With reference to your dispatch on the subject of my laying the colonial accounts of the Canterbury Association before the colonists for approval and audit, and expressing dissatisfaction with such a course, I have to say that the words "for approval," which occurred in my dispatch were not strictly correct. I am in the habit of laying the accounts before the land purchasers formally, and of offering them for public inspection on payment of a small fee, not as acknowledging any theoretical responsibility, still less as requiring an audit, but simply as a free offer of submission to the utmost possible publicity, for the purpose of securing public confidence. In doing so I follow the example of the Bishop, who regularly offers his ecclesiastical accounts for public inspection, with, as he informs me, the best possible effect. As to the audit by the Board of Trade, it is altogether impossible that the people of this country should regard it as any guarantee for the proper expenditure of the public money by the Association, inasmuch as neither the Board of Trade nor indeed the Committee of the Association, can have any but the most insufficient data for judging of the propriety of colonial expenditure, or indeed of the honesty of those who control it.