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seven members' of the House of Representatives ; which protest we send herewith to your Excellency? ■with a request that your Excellency will be pleased to comply with the wishes of the parties by forwarding the same to the Imperial Government. The gentlemen whose signatures are subscribed to such protest are entitled to consideration and weight. Two of them are Superintendents of Provinces—Wellington and Otago. Of the seven, fow represent constituencies of the Province of Wellington, and three of the Province of Otago. The Province of Wellington returns eight members, one half of whom have therefore joined in the protest. The three members of Otago comprise all the Representatives of that Province. The House of Representatives consists of thirty seven members, and it may be stated in a general way that the Financial policy now under consideration has been affirmed by large majorities of that House, and almost unanimously by the Legislative Council. The protesting party are in fact the Opposition against which the present Government, has contended during the Session ; and the Protest really bears that party character. As regards the opposition of the Otago members especially it cannot be unjust to attribute that Character to it. The tenor of the Protest is a complaint on behalf of the Northern Island against what is alleged to be unfair relief to the Middle Island. But, Otago, as a Province, cannot complain on that score. We may perhaps with equal justice apply a similar remark to the opposition of the Wellington members, looking to the fact that even a more liberal offer of relief to the Middle Island proceeded, as we shall presently have occasion to remark, from Mr. Fox, their leader. But without enquiring to motives it will be fair to measure the value of the objections raised by their own intrinsic weight. Six grounds of objection are stated, which shall be noticed seriatim. It is objected, first, that the proposed measure contravenes the Constitution Act ; we answer that undoubtedly it does so ; its very object is to alter the provisions of the Act, and to redress a grievance which subsists under it. But it is no argument to urge that a grievance ought not to be remedied because it exists by Law. The Constitution Act was framed in England, without that knowledge of its practical effects which experience has supplied. The nature and magnitude of the charge for Native Land Purchases was altogether out of sight. Had the actual result been foreseen, it is not to be imagined that Parliament would have framed the Act as it stands. Secondly, that while the debt charged upon the Middle Island amounts only to £200,000 the arrangement relieves that Island from a contribution towards the extinction of Native Title, which would ultimately amount to not less than a million and a half sterling. . This objection to the equitableness of the arrangements assumes that the claim to contribution from the Land Fund of the Middle Island towards extinguishing the Native Title in the Northern Island, without limit as to time or amount, is a fair and equitable claim. But this on the part of the Middle Island is denied, and the claim in fact is one which no political party can advance with a hope of success in the General Assembly. Its manifest injustice and impolicy are such that the first House of Representatives in its second Session, by a very large majority, including the present Superintendent of Wellington himself, affirmed by Resolution that the Charge of Extinguishing Native Title within each Province ought to be borne by such Province. And during the late Session not only was thi3 claim surrendered by the protesting members themselves, but they went further, and supported a proposition less favorable to the Northern Island than that which is now made. In the House of Representatives Mr. Fox on behalf of those members distinctly and advisedly offered to accept the £180,000 charged on the General Revenue as a final provision for the extinction of Native Title : to accept in fact the whole of the proposed arrangements, with this sole modification, that the proposed charges, instead of being apportioned among the Provinces, should be consolidated, and that the Land Fund should contribute towards the charges of Government and the Interest of the Consolidated Debt, at a fixed rate of two shillings and sixpence per acre, and should be exonerated from all other charges. This offer was declined by the Ministry, as too favorable to the Middle Island. For the fixed contribution as proposed by Mr. Fox would on the most sanguine estimate have fallen short of the interest on the sum of £200,000 now intended to be charged on the Three Provinces of the Middle Island. Thus the protesting members impugn as unduly favorable to the Middle Island an arrangement less beneficial to that division of the Colony than one which they themselves supported ; and ground their opposition on a claim, which, as now advanced, has been over and over again abandoned by the Representatives of the Northern Provinces. Thirdly, That its tendency will be to disunite the Colony ; this objection may be not unreasonably viewed with suspicion as coming from a political party, whose avowed view is to break up the Colony into six independent state. In truth it is based on a patent fallacy. The relative contributions of the Provinces varying according to the amount of their gross Revenues, there would be a constant temptation to the Provinces to evade payment of their proper quota; and as respects the contribution from the Land Fund, there is no doubt that evasion might be successfully attempted. Moreover it would, according to the view now put forward by the objectors, be necessary from time to time to raise additional loans, for the extinction of Native Title, thereby increasing the weight of the common burthen for purposes in which a portion only of the Colony is interested. Considering how obvious it is that Such an arrangement would tend not to union but to discord, we are constrained to say that of all the pretences put forward in support of the views of the objectors, this appears the boldest. Fourthly, The objection thatthe measure is defective, as leaving the Colony at large liable for default by individual Provinces, is merely an objection to the Colony becoming guarantee under any circumstances for the Provinces, an objection the principle of which it would be impossible to admit. Pracically the risk of the Colony is imaginary.