The Globe. MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1082, 17 December 1877, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1877.

To-day we celebrate the twenty-seventh anniversary of the foundation of the settlement. We have once more arrived at that stage in our progress as a community when Ave can pause and looking back contrast our present position with that on former anniversaries. It has been the good fortune of the Canterbury settlers on each recurrence of this day to be enabled to congratulate themselves not only on the evidences of prosperity around them, but also on bright auguries for the future. Indeed we may say that our history almost from the very first has been a record of continuous progress. Unlike other colonial communities we have had scarcely any of those periods of depression and retrogression during which even the most sanguine of colonisers lose heart. Slowly but surely we have been enabled to build up our prosperity, not depending upon any adventitious aid such as gold discoveries, but on the sui'e and solid basis of the development of our natural resources. When those of us who have watched the rise of the province from its earliest years look around and see the great strides made, it seems almost like enchantment. In every direction are manifest evidences of prosperity. Where a few years back were but uncultivated plains are now well-tilled farms and thriving townships. A few scattered houses have grown into compact well built streets, with all the conveniences to be found in the larger centres of population, and on every side one sees cause for thankfulness for the great measure of prosperty accorded to us. In the more immediate neighborhood of Ohristchurch also during the past year marked progress has been made. Suburbs are springing up in every direction, and the outskirts of the city are rapidly assuming a populous character. In some parts so much has been done in this direction that the residents have determined upon having municipal self-government amongst them, and so we haA r e had the uprising of one addition to our boroughs, with the probability of more following the example thus set. How the experiment thus being tried will ultimately turn out remains to be seen, but it affords a convincing proof of the rapidity with which the work of colonisation and settlement lias been carried on here, that the necessity for the introduction of the municipal system has been felt. It is therefore with no small feeling of pride, mingled with thankfulness, that today we celebrate the laying as it were of the first stone of what has now become a stately edifice. On the last occasion this was interwoven with the farewell to a system under which the work of progress in this settlement had been carried on. That system, admirably adapted though it undoubtedly was to the earlier growth of the province, had done its work. The rapid development of the provinces had, it was felt, outgrown the system of Provincialism, and a broader and more national policy, freed from the trammels of purely local ideas, was a necessity. On the occasion referred to the opportunity was taken to mark the sense of the people as a whole for an officer who had most worthily carried out and administered that system which ceased Avith that year. But though the province of Canterbury, as such, exists no more, we hope that her traditions will never be forgotten. As a province she Avas ever foremost in the work of colonisation; her settlers Laving once put their hand to the plough never looked back. Hence avc trust to see this day kept green in the memories of those Avho come after us. It will serve to remind them of the energy and unceasing toil of those who have gone before them to lay deeply and strongly the foundations oC a large and prosperous commuuity. A new order of things, politically speaking, lias arisen, and the province as such no longer exists. But as Ave have said it is impossible to obliterate the history of Canterbury. Thai will live in the hearts of those Avho have aided to bring about the prosperity which o$ tU& day wo #ye fltt© ta jshj* to ft?

result of our efforts. Of the future we 'iave no fear. We possess within ourselves the materials for still greater progress than we yet have made. As our oreat natural resources come to be leveloped, and new industries spring up, wo shall find that future anniversaries will afford us still further cause for congratulation. Let us therefore enter upon a new year of our history, encouraged by what has already been done, and stimulated to greater exertions in the future. If we do this the chronicle of next year's events will add yet another page to the record of advancement in the work of colonisation.