PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2392, 1 December 1870, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

At this afternoon’s sitting the Secretary for Li and and "Works notico of Ins intention to move on next sitting day. “That this Council is of opinion that it is desirable to construct a line of railway from Invercargill to Mataura, That the (government he empowered during the recess to treat with any individual or company for the construction of the said line of railway in the followin'"''terms, viz.That the cost of construction shall not exceed LI Oil,ooo, and that the expenditure in each year is made contingent on the amount of land sales elleeted in the ilistricb at a minimum price of 20s per acre.” A few unimportant questions were asked of

and answered by the Government. The Provincial Solicitor moved the third reading of the Representation Ordinance No. 2. Mr Wood moved, that it be recommitted to enable him to move certain alterations in the fourth clause. This was opposed by a number of members who, while admitting that an injustice had been done to the settlers in the Mataura district, thought it inexpedient and impolitic to allow the recommittal. An hour’s debate was only relieved from its dreariness by a short passage of arms between Mr Fraser and Mr Mouat, and by a very vehement address from Mr France. The motion for going into committee was carried by 20 to* 15. Immediately on Mr Hanghton taking the chair there was a rush of motions and notices of motion to a'ter di triets, and if only half of them are discussed, it will take a couple of days to consider them. From Air Thomson came a motion to reduce the Dunedin members from seven to live ; and the other motion were to alter the repre entation of Wnitaki, Caversham, Taieri, Milton, Waihola, and Southland. Then there was a motion by Mr Shepherd to add half-a-dozen members to the Goldfields, the Lakes included. Mr Reynolds gave notice of his intention to move the adoption of the General Assembly electoral districts, -which would give thirty-eight members. Mr Gillies, in endeavoring to strike out two of the Southland constituencies, received a well deserved rap over the knuckles from Mr Calder, who showed that there was not the slightest appearance of fairness in the proceeding. Ho. said that Otago returned a member for every 216 electors, while Southland only had one for every 257. Mr Wilson, another Southland member, characterised Mr Gillies’s conduct as “a factious opposition to a reasonable request. ” (Left sitting )

The following motion by Mr Clark is set down on the order paper for discussion today : “ The Council regrets to learn that the Reply which the Council returned to your Honor’s Message No. 2, on the subject of the Financial Policy of the General Government, does not meet with your Honor’s approval.

“ The Council fails to see that the fact of the administrative machinery’ of some of the Provinces not being ‘ so complete as ours,’ is any reason for the Colonial Government retaining in their own hands, by statute, the administration of the proposed loan in Provinces which have all along carried on public works satisfactorily, and whose ‘ administrative machinery’ is comparatively complete. Moreover, this Council desires to place on record its protest against such a course, as being subversive of the principles of self-government which ha-s {sic) hitherto obtained in this Province, and which was conferred upon it by the Constitution Act. The Council also objects to such expenditure being taken from its control, convinced as it is that the moneys raised on the security of the Province, for the construction of its necessary public works, can be more carefully administered, and the works more economically and efficiently constructed by its own officers. Your Honor entertains the opinion that, although the General Government have retained the administration of the proposed loan by statute in their own hands, yet that practically whatever ‘ public works and immigration this Provin e may avail itself of under the loan, will be very much, if not entirely, subject to the control of the Provincial Council. ’ Certain reports, however, as to contracts for surveys said to have been entered into under the Immigration and Public Works Act, 1870, po nt to an entirely opposite conclusion. The Council understands that the Executive have not been consulted in regard to these surveys. Your Honor is under an entire misapprehension if your Honor imagines that the resolutions of the Council in regard to the Colonial scheme amount to a refusal ox the part of the Council ‘to avail itself of the Colonial loan.’ If your Honor will take the trouble again to read the resolution, your Honor will observe that it means no such thing. The Council is simply of opinion, as expressed in the resolution itself, that ‘ it is inexpedient for this Council to make any recommendation with the view to the initiation of any works under the Immigration and Public Works Act, 1870, until the whole policy of that Act has been considered by the various constituencies throughout the Province.’ “ Your Honor enunciates one feature of the policy of the Colonial Government in these words : —‘ What the Colony proposes to do is to borrow money on behalf of such Provinces as can show satisfactory security.’ If the Government intend fairly to carry out this policy, it is evident that there are Provinces ■which cannot participate in the advantages to be derived from the construction of works out of the proposed loau, inasmuch as they have no satisfactory security to offer —or indeed any security at all. The extensive surveys that are in progress in the Province of Wellington, show that the General Government have no intention of carrying out this policy in good faith. Your Honor’s other remark about the Colony insisting “ upon retaining in its own hands the control of the ‘expenditure,’ has already been sufficiently referred to. “Your Honor is correct in attributing to the Council ‘ an impression that the financial policy of the General Assembly involves Immigration and Public Works in the North Island at the expense of the South.’ The Council docs not believe that, oh this point, it is under any ‘misapprehension.’ The Council would take the liberty of expressing its astonishment that any one, who has such a large knowledge of the history, the financial condition, and the resources of the two Islands, can arrive at any other conclusion. In answer to your Honor’s remark that, ‘with the exception of 1-800,000, which is to be Col email}' charged, and the expenditure divided equally between the Islands, the rest of the Public ’Works Loau will be charged against the particular Province within which the vorks are constructed,’ the Ccancil would respectful!}’ point out to your Honor, that the fact of charging loans Proviucially is no security to the Colony in (die case of Provinces that have literally no security to offer. .Surely your Honor has not I’.'i-eotton tire action taken by tbe ktcncral Assembly, in ISG7, in passing tbe Loan Allocation Repeal Act, by which the charges made against the North Island, on account of the three million loan, were abandoned ; and this in a Legislature containing a preponderance of .Southern members. The Council, in coming to the conclussou it did, is (piite aware of the proposal of the Government to appropriate the loan ‘from year to yea.’ It is unable to sec in this any adequate security to the Middle Island. “ The Council docs not believe that, by the course it is adopting, it is retarding the

progress of the Colony, even ‘ for one single day.’ It is evident to the most casual observer that no public works of any magnitude can be undertaken prior to the meeting of the new Parliament. Your Honor seems to be altogether under an erroneous impression as to the arguments which weighed with the Council, for, in referring to the resolution, your Honor remarks, ‘ and this apparently, for no other reason than that the proposal to provide for these works has emanated from a particular individual, and that the administration and control hare not been by law vested primarily in the Council itself. ’ There is nothing in the resolution to lead your Honor to form any such opinion ; and, if your Honor has been so informed, the Council would take the liberty of remarking that your information is incorrect. “The Council is well aware that your Honor has been a staunch advocate of Provincial independence. It desires to give your Honor full credit for sincerity in supporting the financial policy of the General Government The Council expresses the hope that your Honor will extend to it that credit for sincerity in its views which the Council accords to your Honor. The Council cannot, for reasons above stated, admit that the policy of the Council sacrifices in any way ‘the immediate progress of the Province.’ The Council quite agrees with your Honor in the sentimint expressed in those words;— ‘ If Provincial Government is to stand in the way of peopling the Province, developing its mineral resources, and intersecting it with railways, then perisli Provincial Government !” That the Provincial Government is at present standing in the way of progress is a mere assumption on the part of your Honor. Any material progress that the Colony has already made has been attained entirely thrangh Provincial Governments. The General Government has hitherto acted as a drag on the progress of the Colony. The Council has not the slightest reason to believe that the future will, in this re-peet, he different from the past. The Council agrees with your Honor in the belief that the ‘people’ of the Province do not desire either the destruction of Provincial Go Vermont or the abandonment of colonization. On the contrary, the Council believes.that the people look to Provincial Government for a vigorous discharge of its duty as the guardian of their rights, and the opponent of every attempt to sacrifice their interests.

“The Council regrets that your Honor should have s en fit to refer in terras of disapprobation to the action of the Council respecting the Southern Trunk Railway, during the Special Session of 18(59, and that your Honor should have interpreted the Resolution, passed by the Council in reply to Message No. 2, as amounting to a refusal to avail itself of the Colonial Guarantee. Your Honor has here again fallen into the fallacy, which, indeed, runs through the whole of your Honor’s message, that the resolution of the Council amounts to a a negation of the whole financial policy. “In conclusion, the Council would remark that your Honor must be aware of the high position to which the Province has attained, principally through the Constitutional working of the Provincial Government, and that it is only recently, since the Constitution has been ignored and attempts made to over-ride it, that evils have arisen detrimental to the bests interests of the people. The Council cannot look on your Honor’s message in any other light than ns another infringement of the Constitution. In censuring the proceedings and impugning the motives of the Council, your Honor has exceeded your Honor’s constitutional rights, and adopted a course which, if submitted to, would be subversive of that freedom of deliberation which is the undoubted privilege of the Council. Moreover, it implies a responsibility on the part of the Council to your Honor, which is due only to the constituencies. Although the Council has condescended to answer your Honor’s message No. 8, it would take the liberty of remarking that this is not to be understood as an acknowledgment on the part of the Council that your Honor has any right to send such a message.”