THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2295, 14 September 1870, Page 2

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

The following is the speech delivered by his Excellency the Governor in proroguing Parliament yesterday Honorable I ogislative Councillors and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, —

I thank you for the assiduity with which yon have devoted yourselves to the consideration of the affairs of the country, and the care you have bestowed on the various important subjects to which I invited your attention at the commencement of the session.

I sincerely hope that the large measures you have passed for the purpose of promoting public works, encouraging immigration, and developing the resources of the country, will be the means of reviving that spirit of colonisation which led to the foundation of this Colony, and which must be the basis of its future prosperity. When. I consider how small a portion of the country has yet been colonised, and how small a population occupies it, I cannot fail to observe that the responsibility of great works rests not only only on this, but on future generations, by measures of such a character as those you lately passed. The redundant capital and population of the parent country can be made available for the supply of the wants of the Colony.

An essential feature of these measures is the beneficial influence which they will necessarily have on the peace of the country, and the settlement of the Native difficulty. To botli races it must be a source of profound gratification that you determined to continue an essentially peaceful policy, and I congiatulatc you on the disposition which the Natives evidence to reciprocate your conciliatory intentions. The presence of Her Majesty’s ships of war on tin’s station has had a beneficial effect, and the services of Commodore Lambert, 0.8., and the officers and men under his command, arc recognised throughout the Colony with gratitude. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives : I thank you for the supplies which you have granted for the public service of the year. They shall he administered with all due care. Honorable Legislative Councillors and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives ; I cannot but congratulate you on the friendly feeling towards New Zealand which the Commissioners sent to Great Britain to communicate with the Imperial Government have succeeded in establishing. The adoption of Torrens’s system of land transfer, which has for some years past worked with great success in South Australia and other neighbouring Colonies, will no doubt be attended here with the same advantages as elsewhere. It will simplify the complicated laws relating to landed estate, which it will make as easily transferable as any other species of property. Although apparently a mere administrate e improvement, this measure really embodies a great social and economical reform. The Act which provides for the use of the ballot in elections of members of the House of Representatives and the Provincial Councils, will, I hope, prove a useful measure in facilitating the taking of votes, and securing the franchise from abuse. I congratulate you on your desire to increase the trade of the Colony and extend its connection with the rest of the world, as evidenced.by your making provision for a mail service to England via San Francisco, and by several measures of commercial im» portanco which you passed during the ses* sion. The Act for re-uniting the provinces of Otago and Southland, and that for readjusting the financial relations of the Colony and the Provinces, afford proof of the elasticity of the existing institutions of the country, and the readiness with which modifications to suit the change of circumstances can bo effected.

I am sure you will join me in deploring the intelligence just received of the commencement of a great. European war, and in hoping that it will be soon brought to a cl os', and that the friendly relations of Great Britaui with foreign countries may not be imperilled. In releasing you from your labors, I will express the hope that under the blessing of God they may be found the means of advancing the prosperity of the country, consolidating the peaceful relations between the two races which inhabit it, and promoting their general welfare.