A.--No. Ba,

It will be seen from the foregoing table that at the end of the fifteenth year the nett surplus of Revenue to accrue from these transactions would be £1,325,400, with which the debt of £2,800,000 would be reduced to £1,474,600 ; the annual Interest on which at six per cent, would be £88,476 — or less than the annual increase of Customs Revenue by £11,124. But the surplus as it accrued yearly, after repaying deficiencies, might be invested at five per cent., compound interest, increasing the Fund wherewith to reduce the debt at the end of the fifteen years, when the Land Fund as supposed would cease. The above calculations of Receipts are, it is believed, all within the mark. But if any doubt remain as to the financial soundness of the scheme, let the following Savings and Returns, some certain, all probable, for which no credit has been taken in the foregoing account, be considered:— 1. A considerable saving in the passage money of the immigrants noticed above. 2. The probable increase of Ordinary Revenue for the broken periods of the years in which the immigrants necessarily arrive. 3. The nine years' estimate of Ordinary Revenue, establishing the average of £3 per head, includes every man, woman, and child in the country. But in the tabular estimate of increased Revenue, taken credit for above, the probable number of all children, born in the Colony for fifteen years after the arrival of their parents (the immigrants), is altogether omitted. This may be taken as more than a set-off against any decrease in Revenue from diminution of Maori trade, if the 12s. per head above allowed is not sufficient. 6. The Land Revenue is understated, especially by the omission of the proceeds of Town Lands. Towns would be laid out at Ngaruawahia, Otawhao, Matamata, &c, <fec, and in the Taranaki Block, which would realise large prices. 7. No account is taken of the increase to the Revenue by the introduction of the numbers of immigrants which would necessarily follow the opening up for settlement of the large blocks of land, to be sold under the scheme. 8. No account is taken of the very great increase that would accrue to the Revenue from the mere expenditure of three millions of money, even were it not spent in the introduction of immigrants. The fair conclusion seems to be that the raising of a large Loan for the above purposes is not only prudent, but profitable. But were it neither one nor the other, financially speaking, it is an absolute necessity, uuless some other plan can be devised for confronting and crushing the Maori difficulty. The Loan should be made a first charge on the Ordinary and Territorial Revenues of the Colony, after the 1856 debt of £500,000. It would of course be ultimately paid out of the Territorial and Ordinary Revenue of the Provinces of the Northern Island, in proportion to the number of immigrants introduced into each, and the amount of money spent on road-making in each. The Debentures to be issued should be made payable at the option of Government, any time after ten years from the date of their issue.

It may be objected to the foregoing plans that they are based solely on the idea of force ; and it is true that physical power is the main element of the conception. But the adoption of this plan does not by any means preclude the employment of moral methods for acquiring influence over the Natives or ameliorating their condition, bodily or mental. On the contrary, we are firmly persuaded that this basis of physical power is the best and only one on which to rear the superstructure of moral sway. The want of it has been the one great cause of failure of all the attempts of Government to raise and civilise the Natives. Let respect for its power be once firmly established, and its plans for the introduction of " law and order" among the Natives, and for their investment with political powers and rights, will have some chance of success. All the more chance when these efforts are no longer liable to the suspicion of being prompted by interest or fear, nor to the danger of being contemptuously rejected without trial, or found wanting and discarded, because not duly supported by physical force. Power first—as the only thing that naturally commands the respect of these undisciplined men; after it, the humanising institutions j after it, every wise and mild contrivance to elevate and improve them. This is the natural order of things. Until you get rid of the rank growths of savagery, how can you rear the plants of civilisation ? The axe and the fire are wanted before the plough and the seed-corn. Cut down the towering notions of savage independence so long nursed by the Maoris— stately, imposing, even attractive though they be—root up their ill-concealed passion for lawless self-indulgence. Then you will have clear space and a free soil for the culture of the gentler and more useful products of the heart and the intellect. In conclusion, it may be fairly said in favour of this scheme that— It will commence and cany to a considerable extent a system of roads which will eventually traverse and render accessible all parts of the Northern Island. It will introduce an armed population numerous enough to be capable of defending itself, as well as previous and subsequent settlers, against all attacks of the Natives. It will locate this population in such positions as to render possible and safe the colonization and settlement of large tracts of country lands, besides those they inhabit themselves.

11

MILITARY SETTLEMENTS.