PROGRESS OF CANTERBURY.

Evening Star, Issue 3053, 30 November 1872, Page 4

PROGRESS OF CANTERBURY.

The following extracts from Mr Holieston’s speech in opening the Canterbury Provincial Council, arc interesting : When 1 met you in the month of April last, it was my privilege to he able to congratulate you upon the prosperous condition of the Province. The maintenance of the high price of wool, the extension of our railways, the increase of the area of cultivation and settlement, continue to justify the hopes I then entertained, and to establish a confidence in the minds of the public, which is showing itself in the improved value of property, and in the largely increased sales of the wastelands of the Crown throughout the Province. In wool alone, the value of the amount exported during the past year from this Province reached L 666,195, as against the value in the previous year of 1.393,962 ; while the value of the export of grain for the year 1871 was L 130,804; the total exports from the Colony of this commodity amounting in value to L 179,469. the return from land sales for the past year to date amounts to more than L 170,090, and it would appear that a great portion of the land sold has been taken up for the purposes of bona Jidc occupation and settlement. The prospect of a continuance of the purchase of waste lands, the amount of funds which has accrued from the sales winch have already taken place, in excess of what was estimated, the increase of the amount to accrue from pasturage rents in May next, and the general accession to the revenue from oilier sources, will justify your making appropriations on a much larger scale than has been the case for some years past The subject of education will be prominently brought under yonr attention by the very valuable and interesting report of the Board of Education. From this it appears that the number of public schools, which in September, 1868, was 51, has now increased to 77. That the number of attendants in the September quarter, 1868, was 2663, while that in the same quarter of the present year was 5975, and the increase daring the past year under the operation of the new Ordinance has been still more striking ; the number of attendants during the September quarter of this year being 1879 in excess of those in attendance during the same quarter of last year. 7ou will be asked to give effect to the re "ouina ndations of the Board, by making further provision for more effective schools in the large centres of population, and also for a training establishment for teachers. 1 shall ask you to make appropriations and endowments for the promotion of superior education in a college or colleges in the Province, by the establishment of professorships and scholarships, . .

I am informed that it is the intention of the Colonial Government to press on the const: notion of tke main lines north and south to the Kowai and across the Asbburon rivers. lam farther informed that ah the branch lines authorised by the General Assembly will be proceeded with simultaneously as recommended by you, and as rapidly as may be warranted by ad rices of shipment of permanent way and material from England, The plans for the Tiraaru and Temuka Kailway are, I am advised, in a forwai’d state, and the line will shortly be advertised for contract. A very clear and able report on the returns and condition of the lines, of railway now iu working order in the Province will be laid before you. The result shown is a nett return of receipts over expenditure for the year ending September 30, 1872, of about L 20,000; the receipts beiug, in round numbers. LOO,OOO ; and the expenditure on maintenance and working expenses being L4O 000. A comparative statement of the annual gross returns from traffic, from the Ist October, 1867, to the present date, shows au increase on the Lyttelton line in passenger traffic from L 7067 9s 4d in 1807-1868 to to LSOI7 13s lOd in 1871-1872, and on the Southern line from L3GB7 14s 5d in 18671868 to L 6153 7s 2d in 1871-1872; and in goods tiaffic on the Lyttelton line from L 15.590 10s 4d in 1867-1868 to L32.74S 6s 4d in 1871-1872; and on 'he Southern line from L 5839 1 Is 9d iu 1867-1868 to LSB37 4s 5d in 1871-1872, These returns speak for themselves, and need no comment from me.