jUto HOUSE OF REPRESE !V T ATI YES REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. The Committee appointed to consider the state and management of the Public Finances of the Colony have agreed to the following Final Report: — They have obtained additional information from the Auditor-General upon the subject of Land Scrip ; the Agent-General's account; the debt of £8133 due to the Commissariat, and Refunds from Provinces. Such information will be found in the documents appended. They recommend the adoption of the following resolutions, and that they should be embodied in an address to his Excellency :— 1. That in the judgment of this House, all monies held by the Treasury on deposit accounts in the nature of Trusts, as Intestate Estates Funds &c. should be treated as unavailable. 2. That all monies held by the Treasury, properly payable to the New Zealand Company, ought to be treated as unavailable. 3. That all monies due to the Provinces up to the 30th June last, ought to be paid over withoul delay. 4. That proper accounts, based on the provisions of the Constitution Act shewing the distributable surplus available for the Provinces to the 30th of June last, ought to be made up without delay, and that in case of unavoidable delay in completing the entire accounts, the same ought to be completed by estimates as far as possible. 5. That in estimating the distributable surplus available for the Provinces for the year ending the 30th June, 1855, the sum of £32,896 held on that day by the Treasury on account of land purchases, upon the so-called Land Deposit Account, ought to be brought to account and treated as available, subject to a deduction .of one-tenth for possible refunds, to be carried over to a separate deposit account, and to a further deduction of one-twentieth, the estimated cost of surveys. 6. That, pending the final adjustment of the Provincial accounts, the system of advances to the Provinces for current purposes ought to be continued upon its present footing ; and that the proportions of such advances ought not to be disturbed during the current year, leaving the final settlement of accounts open for adjustment at the termination of the financial period. 7. That this House, having been compelled to appropriate the Revenue without the information and guidance of Responsible Members of the