OPENING OF THE CANTERBURY PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Issue 3355, 20 November 1873, Page 2

OPENING OF THE CANTERBURY PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

The speech by which his Honor the Superintendent opened ihe ordinary and last session of the existing Provincial Council on Saturday is not particularly striking, but it will most probably be considered in the main satisfactory, more especially as it indicates a desire to persevere heartily in that policy of progress on which the Colony has entered, and from which it cannot now recede. Mr Rolleston is able to congratulate the Council on the prosperity of the Province, though he does it somewhat coldly, and he is careful to note that this prosperity has increased during the past four years. In making this observation, his Honor has simply stated a fact; but it must be remembered that he was at the outset a determined opponent of the scheme to which the prosperity he speaks of is due. His Honor’s language almost implies that the prosperous condition of the Province should be placed to the credit of the local Government and Legislature, and he seems disposed to claim for himself a much larger share than the public will he disposed to acknowledge. Thirty-two miles of “additional railways” during a period of four years is not much to boast of, when we consider how easily railways can be constructed iu this Province ; and the nineteen miles which we owe to the local authorities— “ on a system of small contracts ’’—are certainly not so vety creditable to their energy and administrative ability as his Honor appears to imply This is followed by a recapitulation of facts about immigration, with which the public are already fully acquainted. It was not generally known, perhaps, that his Honor had displayed so much zeal on this very important question, or that the Colonial Government had at his instance consented to assist iu erecting buildings for the reception of immigrants at the Ashburton and at the Waimate. We share his conviction that “ sooner or later the pouring of immigrants in large numbers into the towns would lead to bad consequences, and that it would be only by this means that the wants of the outlying districts, where little or no house accommodation exists, would be provided for,” His Honor’s defini'ionof colonisation has at least the merit of resembling many other definitions in this respect—it commits the author to nothing definite. At length we reach the kernel of the speech. Mr Rolleston points out that the returns from our railways for the year ending Sept. 30 show an excess of receipts over expenditure to the amount of nearly L20,00(i ; that the receipts from passengers on the Lyttelton and Christchurch line have risen from L 7.667 9s 4d iu ISG7 18GS to L 9,*71 2s Id in 1872-73. ou the >outhern lino, from L 3,683 t4s 5i in 1867-1868 to L 7,656 6s 4din 18721873; and that the receipts from goods traffic during the same period have risen on the Lyttelton and Christchurch line from 115,896 1§« 4i to L 35,499 Os 9d; aqd ojj

the Southern line from £5,839 lls 95 to LlO 434 Is. These statistics deserve, and they ■will no doubt receive the most careful consideration of the public and the Council. They indicate a degree of progress whch justifies the most sanguine hopes of th re who have always urged the extension of our railway system, and they afford convincing evidence of the substantial progress made by the Province. Mr Holleston cites the figures given above merely to show the steady increase of traffic, and not as indicating any opinion that it is desirable lor the country to make a revenue out of its railways: “My own opinion hj in a different direction, I should wish to see not only the cost of carriage by land reduced to the lowest possible point, but a large reduction of all port and wharfage charges.” It is satisfactory to find, from these and o‘her remarks in his speech, that Mr Roileston shows a disposition to adopt and utilise the progressive ideas of those who have given careful attention to that branch of Colonial political economy which hears more directly upon the construction and subsequent management'of railways, fie sug gesta that a flarbor Trust should be endowed, in land, so as to enable it to meet the interest on the harbor works loan, and aiso that a Commission should be appointed with the view of procuring the best professional advice “ as to the arrangements to be adopted hereafter to meet the necessity which has been forced upon us by the Colonial Legislature,’ 1 The Council will probably be of opinion that a Select Committee could, during the session, collect all the necessary information, and that the whole system of railway administration demands close investigation. —Lyttelton Times.