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counts. That to some extent the application of them has been at least questionable, appears from the fact that the Government Commissioner himself disapproved of it. Your Committee have themselves investigated, as well as they could, the Company's accounts, from which they gather the following facts :— Ist. That out of the Parliamentary grants a considerable sum was lent by the Company to its own shareholders, and lost. 2nd. That other large sums were laid out, ostensibly in the purchase of private estates (an object which does not appear to have been in contemplation by Parliament), but really to buy up troublesome claims for compensation —a matter purely concerning the Company's privaie interests. 3rd. That further sums of considerable magnitude were appropriated by the Directors of the Company amongst themselves, on account of past fees. Your Committee' make no remarks upon this item, except that it does not appear to "them as properly coming within the objects of the Parliamentary grants. Upon the whole, your Committee are of opinion that there is sufficient ground for urging on the Imperial Parliament and the Home Government a claim for relief in respect of the Company's charges on the Land Fund. Your Committee feel assured that the House will disavow, with perfect truth and earnestness, any desire to repudiate a claim which the Company can fairly establish against the Colony in virtue of property surrendered to it. But with equal earnestness and justice, they conceive that it becomes the Colony to protest against a debt fixed upon them on calculations proved to be utterly fallacious, under circumstances justifying more than a suspicion of disingenuous suppression of the truth, and by the operation of which they are burdened with the payment of a large debt, a very considerable portion of which is certainly unrepresented by any assets. The practical mode in which this may be best done appears to your Com mittee to be, by this House forwarding Addresses to both Houses of Parliament as well as to Her Majesty, praying that a Parliamentary enquiry may be instituted into the nature, origin, and circumstances of the Company's claim, with a view to ascertaining what amount of that debt is justly chargeable on the Colony, or whether, having regard to the circumstances in which it originated, the Colony, ought not to be entirely relieved from it. In conclusion, your Committee beg to express their regret that the great press of business this Session, the actual physical impediment in the early part of it, the interruption to the labours of the House occasioned by the prorogation, and the short time finally allotted to them to complete labours of very considerable magnitude, have prevented them from bestowing more care on the preparation of this Report; and in particular from taking that amount of evidence which might have been desirable. But they submit that their report, though not entering with fulness of detail into all the ramifications of the subject, does not seek to establish any proposition which is not capable of demonstration ; and as far as it goes, they submit it to the House with a confident reliance upon the accuracy and justice of the positions, sought to be established by it. ROBERT HART, Chairmar