PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Issue 3838, 12 June 1875, Page 3

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Friday, Junk 11.

A question of privilege, the first for a couple of sessions at least, occupied the time of the Council for a quarter of an hour. Despite his declaration at the time of speaking that he with Mr .Turnbull, Mr Manders’s name appeared in the division list on Mr De Lautour 8 motion, re the goldfields department, being stationed for Dunedin, as having voted with the “noes,” which of course he did not. But upon this mistake of the tellers, who tv ™ ha . ve tic k ec * the name of the hon. Dr. Menzies. instead of that of the member for Arrow, one of the funnymen of the ‘Guardian,’ wrote a funny paragraph; the concluding part of which recommended that two votes should be given to Mr Hallenatein, when his shadow (meaning the member for the Arrow) might go home. As the member for Arrow was under the belief that the mistake might .do him harm, with hia constituents—and here he brought in the editor of the ‘Mercury,’who had beaten him in an election by a fluke—he requested that it might be corrected, and this Mr Speaker ordered to be done. The best part of the afternoon was occupied with turnpikes, the second reading of a Bill to amend the Ordinance of 1866 provoking considerable discussion. In committee Mr Bastings succeeded in carrying an additional clause that no waggon should be allowed to carry more than five tons weight, special provision to be made for machinery. The amended Town and Country Police Ordinance was brought in to cure a defect in the ' measure of 1862, Mr Bathgate having decided ’ that it did not give constables the power to efcter private houses. The amended Ordinance, which passed a second reading, gives power to the police to enter houses of ill-fame and apprehend persons found there, and to apprehend persons found gambling in any house. An address to the Superintendent was agreed to, requesting his Honor to set aside the following lands as part of the proposed educa- •. 500,000 acres, v : z., runs S’fS?' 194, "ft*®. P ar t of 1758, and 202208,000 acres; 213 A and part of 205—40,000 ■ ’ 78,500 “ r , es J 208-25,680 acres; acres; 195 A a «^n 2l4 ~ lß - 03 6 acres ; 74, f ß *’ MO »«« B i, 62 T® B|B3 ? J acreß; on aU of which 1*5,539 assessment is paid.

• Message No. 14, to set aside land.on deferred payments, was concurred in. , A reply to Message No. 15, which submitted for the consideration of the Provincial Council,

the expediency of enabling the Government to proceed with the construction, out of revenue or loan, > of the railway and harbor works specified in the schedule transmitted therewith, having been moved, there arose a host ofj objectors.—Mr. Bastings and MrFiSHobjectingto haying the works constructed out of revenue, which would enable the Government t"> make whatever fancy lines they liked; Mr M‘Debmid preferring them to stand over for a year, unless there was some probability of a loan being obtained ; Mr Shand and Mr Kinross being of opinion that more works had been voted already than could be possibly met out of revenue. To them, the Provincial Secretary made answer that those members who believed that the various lines were necessary, who had from year to year urged that the works should be undertaken, and who authorised the Government in 1873 to enter into their construction by the sale of land, at tea shillings per acre if need be, ought not to be frightened at the result. The total amount might, at the discretion of the Council, be spread over two or three years, and, looking at the prosperity of the Province, they should not be too timid. Such action scarcely showed that they had sufficient confidence in the works themselves, and in the Province, if they refused to let the Government enter iuto an arrangement to have them constructed out of revenue or loan. He could not speak for every line on the schedule, but he believed that the great bulk of the lines would be reproductive in themselves—quite as reproductive as any works entered into by the Province—and he did not think that there was any necessity for the Council to preclude the Government from entering into contracts for them before the close of the financial year. The Council should not hamper the Government; they should not go through the farce of discussing and arranging schedules of railways year after year, and never know when the railways were to be completed. The feeling of the Council was tested by Mr Mr Debmid, on whose motion—“ This Council regrets that it cannot concur in his Honor’s proposals, to construct certain lines of railways and other works out of revenue, but are willing to entertain the question of constructing railway and other works out of loan, or from the revenue derived from tke sale of the Bluff and Winton Railway to the General Govern ment.”—there voted ayes, 12 ; uoes, 24. In Committee, the first item of the schedule Main line of railway through Seaward Bush, eleven miles at L 2,200 per mile, L 24,20 agreed to. The second item (L17.81319s 10d) for the main line to Kaitangata and extension to Coal Point, 4 miles 28 chains at L 4.095 _ per mile (nearly), was struck out. On the item—“ Main line to Outram via Mosgiel, 8 miles, 47.14 chains, at L 3,251 per mile, L27,672”—being moved, Mr Driver moved its postponement until the Outram - Greytown Railway Bill came on for second reading. This was stoutly opposed by the Provincial Secretary, who contended that the Go/eminent line was required by the public ; it was not so cheap as that proposed by the company, but it would open up a large tract of country, and, with the exception of one or two farmers, would suit every person in the district; while the Greytown fine would destroy the prospects of landholders on the east side of the Taieri River, which was thickly populated j and besides the line via Mosgiel had been promised since 1871. Much in the same strain spoke Messrs Mackellar and Turnbull. On the other hand, Mr Driver could nob see why four landowners should not have a railway if they chose to pay for it; Mr M'Dermid thought the L 28,000 the Mosgiel line would cost could be more advantageously expended elsewhere, and no harm would result from the construction of that line being deferred; Mr Bastings was of opinion that they had sufficient liabilities already without undertaking some works that might be safely left to private enterprise; Mr Fish did not think there should be a moment’s hesitation about choosing between a line that was to cost the Province L 28.000 and another that would it nothing; Mr Gillies, who thought both lines should be sanctioned, and said he intended to support the Greytown one, though it would not suit a large number ot settlers, and, lastly, Mr Shand, to set himself right with the Council, explained that the Greytown Company had been floated in three weeks ; that the head of the Government (Mr Reid) who was chairman of the opposition company, bad dropped his company, and trusted, with the great following he had in the Council, to saddle it on the country. The Greytown line would be of benefit to the settlers on the other side of the nver, aud it would re* quire more than L 28,000 for the Mosgiel line. Excepting the bridge, which was of advantage to the settlers generally, the Company had not asked the Government for a single sixpence. The proposition to amalgamate came too late, and his company refused to transfer L 12,000 to form a railway from Mosgiel to Outram. In spite of Mr Shand’s declaration that the line proposed by the Government would not pay working expenses, the Council by 19 to 8 agreed to the item.