Provincial Council. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1870.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 15, Issue 789, 23 May 1870, Page 2

Provincial Council. THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1870.

The Council met at the usual hour, and the miuutes of the laat meeting were read and confirmed. Mr Sutton, pursuant to notice, moved—>. For leave to introduce a Bill authorizing the. Superintendent to convey to Trustees Town Section 112, Town of Napier. —This motion required little explanation.. The section in question had heen granted to the Oddfellows some years, ago by a re-, solution of the Council, and this bill was merely to give them a legal title to the land.—Mr Kennedy seconded the motion.. —Colonel Lambert thought some explanation was required* He remem-. bered applications being made to the Coun-. cil for. grants of land both, by the Oddfellows and JjTreemasqnSa but believed that both these applications had been refused. —His Honob produced the minutes of the Council for the year 1863, which showed that on the 11th of April of that year, on the motion of Mr Tiffen, the half-acre sec tion in question, facing Ciive Square, was. set apart for an Oddfellows' Hall.—Leave, was granted, bill brought in, read a. first time, ordered to be printed, and the second reading appointed, for next sitting day. Mr EHODES presented a petition, sig ed by 34 inhabitants of Waipureku, praying that the grant-in-aid to the Waipureku School; should not be withdrawn. He said that the inhabitants of that district were, under the impression that the Government intended to break up their school, and transfer the capitation allowance to the ; new school at West Clive. He thought they were in error, in entertaining this idea, but would move that the petition be read. —His Honob had been given to understand that the whole of the inhabitants of the Olive district had wished the school to. be removed to the bridge. If, howeverthere were schalara sufficient to keep both schools going, so much the better.— A'Deane thought the Council would be. premature in itself, to. anv. Day.,-.

merit to particular schools pending the introduction of an education act.—Colonel Lambert agreed with the member for Hampden, and thought the others would bear hira out when he said that when the member for Clive brought forward his motion for the building of the new school at the bridge, he gave the Council distinctly to under&tand that the whole of the inhabitants of the Clive district wished the situation of the school to be changed.—Petition read and received. Mr Sutton, pursuant to notice, moved — That his Houor the Superintendent be requested ,to lay upon the table. a Keturn showing how the amount, £46 18s, fees uader the Native Lands Act, credited in Receipts for December quarter, is arrived at.

—He saw that the sum mentioned in the motion was the only one ciedited to the Province for the period named. Aftei paying expenses of the Native Lands Court, the balance of the fees became territoria 1 revenue, and he thought, considering the large amount of fees paidj that the revenue should be credited with several hundred pounds. As these.fees were received by a General Government officer, he had divided his motion into two parts, the next on the paper requesting his Honor the Superintendent to obtain a return of the fees re ceived by the officer appointed for that purpose. As the Province was not likely in future to receive a very large revenue, the Council ought to satisfy itself that all the revenue to which it was entitled found its way into its pocket.-r-His Honor laid a Keturn on the table showing that the sum named was all that had been received ; and believed it would be found tha*J it was all to which the Province was enitled. In answer to the s-econd question —which he would take as moved—he would reply that he had applied to the officer in question for the return asked for.—Mr Sutton then, by consent, withdrew the next motion standing in his name, viz.:— That his Honor the Superintendent, in his capacity of Agent for the General Government, be respectfully requested to procure from the Collector of Customs a return of all monies received by him during the quarter ending 31st December, 1b69, on account of Duties under the Native Lands Act.

Mr Sutton, pursuant to notice, moved — For a return of all monies collected under the Educational Bates Act, 1868, during the current year. Tiie return to specify the sums collected by tae'i collector up to the 80th April, 1870, and the amount still due under the said Act. —A general impression existed that a great portion of this rate remained uncol Jected, and he wished to see if such was the case. —His Honoe, in reply, stated that theSeturn had been prepared, and would be laid on the table. A good deal had been collected by the police, to whom, for the s.ike of econoiry, he had committed the work of collection ; but unforeseen circumstances had prevented the whole being obtained. The escape of some prisoners from the jail had kept the force employed for a month ; then had followed the illness of the Inspector, on whom the principal work of collection devolved ; an'! latterly the time of the police had been taken Ujj by the Supreme Court. Mr Osmond, in pursuance of notice, moved— That a Select Committee be appointed to report on the Standing Rules and Ordtrs in force in the Province of Auckland for regulating proceedings on bills authorising the taking of lands compulsed ly qnder the "Provincial Compulsory Land Act, 1866," with a view to adopting Standing Rules and Orders for this Province, Such committee to consist of Messrs.. Carlyon, Buchanan, Ferard, A'Deane and Kennedy. Report to be brought up oa the £sth inst. —The Council would remember this subject being brought up last session. Some regulations of this kind were urgently needed ; great opposition being offered inj many cases where roads were required to pass through private property. Among such cases he might mention the Pekapeka road, which had now been obstructed for several years. Last year the Provincial Solicitor had recommended the rules in force in the Province of Auckland for adoption by the Council; but so much objection had been made to them by a member for the town now absent [Mr Peravd] that the matter had been deferred. The Provincial Solicitor, on being applied to, said that he had selected the Auckland rules as being the best, and did not see that they could be improved; so that he (Mr O.) considered that the most satisfactory plan was that proposed by the resolution—to refer the matter to a select committee. —Agreed to. Mr Oemond, in pursuance of notice, moved*-*-For leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Sheep and Scab Acts now in force, and make other provision in lieu thereof, «-4. bill of this kind had been called for by twp meetings in this Province. He

would defer his explanations ti'l his motion for the second reading. The bill had boen arrarged by the member for Te Aute [Mr Cajrlyon] who had consolidated the old acts, and introduced several new pro visions.—Leave was granted; the bi 1 passed its first reading, and its second reading was fixed for next sitticg day but one. Mr Ormond, in pursuance of notice, moved — That the Council resolve itself into a Committee of Ways and Means to consider the estimated revenue for the year ending June 30,1871. —Agreed to, and the Council went into committee accordingly. His Honor then made his financial statement, remarking that he would make it as simple and introduce as few figures as possible. He would in the first place refer as briefly as possible to the accounts of the past year, and then proceed to the estimates for the next. The accounts for this year would be given in full as far as the 30th April; for the finances two months of the financial year the account would of course be an estimate. One of the objections to the Council meeting before the end of the financial year was the fact that an exact account of the receipts of the year could not be given. He laid on the table a comparative statement of the amounts of revenue estimated for the year when the Council was last in session, end the amount really realized. From this it would be seen that the estimate of revenue made by the Government last session was £11,600, and that this had been considerably exceeded, the total revenue having amounted to £15,008, an excess of £3,400 on the estimate. This excess had been general on all the items of ordinary revenue; thus, the Pilotage and Harbor Dues, estimated at £520, had amounted to £8?)0, and the temtorial receipts, the estimate for which was somewhat over £5,000 } had realized upwards of £7OOO. It was only right to state that this excess in the territorial receipts was partly owing to the sale of Papakura and Hikutoto blocks, and coull not be expected to occur again. Some of the receipts had fallen a little short of the estimate, but the only item where there was any large deficiency was that of Immigrants' promissory notes, from which £1,500 was expected to be derived, and from which only a little more than £3OO had been received. The statement he would lay before them would show the exact position of the receipts as compared with the estimates/ and he considered the general result satisfactory, more especially as the excess had mainly arisen from ordinary items of revenue.. Referring, to expenditure he now laid on the table two paper?, one showing the expenditure from Ist June last to the 30th April, and the other the estimated expenditure from the Ist M»y to the 30th June, 1870. The two amounts added together-showed £11,352 as the year's expenditure. This was not all actual expenditure, for a sum which had during a previous year been borrowed from the loan account was this year refunded from the general revenue; and deducting this refund he found that the actual expenditure for the year wou'd amon it to £9,8*3. The next paper he would hj before them was a comparative statement of votes and expenditure, showing unauthorised expenditure and unexpended balance for the year. The expenditure, he believed, would be generally admitted to have been as much in accordance with the votes of the Council as possible. The total unauthorized expenditure for the year amounted fa £129, £3O of which was for charitable aid, and the nature of the ca.es in which it was applied were such that no •Superintendent could have refused it. The amount altogether was so small, and ihe expenditure so nece3sary, that he believed ihe Council would consider this item satisfactory. The unexpended balfrce of votes exceeded £2,000. In this, however, was included £I,OOO for the discove"y of a payable gold-field ; also the vote for a bridge across the Wu'pawa river at Pafcangata. This latter item had been postponed in order that the opinion of the residents in the district might be ta'ien as to the best method of applying the vol? There was also under this heading an item of £336 8s 7d voted for surveys, which it had been found unnecessary to expend; and another unexpended item was the year's salary of the Crown Land's Commissioner, who was now paid directly out of the funds of the Colony. On the whole he hoped the sheet would be found satisfactory, He thought he had made the matter sufficiently clear to the Council; at any rate, the final Jesuit was that there wag now a sum of £3,600 to thp credit of,

the Province in the hands of the Provincial Treasurtr—rather a change from what used to be the case. He would now refer to several items which were known as special accounts. The first he would mention was the education rate, and rents of educational reserves, together amounting to upwards of £1,300, besides some rents not yet gathered in. The direct charges on this fund were the capitation allowances, Inspector's salary, &c, and he might remark that the amount realized from the sources he had mentioned was not'sufficient for the support of existing schools. Nothing had been devoted this year to the builditig of new schools, nor had any too ney been paid to those existing in the way of bonus. Many of the schools were complaining of the want of books. He intended to ask the Council to devote further sums to educational purposes, to prevent the schools falling off. Ho would take this opportunity of mentioning that a member for the town [Mr Ferard] had undertaken to prepare a new education bill, which would be laid before them this session. The next special account w.;s the Toll-gate fund, the papers relating to which he now laid on the table. There was one more special item—funds from Harbor Re serves, which this year had not been trenched upon. He now came to the Loan accounts, and, though the matter was one which had fallen into almost inextricable confusion, he would do his best to make it plain to the Council. When the last Act referring to the appropriation of the Loan was passed, it was calculated that as £32,000 of the fund had been £28,000 would be still available. As the expenditure proceeded, however, this was found not to be the case. In the year before last a large amount of the loan was expended as ordinary reveuue, and the principal was also diminished by charges upon the loan and interest charges. He would lay three papers oi this subject on the table, the first of which—the abstract of expenditure under the Act of 1868' showing balance—in fact took in every thing connected With the subject. The liability on account of the loan was by this return shown to be £SO, and the nominal balance £1,084. This b dance, however, was merely nominal. The whole, except the sum of £'2o, had been appropriated to purposes of immigration, ard had been anticipated. All, then, that remained was this sun> of £L2O, which was to have been spent on a light for the Napier heads. The. money had been placed in the bauds of Mr Balfour, with instructions to carry out the inten«ions of the Council, but that gentleman having since, by a melancholy accident, lost his life, he (Mr U.) did not know whether or not he had taken any steps in the matter. Although the abstract of this expenditure represented it as having taken place this year, most of it had been antiei pated by contracts before he (Mr O.) had taken office, and was, therefore, beyond his control. An exception to this, however, was the building of an asylum for lunatics in connection with the Napier Jail. One item of expenditure he had not felt justified iu undertaking without the consent of the Council, and he had accordingly addressed a circular to the members some months ago, explaining the matter The answers he received were such as to warrant him in going on with the work. When the accounts were made up, however, he found that they amounted to about £IOO more than the sum he had mentioned in the circular. The last paper relating to the loan was a comparative statement showing the various votes, the expenditure, and the balance of the £28,000 loan account. This finished the accounts for the past year, and he now proceeded to the estimates for the coming one. He now laid on the table estimates for the year beginning Ist July, 1870, and ending 30ih June, 1871. The proposed expenditure for the year was £13.517 10s., in addition to the special appropriations. He thought the e&timates would be found to be reasonable and such as could be relied, upon. The estimate of expenditure on public works and undertakings was considerably in excess of last year's estimate—£s,s3o, as against something more than £2,00) last year; but he did not believe it was out of proportion to 'the reveuue that would be received. He would now conclude by laying the various Returns he had described on the table. —The first item of the estimates was then put pro forma, and the Chairman reported progress, asking leave to sit again on Tuesday (to morrow.)

The Council then went pro forma into Committee of Supply, which was also adjourned to the first sitting-day next week.

I MrJgOfIMGND, in pursuance of notice, moved- ■ For leave to bring ia a bill to repeal aud amend the Licensing Acts now ia force. —Leave was granted ; and the bill havinpassed its first reading, was ordered to be printed j the second reading to be an order of the day for Thursday next. , Mr Caelyon. pursuant to notice,moved — For leave to brinpr in a bill intituled "The Highways Traffic Bill." —Leave granted ; bill introduced, read a first time, ordered to be printed, and second reading appointed for Tuesday.

His Honor laid on the table the following papers—Correspondence from Mr John Morrison ai;d Shaw, Savill, & Co., relating to immigration; Hospital Report, by the Provincial Surgeon; Report of the Trustees of the Charitable Aid Fund; Jail Report, by the Jailer, enclosing a balance-sheet, showing produce of prison-labor, and ex« penditure of the department. The Council then adjourned.

FRIDAY, MAY 20, 1870. The Speaker took the chair at the usual hour, and laid several papers on the table. Mr Kennedy, in pursuance of notice, moved—

That the thanks of this Council bo conveyed to; Captain Fairchild, for the important service he has rendered this Province in recovering and removing the moorings in the roadstead, lost at the time of the wreck of the ship Ida Ziegler. —He should have proposed a more substantial acknowledgment, but that h** felt persuaded Capt Fairchild would not accept it. —Agreed to. . Mr P arsons, pursuant to notice, movedR>r a return of all money to the Provincial Government on account of Emigration, with the names of parties owing the same; also the names of their sureties, and that the same he printed. —The very small amount received since last session proved the necessity of activ* measures being taken in the collection of these dues. —Agreed to. Mr Dolbel, in pursuance of notice, asked his Honor the Superintendent— Whether it is his intention to bring in an Impounding Amendment Act this session. His Honor said that the member for Mohaka had pointed out to him certain amendments he wished made in the Im - pounding Act; but it was to be feared tha* if an altogether new bill was introduced it would open up so wide a question that a long time would elapse belore they should see the end of it. He would recommend | that gentleman to introduce a short bill, iembodying tbe changes he desired. Colonel Lambert, pursuant to notice, moved—

That his Honor the Superintendent will bej pleased to cause to be laid on the table a return showing the amount of money received since the Ist June, 1802, to the 30th of April last, on account due from immigrants for assisted passages. —lt was unnecessary for him to enter into this question, especially as the member far Petane had in some measure anticipated him. A vigorous effort was required to collect this money, and he brought this motion forward with the view of strengthening the Superintendent's hands. He had no faith in the Board appointed, last session. He believed they had done nothing—not even held a meeting.—His Honoe said he anticipated some action would be taken, and he was glad the Coun» cil were trying to strengthen his hands in the matter. He had at one time set the machinery of the law in motion to obtain this money j but it had been suggested to him that his object might be attained without resorting to harsh measures, if he deputed some person to apply for and collect the monies. He therefore induced Mr Peacock, the sheep inspector, to undertake the task, and that gentleman had been successful in collecting some of the amounts, besides receiving numerous pro mises to pay. His time, however, had been so fully taken up since the appear ance of foot-rot that he had little leisure to attend to this matter. Some of the imoii grants oould now take advantage of the expiration of the time beyond which debts were not recoverable. He wished all money derived from this source to be set aside as a fund for the promotion of immigration.— Agreed to. Colonel Lambebt, pursuant to moved — .

That a Committee be appointed for the purpose of investigating and reporting upon all sums received and disbursed since the appointment of tlia present clerk on accouut of immigration, and to ascertain the amount due to the Province, and the names of the persons from whom due ; such committee to consist of Messrs. Newton, Russell, Sutton, and the mover,

—He thought the old Board should be dis solved. The Government should press their claims ; in fact they were bound to do it. Ho was sorry to bear that some pf the

debtors intended to take advantage of the Statute of Limitation, but he could not be* lieve that many would do so. He was told that a large number of these people were able to pay, [hear, hear] and in such cas«s the law should be rigidly enforced. , Where they eould not pay let the Government come on the sureties. It might be hard on the sureties, but they knew what they were about when they made their contract. Of course, when they hud not the meaus of paying, it was of no use to bring pressure to bear uoon them.—Mr Paksons considered that the case was one.of trust, to to which the Statute of Limitation did not apply. At any rata, it. would hi worth while to take a legal opinio!! on this poiot. —His Honor would certainly take legal advic3 as to the point raised by the mem* ber for Petane. The member for Waipukurau was mistaken in supposing that the Immigration Board had anything to do with the collection of this money. Their duty was simply to administer the amount set apart far Immigration purposes under the Loan Act. lie had obtained the assent of a meeting of the to the proposed introduction of female immigrants,-who were to be brought out on terms somewhat different from those previously fixed by the Council, as they came on the understanding that they were ouly to pay onehalt' their passage-money.—Motion agreed to.

On the motion of Mr Okmond, leavo of absence was granted to the member far Wairoa (Mr Kinross) to Tuesday next.

Mr Oemonju, pursuant to notice, moved — That a select committee be appointed to enquire into the position of those runs .the licenses for which expire at the close of the present year, and to make recommendations for their future, disposal ; to consist of Messrs, Newton, Lambert, Tanner, Rhodes, Russell, and Parsons, and have power to call for the production of papers and production |of witnesses. Report to be brought up this da week.

—From a Return which he would lay on the table, it appeared that a very large amount of land would revert to the Province at the end of the present year. The estate was one worth looking after, and ha had accordingly named a committee which he thought would give the fairest consideration both to the claims of the runuolders and the interests of the Province. A plan should be introduced sufficiently comprehensive to include not only the land r turning to the Province at the close of this year, but at the ends of the ensuing years also. —Agreed to. Mr DoLBEji, in pursuance of notice, asked his Honor the Superintendent,— Whether the iron bridge, ordered by the Government last year to bridge the Waitaha Creek, in the district of Moliaka, has arrived, and, if so, what has caused the delay from beiug erected over the said creek.

—He regretted to have to bring this matter forward again—for the fifth time—before the Council. session but one a sum was voted for the construction of this bridge, but tha Grovernmeut had neglected to carry out the resolution of the Council. —His Honor said that when he took oliica the balance of the loan had gone, and he fouud there was no money for tha purpose, fie was afraid that no bridge had ever been isent for, and the Provincial Treasurer informed him that no credit order had ever been for the amount. He feared it was one of the votes under the loan act for which no appropriation had been made.— Mr DoLBEii would like to know what had become of tho money. The Council should refund it to the loan account. —His Honor advised the member for Mohaka to bring forward a motion to induce the Council to do so.

His Hokok laid on the table a Return of the ruua, the depasturing licences of which expire on the 3 Let Dece?nber next; also a return showing that £&'s 18s wad all to which the Province was entitled un« der the Native Lands Act.

Mr .Buchanan, without notice, asked if the special fund received from the toll gate was to be spent in the ensuing year in the manner provided in the 13th section of the Act. To last year's estimates a note was appended, pointing out how the tuod was to be appropriated, which note he did not observe in the present estimates.—His Honob replied that the Governmet looked upon the clause referred to as a virtual appropriation, and that it was decidedly their intention to devote the meney to the purpose therein speeded.

On the motion of Mr Sutton, the Oddfellows' Hall Bill was re d a second time. The e'efc not being in the hands of members, its consideration was postponed till ihe motion for the third reading. The Council then adjourned.