G.-No. 20.

162. We would desire to call special attention to a paper, to be found in the Appendix, upon the Mineral Resources of the Colony. That paper was prepared by a member of the Commission, and it has received our united sanction. It was intended to have embodied it in the Report, but the' length to which the Report has already attained precludes us from carrying out that intention, and it has been therefore determined to print it separately in the Appendix. 163. Your Commissioners have now the honor to submit this result of their labours to your Excellency. It has of course been impossible within the limits of a Report to touch upon all the details of a comprehensive scheme of legislation, and administration affecting one of the most important interests of the Colony,—but your Commissioners have endeavoured, to the best of their humble ability, to place before your Excellency and Parliament the salient points of that which has formed the subject of their inquiry—the defects of the present system, and the main improvements which, in their opinion, should be adopted. They do not suppose that the system which they have sketched out is perfect or faultless, and by no members of the community more cordially than by your Commissioners will be welcomed any additional suggestions of value, come from what source they may. Your Commissioners do however venture humbly to believe that their labours will not be altogether without benificial result. Certified under our hands and seals, at Sydney, this thirty-first day of October, A.D., 1871. (1.5.) J. GEO. LONG INNES, President. (L.s.) EDWD. COMBES. (us.) E. A. BAKER. (L.S.) H. A. THOMPSON. (1.5.) RICHD. FRAPPELL.

37

NEW SOUTH WALES, 1871.