ARRIVAL OF THE LORD ASHLEY, FROM AUCKLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 203, 2 December 1864, Page 1 (Supplement)

ARRIVAL OF THE LORD ASHLEY, FROM AUCKLAND.

The steamer Lord Ashley arrived about 9 o’clock this morning from Auckland, bringing files to the 3rd inst. The Southern Cross of the 28th ult. states that several of the escaped rebel Maories had been seen walking about the streets of Auckland.

General Cameron and Staff had arrived at Auckland from Taranaki. Mr. Weld made the Ministerial Statement on the 28th ult. The memorandum forming its basis will be found below.

Mr. Ormond, on the first inst., moved that, the petitions of the Colonial Defence Force be referred to a select committee, which was seconded by Mr. Colenso, and agreed to. In the Legislative Council, the reply to his Excellency’s address was moved by Major Whitmore.

In the House of Representatives, on the 26th ult., Mr. Wayne moved the following reply to his Excellency’s speech,’ which was seconded by Captain Baldwin, and the debate was ultimately adjourned until the following Monday (to-day).

May it please your Excellency ,— We, her Majesty’s dutiful and loyal subjects, the House of Eepresentatives, in Parliament assembled humbly thank your Excellency for the speech with which you have opened this session.

We have learned with satisfaction that you have with the least possible delay appointed constitutional advisers.

We express the feeling of the colony in uniting with your Excellency in cordial thanks and acknowledgments to General Sir Duncan Cameron and Commodore Sir William Wiseman, and to the Officers and Men of her Majesty’s Army and Navy, and the Colonial Forces, for their gallant and successful operations against the insurgent Natives, and in deeply deploring the loss of many gallant officers and men, who have fallen in the execution of their duty. We have received your Excellency’s assurance of your intention to take prompt and energetic measures towards placing the settlement of Taranaki on a firm and secure footing, and restoring order in that province, and the Ngatiruanui district, and we recognise the construction of roads through these and other districts of the Northern island as a most powerful and necessary means of effecting the pacification of the country. We concur with your Excellency in believing it to be our duty gravely to consider whether the time has arrived when the colony may depend on its own resources for its internal defence, and the Governor be thereby enabled to be guided entirely by the recommendations of his Constitutional Advisers on Native as well as ordinary matters, excepting only in such as may directly concern Imperial interests and the prerogative of the Crown.

We thank your Excellency for the promptitude with which you promise to carry out the recommendation of Commissioners appointed under resolutions of both House of the Legislature, by at once removing the seat of government to Wellington.

Our most earnest attention will, as far as possible, this Session be directed to the financial position of this Colony, and our deliberations will be influenced, on the one hand by a due regard to the interests of the Public Creditors, and on the other, to the engagements entered into with the Provinces.

It will be our duty and our object to uphold the credit of the Colony in respect to the Contract entered into by an accredited agent of the Colony with an English Company for the establishment of a Postal Service by way of Panama.

e thank your Excellency for the assurance that you give us that you will, during the recess, collect such information as may afford materials for a re-adjustment of the Representation of ;the Colony.

We participate in your Excellency’s confident reliance upon the progressive development of the great resources of the Colony, arising from the continued prosperity of its agricultural, mining, pastoral, and commercial interests.

We cordially unite with your Excellency in the expression of a hope that, with the blessing of Divine Providence, our deliberations may tend to rescue the Colony from its difficulties, and to conduce to the ultimate prosperity of both races mf its inhabitants.