A.—No. If,

PAPERS RELATIVE TO FINAL SETTLEMENT OF THE CLAIMS OF THE PROVINCE OF TARANAKL

Proposition by Eepbesentatites of the Province of Taeanaki in the Geneeal Assembly. With a view to the final settlement of the claims of the Province of Taranalri under the Financial Resolutions of 1856, we beg to submit the following propositions to the consideration of the Government:— In order to a clear understanding of the subject, it will be necessary in the first place to make a short statement showing the rights of the Province under the arrangement of 1856, as carried out by the Public Debts Apportionment Act of 1858. By that Act a sum of £36,000 was allocated to the purchase of Native land for the Province of Taranaki. Of this sum, £20,000 was to be free of charge to the Province, the Colony paying the interest and sinking fund thereon, and, until it should be spent, guaranteeing a land revenue of £2,200 per annum to the Province. The interest and sinking fund on the remaining £16,000, when expended for the purposes of the Act, was to be a charge on thS Province In round numbers, only about £5,000 lias been spent in acquiring land, leaving an unexpended balance of about £31,000. Of this, £15,000 is due to the Province free of charge °and £16,000 subject to the payment of interest at the rate of 4 per cent, and a 2 per cent sinking fund Ihe Province has thus a clear claim against the Colony under the Act of 1858 for the sum of about £31 000 on certain conditions, and for the continued payment by the Colony of a guaranteed land fund oi £2,200 a-year until the expenditure of the above-named £15,000. We are prepared on behalf of the Province, to abandon these claims, and to undertake the administration of the confiscated lands on the following terms : — 1. The Provincial Government to take all the unappropriated confiscated lands in the Province, with all existing liabilities for compensation to friendly Natives, allowance to returned rebels, surveys of Native awards, and satisfaction of land orders and scrip, but not including money actually payable for salaries and surveys to the 30th September, 1868. 2. No land to be occupied or surveyed by the Provincial Government until the Colonial Government shall have declared that it is safe and expedient to do so. 3. The guarantee of £2,200 land revenue, as fixed in 1858, to be continued until 40,000 acres of open land shall have been declared ready for survey and occupation. 4. All revenue derived from the issue of Crown Grants, except such portion thereof as is by law applicable to the maintenance of the General Crown Lands Office, to be Provincial revenue, or an equivalent allowance to bo made by special vote. 5. The Provincial Government to bo bound to proceed with all reasonable speed with the survey of Native awards, when requested to do so by the Civil Commissioner, or other authorized officer of the Colonial Government; and also with the preparation of Crown grants for Native claimants. 6. The lands to bo sold or otherwise disposed of under regulations approved by the Colonial Government, and all available means at the disposal of the Provincial Government to bo applied to the opening of roads, more especially the road to Patea inland of Mount Egmont, and the coast road, with the view of promoting the settlement and ensuring the permanent peace of the southern part of the Province. Should these terms be accepted, it is proposed to employ the unexpended balance of the £25 000 Loan (about £3,000) m surveying and opening for sale some of the most available blocks of land and by their sale to acquire the means for surveying and opening other blocks, and so on until the whole has been disposed of. „ ? f ' however, the Government do not deem it advisable to hand over the confiscated lands to the Provincial Government, we are prepared, on behalf of the Province, to abandon its claims under the Act of 1858 upon the following conditions: — 1. That a central prison for long-service men be established at the Sugar Loaves, the prisoners being employed in constructing a harbour of refuge as proposed by Mr. Balfour. 2. That so soon as the balance of the £20,000 has been expended in the construction of such prison, the guarantee of £2,200 land fund shall cease. It is unnecessary for us to urge upon the Government the great advantages, both political and commercial, which would follow the construction of a harbour of refuge at New Plymouth —the great and crying evil of our uncertain and imperfect prison discipline, and the impossibility of reforming the_ evil until prisons are established which will allow of a proper classification of prisoners • but we desire to call attention to the fact that a careful survey of the proposed site at the expense of £1 000