8.—6.

PUBLIC WORKS. The balance at credit of the Public Works Fund on 31st March last was £383,709, to be augmented by the balance of the 1908 loan not raised, amounting to £50,000, making a total ways and means available at that date of £433,709. During the short session I found it necessary to ask Parliament for authority to raise a loan of £1,250,000 for public-works purposes. This amount will only be sufficient at the existing rate of expenditure to carry us on till the end of December. Our requirements cannot stop on reaching 31st March, so that we must provide to carry on for six months beyond that date, and for that reason I obtained authority for another million, which will enable the construction of the public works so necessary for the development of the country to proceed up to the end of September, when further funds can be provided for by Parliament if required. The position of the fund may therefore be set forth as follows : — £ Balance, 31st March, 1909 .... .... .... 383,709 Balance loan, 1908 .... .... .... 50,000 Loan authorised by " Finance Act, 1909 " .... 1,250,000 Loan authorised this session... .... .... 1,000,000 For eighteen months' expenditure .... .... £2,683,709 REVIVAL OF TRADE. The financial stringency which has prevailed throughout the world during the year may happily be regarded as a thing of the past. The great revival of business throughout the world, to which the price of our staple products has promptly responded, and the general tone of confidence in commercial circles give abundant reason for predicting that the tide of renewed prosperity is flowing, and that before long the wealth of the Dominion will be materially augmented. Wool has risen to a satisfactory figure; the price of frozen meat has advanced, and will I hope soon reach its normal level; flax shows an upward tendency, which competent critics are satisfied will be maintained; wheat is high; and butter and cheese are finding a ready market. Equally satisfactory, that well-known barometer of trade, the Post and Telegraph revenue, has a rapidly rising tendency, the results for the first six months of the year showing a large excess over the corresponding period of 1908-9. What then, it may be asked, is needed to justify our faith in the future of our country ? Even the professed prophets of evil, who wail their jeremaids when the smallest clouds show in the financial horizon, are already changing their note now that the sky is clearing. The enormous resources of jthe Dominion, with a judicious expenditure of capital in their development, will in time make her a much greater member of the Imperial sisterhood. That faith in her resources is shown by her sturdy settlers is clearly evidenced by the land-hunger which has been so conspicuously demonstrated recently. The men who are most competent to form an estimate of the potential possibilities of the land of their birth and adoption are willing to face all the hardships inseparable from a life spent at the frontiers of civilisation in the sure hope of ultimate reward, which they are confident will crown their efforts. The prosperity of our Dominion will not be brought about by gloomy forebodings, begotten by want of faith in the future, but by a determination to meet and overcome the difficulties which may beset the way. The people, animated by a desire to advance the interests of their country, should march shoulder to shoulder irrespective of political creed, and relegate carping criticism to the unknown.

XXX