PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2067, 20 December 1869, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

This Day. After the usual preliminaries of reading tfie minutes of proceedings and confirming them, aevgral notices of motion were given The Secretary fox Lapd and Works moved the suspension of the Standing Orders, in order to record in their proceedings the regret they feel at the death of two gentlemen, Messrs Paterson and Balfour, at a moment when their services were more likely than at any other time to be of value to the Colony. The motion was agreed to, ' a*id the following resolutions were parsed t —lst, That this Council has heard with sincere regret of'tho dispensation of Divine Providence, whereby four of our fellow colonists have met with sudden death by drowning, within the last few days. 2nd. That the Council desires to record its deep sense of the great loss sustained by this Province and the Colony at large by the sad event, which has terminated the valuable fives of Mr James M. Balfour Colonial and Marine Engineer ; and Mr Tromas Paterson, Hailway Engineer. 3rd. That this Council desires further to record unfeigned sorrow and sincere sympathy with those who have been bereft of by this sad event. The motion passed in silence.

The House had scarcely resumed its ordinary business when message No. 3 was introduced as follows : “ With reference to the resolutions which have been passed by the Provincial Council upon the subject of the ; Otago Hundreds Regulation Act’ and t}ie 'request that the Superintendent may communicate with His Excellencyfthe Governor with respect thereto. The Superintendent desires to express his concurrence on the proposed amendments, and to assure the Provincial Council that he will endeavor to get the Act amended accordingly. At the same time the Superintendent would fail in his duty to the Province as well as to the Provincial Council were be not to call attention to the fact that unless the Colonial Parliament should meet earlier than usual, it would be nine months before an amended Act is lively to come into force, and that in the meantime, it is absolutely essential both in order to meet the demands of settlement and the requirements of revenue, that more land may be placed in the market as Hundreds. If this is not done, one of two things must inevitably be the result—either land will have have to be taken under the covenants, at a rate of compensation very much in excess of that which will have to be paid,under the Hundreds Regulation Act, and in most cases without the graz’ng rights implied in Hundreds : gr the revenue from land sales must cease, to an extent which must involve a suspension of public works, of Jgrants in aid, and of immigration, a contingency which the Superintendent would very much deplore, and which he feels persuaded the Provincial Council cannot be a party to. Now that the Provincial Council has admitted the main principle of the Act, the Superintendent cannot see the force of postponing its operation—especially in the ease cf those Hundreds in which nearly the whole area may be said to be agricultural, and in those cases (and they are numerous) in which the Government may be able to arrange with the pastoral tenant without the intervention of officers appointed by the Governor, Should the Provincial Council approve, the Superintendent sees no reason why additional Hundreds may not be proclaimed within the next four weeks, or less. Under the circumstances of the case, the Superintendent ventures to hope that the Provincial Council will so far reconsider the question as

to obviate the disastrous results to which he has alluded, results which can only be averted by the immediate proclamation of additional Hundreds, or by payinglinldue 'compensation to the pastoral tenants - ©! the Crown.” The Government said they did not intend to take any action in the as the message was sent unknown to them' and without their concurrence. Air Green caused some amusement by stating that although it was supposed that the seeds sown on the Alain North road were of gorse, wattle, and gum, nothing hut mustard and cress had sprung up. The Secretary for Land and AVbrks deferred throwing light on the subject until tomorrow. The House then proceeded to discuss Air Shand's motion that the Council be forthwith dissolved, so as to meet again before the Ist of April next. Air Ashcroft suggesting as the better course that each member should resign, so, that without the necessity of the Superintendent’s resigning, the constituencies might express their views on the subject of the Land question. [Left sitting.]