The Minister tor Public Works had quoted the lease in order to show that the late Mims ter for Lands had acted wrongly in giving the land to the colliery ; then the great man qf the Ministry had said that a gross iqb had been perpetrated, inasmuch as his (M r Kolleston s) colleague was interested in the company, and wound up With a kind pat qn the back by say ing that the lata Minister for Lands fiad been guilty of great carelessness in not looking into tho matter. Then it had boon urged that tho land was parted with just as tho Government was going out. Tho papers in connection with tho matter, however, showed that weeks be fore tho late Government left office the transfer had been really decided upon, and She matter had been fully explained to A.I.- Houses of Parliament by the then Tmember for Greymouth, and also by the Hon. Mr Lahmann in the Legislative Council. The Government had to deal with the transfer of the lease as a matter of common sense and, he might say, of justice. 'lhe sum of LIO.OOO had been put into the coalpit, and it was only right that the Minister for Lands should deal with the matter at bis discretion, which, as Minister, had been entrusted to him. Ihe Minister for Public Works had accused him of doing wrong in acting as he had dune m not selling the land in the first five years instead of in the last fivo years of tho company’s lease, but would it be believed that the present Government had done precisely what they had accused him of doing. He had sent down an oiheer to inquire into the matter of the lessees, who had comp amed that they had been charged too much for their land, T i ere was no doubt that the strict letter of tho law had not been complied with, but ho considered that, in assigning the lease, he had acted quite in accordance with the law. q.jje q’reasurer had gone out of his way to make a very nasty and unwarrantable accusation. He again asserted that ho had been guilty neither of carelessness nor of jobbery, and he fearlessly said that his conduct throughout had been perfectly fair and above board. 