, it was not the worst to which the portion of the community I am speaking of were liable, for the contingency of illness, absence, or any of the many causes which occur to interrupt the ordinary pursuits of life, no provision was made; and it do so happen that on otte occasion, for three successive Sabbaths, there was not au olliciating clergyman of the Church of England in Wellington; and for the whole of that period, therefore, more than one half of the population of the principal settlement of New Munster were deprived of all services or ministrations of religion whatever.

To obviate, if possible, the recurrence of any similar contingency, and at least to secure for the public institutions that religious attendance which every Government is bound to provide, I have appointed a colonial chaplain; and it affords me much pleasure to be able to state that, in consequence of such appointment; an additional clergyman will for the future always be stationed in the district.

Intimately associated with the subject of religion, and second only to it in importance, is that

STATE OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.

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of education, an object for which as yet even less provision has been made in the province, and NEW ZEALAND. more especially in this portion of it, than for religion. I would earnestly commend both these subjects to your most serious consideration, as involving interests of the highest importance to the-future welfare of the province, and as being in fact the very points upon which the character and conduct of the rising generation will so materially depend. Not only do religion and education constitute the means of developing, fostering, and raising the physical, intellectual, and moral capabilities of man, of fitly preparing him for the duties and trials of life, of teaching him to become a good subject, a good citizen, and a good member of the family circle, but they are also the barriers and the only barriers which interpose between him and the commission of crime; and it has been well observed, therefore, that there is no evil which may not be feared from ignorance, and no good which may not be expected from a well educated community."

Another question to which I would invite your attention (and it is one of vital importance to the prosperity and progress of the province) is that of emigration; with peace and tranquillity reigning around us, with the necessaries of life in abundance and at moderate prices, with large tracts of fine and fertile country waiting only to be occupied, and with a climate which may vie in healthiness with the most salubrious in the world, there is yet one great drawback to our prosperity-one, until removed, insuperable bar to our onward progress, we have no emigration. The natural result of this is, that labour, and more especially skilled labour, is botli exorbitantly dear and difficult to be obtained; and the best energies of the settlers are cramped and restricted by an inability to carry out improvements or extend their operations. In other colonies, and in the northern province of this colony, the proceeds of the sales of land con-titute a fund from which the means of promoting emigration are provided; but in this province, owing to the peculiar arrangements which exist in reference to the demesne lands, no lands are sold in the province, and no such fund exists. I of course exclude from consideration in these remarks the Otago district, where the New Zealand Company are still sending out emigrants; and I exclude also the prospective Canterbury settlement, not because an emigration in connexion with those settlements will not be productive of indirect advantage to all the others, but because there is every probability that they may shortly be erected into separate provinces; and I both think that each province should have a distinct emigration fund of its own, and I believe that suela a fund might be obtainable in all, if the usual facilities were afforded for the sale of land within the provinces theniselves.

I should be happy to find that you can make any recommendations or suggestions for remedying, for the future, the serious drawback upon the prosperity of the province which I have pointed out, and I feel assured that the Directors of the New Zealand Company would attach great weight to any representations coming from such a quarter.

In connexion with the subject of land, it will be my duty to lay before you copies of a corre spondence which has taken place between the local Government and the principal Agent of the New Zealand Company in reference to providing funds to meet the necessary expenses of acquiring tracts of country from the natives, to enable that body to carry on its colonizing operations; and I shall have to ask you to make such provision from the revenues of the pro- vince for the purpose, or to take such other steps as you may think the exigencies of the case to require.

Of the principal laws which I propose to submit to your consideration during this session, an outline has already appeared in the Government Gazette; for I was desirous that the settlers Should have the opportunity of considering and expressing their opinions upon questions in which their interests were materially involved, prior to the provisions which it was proposed to introduce into the ordinances relating to those questions being brought forward for discussion and enactment in the Council. Every care has been taken in the preparation of the bills which will be laid before you, to adapt them as far as possible to the circumstances and wants of the province; but they may yet be capable of much improvement, and it will be your duty to supply such additions or alterations as your practical experience and local knowledge may lead you to believe will render them more efficient or more generally useful.

Commending, then, to your best attention the voried and important interests upon which you are called upon to deliberate, and confiding in your active and zealous discharge of the trust committed to you, I rely with confidence on you for advice and assistance; and I beg to assure you, on my part, of my earest desire to co-operate with you in your efforts to promote the welfare and advance the prosperity of the province. Legislative Council Chamber, Wellington, →→

1st May, 1849.

E. EYRE.

On the motion of Mr. Ludlam, it was ordered, that his Excellency's Address to the Council be printed.

flis Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor laid on the table a correspondence between the local Government and the principal Agent of the New Zealand Company.

On the motion of Mr. Ludlam, the correspondence was ordered to be printed,