ESTIMATE OF THE AVAILABLE BALANCE ON HAND, JULY 31, 1854.

No, 71. Financial Government House, Wellington, June 24th, 1853. My Lord Duice, I have the honor to state that Lord Grey in his Despatch No. 32, of the 19th of March, 1851. informed me in reference to the Nelson Settlement, that Her Majesty's Government, in the opinion of the Law Officersof the Crown, stood to t'he settlers, in the same relation as the New Zealand Company did before the surrender of its Charter; and his Lordship instructed me to create for the purpose of carrying on the functions of the Company an establishment similar to that created by the Company for the purpose of fulfilling its Contracts with it settlers, the expenses of which establishment, being thrown upon Her Majesty's Government, I was informed was also to be borne by it. 2. In his Lordship's despatch No. 33, of the same date, he pointed out to me that Ilor Majesty's Government was placed in the same position with respect to the settlements of Wellington and New Plymouth,as it was to that of Nelson ; and he directed me to consider the instructions issued by me in relation to the Nelson Settlement, as being applicable also to the Settlements of Wellington and New Plymouth. 3. In the same despatches Lord Grey instructed me to draw for the necessary expenses on the Commissariat chest, and to pay into it from time to time any monies that might be received for lands sold, and 13is Lordship further directed me to keep the expenses of the Settlements by all reasonable endeavours within the amount of one sixth of the sums realized from the sale of Lands, which were under the arrangements of the Company chargeable with such expenses, and the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury in their letter No. 319, of the 13th March, 1851. directed to the officer in charge of the Commissariat in New Zealand to carry out these arrangements, by receiving such sums as might be tendered on account of the several Settlements of New Zealand, and in making such payments as might be directed by the Governor under Lord Grey's instructions. 4 I now beg to enclose for yous grace's information a comparative statement of the expenditure on fixed establishments created by the New Zealand Company in their seueral Settlements, and of the expenses of the Local Government on the same Establishments in those Settlements, together with explanatory remarks thereon by Mr Bell, Commissioner of Crown Lands, formerly the New Zealand Company's Resident Agent at Nelson, from which it will be seen, that the Establishments I created under Lord Grey's instructions, were on a much more frugal scale than those created by the New Zealand Company, and that I in this respect effected a considerable saving. 5. I then beg to state to your Grace that in the case of the Settlement of Wellington, I continued from time to time to pay from advances from other funds at the disposal of Government, or from advances from the Commissariat Chest, the expenses incurred in completing the contracts of the New Zealand Company, and that I hoped that I might ultimately from the sale of Crown Lands under the Regulations established by the New Zealand Company, as also from the proceeds handed over to the Government by the Company's Agent, have replaced the advances thus made. 6. I regret however to state, that whole proceeds received from the New Zealand Company's Agent in this settlement, amounted to no more than one hundred and twenty five pounds,

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Deposits available £3.600 0 0Cash ® Auckland £35,671 10 11 New Zealand Company's One- Canterbury 31,000 0 0 Fourth — Nelson 600 0 0 a Auckland 9,690 0 0 Wellington 18,000 0 0 Canterbury 7,700 0 0 Wellington 7,000 0 0 Loans to be repaid out of i first receipts of Land Fund 7,200 0 0 a Wellington * Ballance available .. 50,081 10 11 85,271 10 11 £85,271 10 11