The Hawke's Bay Times. THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1867. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 493, 18 July 1867, Page 2

The Hawke's Bay Times.

THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1867. PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

“ . iUi'.S u.A.'. >’Sj Vin LCi’in

A shout session of fourteen sitting Jays of the Provincial Council was brought to an end by adjournment on Saturday night lust, in consequence of the necessity that existed for our Representatives in the General Assembly taking their places in lire House before its session laid materially advanced, and the Provincial Council acordingly stands adjourned to the 10th September prox. lioyond the p-ewing of the financial measures of the Government, comprising the estimates hr the current quarter, and the hgdhiag of unauthorised expenditure, Loth of which done were on the last sitting day, but little business of importance has been accomplish-; od for the Province; {hose cfour readers who have hihwcd us in uttr report of the proceeding's will readily understand the re as :i why. Tine wliedo oi tire business el the C utieil lunging on the limine: il pusitiou of lno Province, and ti ore being an admitted error in has document on which his Honor's •opening address seas j dvd, and in j“s.iWcnue!;ca in the spew 1: iholf, caused a delay of two or tan-* days, and the .subsequent jvir.n.ing of the estimates ley tiii; house for reconsideration an- : ‘llier -1 -y. 'him wtim of the house in ins matter nearly r.ivffivf d I he more i .... n rioio' quence oi l ;ie zvstgntiUou o>f the tiuperintendont and his executive —n i ecu It net: we klirvu 'h fired In* the. Ik use. and whi m was avoided by th. 1 timely withdrawal next day of three; members who before h.al voted with; :he onpesitiou. As it is three or loin ■ Lulls ui genttau iatoics-' have 1. n pas eh including a TnUile Act, a Scab ■ A mendment Act, an Impoundin' Aniendnient Act, and a Fencing; Amendment Act, —while other mea-i siircs cd’at least equal importance, as the District Highways Pill, the Toll-1 gate Till, the bhiughter-houso Bill, and; a CVmctery Improvement Bill, all stand for furllior consideration on the reassembling of the Council in September Thctwofirstof those latter bills we have already plac’d before our readers, and there will bo ample time for their being thoroughly considered by (hose they will more immediate}}’' affect during the recess. The District Highways! Bill provides for the rating of property! f r the mskin; and maintenance of roads, ana some such measure has at I length become an actual necessity, us a largo land revenue is amongst the things of the past. Wo cannot say the same for a Toll-gate Bill, and we trust I that the good sense of the Council will ensure its rejection. The Toll-gate Ays to in is an exploded method of taxation ; tho remains cl a barbarous age ; it is false in principle, oppressive in its operation, and extravagantly costly in its collection, seldom yielding as revenue fifty per cent, ct the sums abstracted from l.Le public, generally very much less, and often scarcely anything over the cost of collection. If it is ! time that we must submit to local taxation, by all means let such methods i be adopted as will yield to the revenue • as groat proportion as possible of the | money we are called upon to pay, so that the cash paid in taxes may be devoted to its legitimate use. Amongst the curiosities of the ses* Sion we must note one—the way that jpuzzling matter —The Previous Ques-

tion mystified the house nearly to the .last. Members, as a rule, could not ‘Understand it, and did not know how Ito vote on it. The Government actually voted unanimously against itself on the voices, and was only saved by the Speaker, who, unable to find a [precedent for his guidance, took the most favorable view of the exceedingly nice point of order raised on the occasion, and decided that as the votes had been given in error tin-.nigh ignorance and inadvertance, it might be remedied by a division, although !;e bad already decided in favor of the noes, no voice whatever calling aye. The error on the part of the Government was the more unaccountable as it had been made also during a previous sitting, when the Speaker generously took the blame, as not having been sufficiently explicit, and so permitted a second division to take place, reversing the result of the first.