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it may be doubted whether the Provincial Councils of New .Zealand ought not, not only to have been prohibited from making any law for "regulating ths course of Inheritance " but also from making any alteration whatever in the law of real property, or in the transfer thereof; and it is matter for consideration whether such a prohibitory measure should not be enacted by a law of the General Assembly, The same Act also contains a provision which may not improbably suggest to the Assembly the expediency of making a still more extensive alteration in the law. The objectof the enactment to which I refer is to simplify the mode of releasing a title to dower by married women. I believe it will be found that the right to dower, which by law attaches to lands and tenements, of which the husband may at any time have been seized during marriage, has ceasad to be of practical benefit to the wife or widow of the owners ; while it occasions considerable expence and delay in the alienation of real estate. I believe that a considerable modification of this ancient right may be effected, without injury to individual interests, and that the enactment of a law that the widow shall not be entitled to dower except of lands and tenements of which her husband was actually seized at the time of his decease, would materially facilitate the transfer of real property in New Zealand, and simplify tile law relating thereto. The unsatisfactory state of the Law for regulating Marriages in New Zealand, will probably be brought under your notice with a view to its amendment. The Ordinance passed bv the Colonial Legislature in the Session of 1851, may not have been sufficiently stringent in its provisions for securing due publicity. It will be fortunate however for the Colony, if the Assembly shall succeed in devising a measure with that object, which shall less disturb the good feeling which has hitherto subsisted in this country between the various religious denominations, —which shall be less open to objection as creating invidious distinctions between tliem, —which shall interfere less with existing usages — and which at the same time shall be more efficient in its provisions than the disallowed Ordinance of 1851. The difficulty which has recently arisen in carrying into effect the punishment of transportation, owing to the want of some convenient Penal Settlement, to which convicted felons may now be sent, will render it necessary that some other system of secondary punishments should be devised in the place of transportation. If the Assembly should not be able during the present Session to mature a measure of a permanent character for the amendment of the criminal code, I would recommend that a temporary Act should be passed, providing that the convicts, who now are, and who hereafter may be under sentence of transportation, shall be kept in penal servitude, and employed at hard labour, on the roads, or other useful pnblic works, within the limits of 'the Colony itself. Other subjects may not improbably be brought under your consideration in the course of the ensuing Session. To decide, however, upon the most advantageous apportionment of Legislative power between the Supreme Legislature and the°subordinate Local Councils, and to mature the necessary subsidiary measures for securing its practical adjustment, may be expected to occupy a large portion of the First Session of the General Assembly. I have for that reason occupied myself for the most part in endeavouring to demonstrate the necessity for the adoption by the Assembly of some welL considered course of policy ; and in suggesting a general outline of what I believe that policy should be, I have directed your attention only to those special measures of immediate importance which appear to be needed for effecting that object. It will be competent, however, for any member of the Assembly to originate and introduce any Legislative measure of a practical character which may appear to him to be required for the alteration or amendment of the Law ; and I shall be prepared cordially to co-operate with the Assembly in any measure for that object, which the interest of the public may be found to require. A great work then, gentlemen, now lies before you. To confirm by your prudence and moderation the fitness of our countrymen for Representative Self-government and Free Institutions,—to preserve and to advance in the scale of civilization the Native inhabitants of these islands, —to develope the resources of a country rich in all the elements of future national greatness,—to be the pioneers for its colonization by the Anglo-Saxon, race, —to lay the foundation of its religious, political, and social institutions, —to give laws to the present, and to influence the character of a future generation,—will be the rare privilege and the noble duty of the new formed Parliament of New Zealand. Entering, then, as we are about to do, 011 the discharge of important and responsible duties, believing that our example and that the character of our proceedings will be influential in after times, and on those who shall succeed us, —and seeing in this Assembly the germ, of what will oije day be the Great Council of a Great Nation, I cannot conclude my address on opening the first session of the General Assembly of these Islands, without the expression of an earnest prayer that the Divine Blessing may direct and prosper all our consultations,—that all things may be so ordered and settled upon the best and surest foundation that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, mav be established amongst us for all generations. R. H. Wynyard. „ , Officer Administering the Government. Council Chambers, 27th May, 1854.