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No. 24. The Eating Act consolidates and amends the laws relating to the rating of property on its annual or capital value respectively, and provides one machinery for the assessment of property, and the collection and recovery of rates under either system. The Act does not alter the existing law as to rating the property of Natives. No. 25. The Inspection of Machinery Amendment Act provides for the examination as to competency of all persons in charge of travelling, agricultural, or other engines No. 26. The School Attendance Act re-enacts in an amended form the provisions of the Education Act as to compulsory school attendance. No. 27. The Offensive Publications Act Amendment Act increases the term of imprisonment which may be awarded under the principal Act in cases of gross offences. No. 28. The Legitimation Act provides that the parents of illegitimate children who subsequently intermarry may obtain an entry upon the register of births of any illegitimate children they may have, whereupon said children become legitimate as if born in wedlock. The issue of any such child who may die before the marriage of his or her parents also succeed to property as if the parent of the said issue had been born in wedlock. Any estate, right, or interest in property acquired before the passing of the Act is not to be affected. A similar enactment, " The Half-caste Disability Eemoval Act, 1860," legitimatising the issue of mixed blood, born before marriage of parents of the European and mixed race, was attended with the best results, and was the cause of many marriages. No. 29. The Foreign Insurance Companies' Deposits Act, for the better protection of their clients in the colony, provides that foreign life assurance companies doing business in the colony shall deposit with the Public Trustee money or securities to the value of £50,000, and accident and other companies to the value of £10,000, and that fire and marine insurance companies shall obtain a yearly certificate from the Public Trust Office Board that it is satisfied of the company's financial stability. No. 30. The Abattoirs and Slaughterhouses Act re-enacts the former law on the subject, is for the encouragement of the establishment of public abattoirs, the discouragement of slaughterhouses, and makes provision for the better inspection of meat. No. 31. The Factories Act consolidates and repeals the Factories Acts, 1891 and 1892, and makes further provision for abolition of the system of sweating. No. 32. The Shops and Shop-assistants Act, in substitution of the Act of 1892, makes more stringent provision to secure a weekly half-holiday for shop-assistants, and extends the same provisions to employes in banks, and merchants' and other offices. No. 33. The Water-supply Act Amendment Act sanctions the raising of special loans for the purpose of paying the preliminary expenses in bringing the principal Act into force within any county or district, notwithstanding no further proceedings are taken at once under the said Act, and otherwise amends the principal Act of 1891. No. 34. The Harbours Act Amendment Act authorises the borrowing of money by overdraft not exceeding the ordinary income of a Harbour Board, and further amends the principal Act in sundry particulars. No. 35. The Government Eailways Act abolishes the offices of the Commissioners of Eailways appointed under the Act of 1887, repeals that Act, and transfers back again to the Crown the management and maintenance of all the Government Eailways in the colony. No. 36. The Lands Improvement and Native Lands Acquisition Act authorises the raising of £500,000 by the issue of debentures, having fourteen years' currency, one-half of such sum to be applied to the construction of roads and bridges and the preparation of Crown lands for settlement, the other half of the said sum to be applied in the purchase of Native lands, and being in substitution of the powers in that behalf in " The Native Land Purchases Act, 1892." No. 37. The Land for Settlements Act makes provisions, in lieu of the Act of the same name of 1892, for the acquisition of private lands for settlement. It has only a five years' duration. The power to borrow for the purposes of the Act is limited to £250,000 in each financial year. No. 38. The Government Advances to Settlers Act authorises the raising of a gross loan of £3,000,000, within two years from the date of the Act, for the purpose of assisting settlers by advancing money to them on mortgage at reasonable rates of interest, on freehold or perpetual leasehold of country lands. A Board is constituted, with District Boards under its control, to investigate all applications for advances, the amount thereof being fixed by the Act at not exceeding threefifths of the value of the freehold, and not exceeding one-half of the value of the lessee's interest in a leasehold. No. 39. The New Zealand Consols Act, to afford facilities for the investment of savings by the creation of consols, authorises the Colonial Treasurer to receive deposits from persons in the colony of sums not exceeding in the aggregate £500,000, bearing interest at 4 per centum per annum, repayable at a time not later than forty years. The deposits to be made in any amount, and may be lodged at any post-office money-order office in the colony, to be entered in the Eegister of Consols at Wellington, where a certificate of consols is issued to depositor ; certificates are transferable by delivery, and entitles bearer to payment of interest and principal. No. 40. The Stamp Acts Amendment Act amends the principal Act and its amendments in respect of the duty on policies of sea-insurance, the transfer or lease of Native lands, and in respect of assignments for the benefit of creditors. No. 41. The Criminal Code Act Amendment Act, for the further protection of girls, advances the age of consent from fourteen to fifteen, and provides that the consent of a girl shall be no defence to certain offences. No. 42. The Public Works Act consolidates and amends the law relating to public works, the taking of lands for the purpose, and the assessment of compensation in respect thereof. No. 43. The Native Land Court Act amends and consolidates the laws relating to the Native Land Court, its practice and procedure, and makes provision restricting the alienation of Native Lands, and for the administration of the same.