The Globe. FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1875.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 252, 2 April 1875, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, APRIL 2, 1875.

" The session of the Provincial Council " opens to-day at two o'clock." Such is the brief announcement which appears to-day in the morning journals of Christchurch. Before these lines are perused by our readers, we shall have listened to his Honor the Superintendent's opening speech, and we suppose the usual adjournment will have taken place. It is impossible to estimate the importance of the work which will have to be performed by the Council during the now opening session. It may be the last time that we shall have a Provincial Council, sitting as such, and before the time at which, in the ordinary course of events, the members would be called together for another session, a new order of things may have replaced the present system, and Mr Vogel's " abolition of the pro- " viuces" scheme may have swept away the institution that we all abuse so heartily, but at the same time from which so much good work, and so many useful measures have been sent forth. No one can be more cognizant of the insecurity of the present tenure of their seats, as Provincial Councillors, than those gentlemen who will meet this afternoon in the Chamber. Under these circumstances let us hope that they will buckle manfully to their work, and that this, possibly the last session of the Provincial Council of Canterbury, may be distinguished from all that have gone before, by the amount of good and honest measures to which it has given birth. Whether the present Executive are to remain in office or not, or whether there is any truth in any of the numerous rumours as to the resignation of various of its members, which rumours have been pretty freely flying about of late in Christchurch, we do not now care to argue. But we do hope that, considering the short time, in all probability, in which those councillors will have power to do good, or evil, to the province which they represent, they will strive amongst themselves to put down any factious opposition, which may be got up by some small section of the Council, to any schemes which are for the permanent welfare of the province. That in former sessions there has been a large amount of this sort of opposition, it is impossible to deny, and that it has retarded, often for a considerable time, the carrying out of such useful works as we have referred, to, is known to every one who has read the daily reports of the proceedings of any session. Is this sort of thing to impede the progress of the work for the next few weeks, or is a healthier tone of discussion to take the place of some of those debates which have, ere now, taken place in the Chamber, and which would have disgraced the most quarrelsome set of vestrymen in an old country parish or the City Council of Christchurch itself? Though we hope for an improvement, it is almost hoping against hope, unless very decided steps are taken at once against the awful amount of talking which some few members are allowed to indulge in. On every conceivable subject, and at every admissable time, some Provincial Councillors will speak, and the amount of " bosh" (there is no other word for it) that they utter is something astounding. Even when the result of a debate is a foregone conclusion, some cf these gentlemen who never by any chance in their lives turned a wavering voter, either to one side or the other, will hold forth at most unreasonable length with apparently a happy unconsciousness that they are stopping the progress of work, and moreover boring their fellow-councillors, and the public generally, to an unlimited degree. The sensible section in the Council might, if they chose, put a stop to this. Will they do it?