The Evening Post. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1865. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Post, Issue 182, 7 September 1865, Page 2

The Evening Post. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1865. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

The Council assembled yesterday at three o'clock preparatory to prorogation, when the Provincial Solicitor reminded the house that at their last meeting his colleague said he would bring forward a,,resdluCion .to stop the] payment of money granted to Wanganui until the separation agitation had subsided. The Speaker had ,ruled since then that the resolution could not be put, notice of motion not having been given, yet ho hoped the Council wcujd express their opinion on the subject. Tfte resolution was to the effect that the money had been granted only on con. dition that Wangamii tras to eontinne.a portion of the Province of Wellington ; and that aa a petition for separation was before the Governor, no sum voted for a special grant be expended within the Wanganui District, until the result was known, the expenditure to be confined within the amount of revenue received therefrom. Mr. Bunny thought the sum voted to Wanganui (£33,000) was far more than their due. Mr. Borlase attended a public meeting at Wanganui some time ago, when it was understood if the Council gave that district a representative of the Government, the separation movement would be

dropped. Measures brought forward by him I in that house according to the wishes of the people of Warfganui, were negatived by the representatives from that district, who, having obtained what they wanted, supported the Government. Such men deserved but slight consideration, and he would therefore support the Government in&arrying out their resolution. The Provincial Solicitor said no compact had #ver been made between the Wanganui numbers and the Government. Ml. Stokes observed that Wanganui members had obtained the £33,000 voted under false pretences. Mr. Wallace inquired why the arrangement between the Government and Mr. Iloyt had broken through, and was informed by the Provincial Solicitor he was not prepared to accept the terms of the Government, and they had in consequence advertised for tenders. His Honor the Sfeierintemlent entered the Chamber, and having announced the names of several bills to which he had on the part of the Governor assented, proceeded to deliver his speech* He said— • 11 However inconvenient it may hare been to have held the present session during the meeting of the General Assembly, still it will be readily admitted that Some of the measures you have passed could not have been postponed without grave detriment to the public interests. "It is a gratifi'ing fact that year by year your votes for reproductive works for colonising purposes have gone on steadily increasing ; that this year you have fieeh enabled to appropriate to public works no less a sura than £122,000, and that to this amount the ordinary revenue, after meeting all departmental expenses and all permanent appro* priations in the shape of interest and sinking fund on your loans, has contributed some £15,000. "It is true that your appropriations, amounting to £156,000, are in excess of tho estimated revenue by £20 000. But this excess is really nominal, for savings will be effected in the ordinary expenditure, :ind some of the works cannot possibly be completed within the current financial year. I am satisfied that funds would have been forthcoming amply sufficient to satisfy ail your votes, had the existing financial arrangements between the colony and the provinces remained undisturbed. But you are aware that since your estimxtes were passed, proposals have been submtajjßd by his Excellpncy's Ministers to the House of Representatives which, if agreed to, will very materially reduce the proportion of the Customs revenue { hitherto received by the provinces. ! "Itiato be hoped that the urgent necessities of some, and the growing financial requirements of all the provinces, will induce Ministers to pause before they insist upon proposals so calculated to embarrass the Provincial Governments, and to render them incapable of carrying out engagements into which they have entered, on the faith that under no circumstances, without warning, would they be entitled to less than threeeigthths of the gross Customs receipts. " Though the Act authorising me to raise a loan of £50,000 to pay off a loan of similar amount neither fulls in with the views of the present Ministry as expressed in their circular letter of the 22nd April, nor complies with the stipulations of their proposed Provincial Loan Consolidation Bill, still, seeing that you have in this and a previous Act made ample provision, without imposing on the Province an appreciable burden, for the redemption within a period of eighteen years of nearly the whole of your trifling debt, I cannot anticipate that his Excellency's Government will have any hesitation .in leaving the Act rftb its operation. m^ /£ While it would have been my duty, had mmb been afforded to me, to have suggested certain amendments in the Wellington Town Board Act, I heartily congratulate you that it hao already been brought into operation 5 for I feel convinced that the large and independent powers with which the Commissioners are now clothed, and the ample means placed at their disposal, will enable them to undertake and execute all those public works, which the rapid growth and increasing importance of this City render more than ever necessary. -A «•* H" There is one subject I cannot refrain from alluding to, and I need not say I do so with deep regret. Considering the liberal apportionment of the revenue made to Wanganui— that during the present Session you have actually appropriated to that district almost exclusively for its public works a sum of £33,000, while the revenue for the present year cannot be estimated at more than £12,000, and that its representa-

tives have openly expressed their gratification at the liberal spirit iv which all their claims and demands were met by you— it certainly does appear strange that the attempt to obtain separation should now be revived. To show what ample jus. ice has ever been meted one to Wanganui, it is simply necessary to state, that while the total revenue derived from the district for the period commencing on the Ist of July, 1853, and ending the 31st Mnrc'i, 1865, amounted in rojnd numbers to £60,000, the expenditure within it for public works and for immigration was not less than £106,000, and that if Wanganui be debited with only one-fi.urth of the departmental expenses and of the interest on the loan, she wi.l have received £157,000 and contributed only .£60,000. " It is some satisfaction to know that as the whole of the inhabitants of Manawatu, nnd at leadt three-fourths of the settlers of the Slngitikei-Turakina districts-, have already protested, and are prepared again to protest ag-tinst being included in the proposed New Province, and against its southern boundary being extended beyond the Wanaaehu River the separation of Wanganui, however much to be regretted in all other respects, will in a purely fluatuial point of *iew be a great gain. Pending ihe dei;i*ion of the General Government upon the petition, I btlie^t I shall be acting strictly in accordance with your wishes by keeping the expenditure at; Wanganui as far as practicable I within the limits of its revenue. [ "It only remains for me to tender you my thanks for the earnest de&ire you have evinced j during the present session to promote the interests of all parts of t!ie province ; and personally <o express to you my warm appreciation of the cordial assistance you have on all occasions afforded to the Government. " I now declare that this Council do stand prorogued." ____________

In answer to a question pofby Mr. O'Neill in the House of Representatives, yesterday — whether the Government contemplated an increase of postage on letters via Panama, and the rate of postage on newspapers by the same ro ate— the Colonial Treasurer said the postage of letters would remain as at present, but that it would be requisite to impose a stamp of twopence on newspapers. Mr. Vogel moved " thai the financial pragl postil of the Government organically affect the constitution, of the provinces, inasmuch as it wfflj^eprive them of that propor^ tion of* the revenues on which they have hitherto depended, lurl as no ro.iable substitute is provided, it will leave them unnble to fulfil the financial engagements entered into on the faith of existing arraugements. The house therefore records its disapproval of the proposal. (2 ) That it is not desirable to enter upon the question of further taxation until a new Parliament shall have been convened, and until that important section of the colony which is at present inadequately represented shall have its fair proportion of representation in the house." These resolutions being legarded as tantamount to a vote of want of confidence in the Government, led to a very long debife, which on a division resulted in favour of Ministers, there being for the original niotiou 5, and against it 28. The announcement of the numbers was received with cheers. Mr. Russell's motion j for dividing New Zealand into two separate colonies, fell through, that honorable gentleman not being present ; but Mr. Uroilie having adopted the resolutions as his own, they are on the notice paper for to-day. Mr. Vogel has placed on the motion paper the following notice for to-morrow :— " That this house has no confidence in the Native Minister." The Civil Sittings of the Supreme Court, will be held at 10 o'clock, to morrow morning, and the Courc will sit in Bunco, on the 15th inst The p.s. Ballarat, which put back yesterday in consequence of the severity of the weather, sailed this morning for Nelson . A final meeting of the local committee of the New Zealand Exhibition will he held on Saturday, at the office of his Honor the Superintendent. H.M.S. Falcon reports a shoal called the Desney Shoal, near the Friendly Islands, as being misplaced on the chart, its true position being twenty-five miles west of the position laid down in the chart. The building on the reclaimed land known as the Californian Circus, wiil be sold on Monday next, by Mr. Alfred A. Barnett. The Wellington Rifle Volunteer* will be presented with new rifles and accoutrements on Monday next.