Provincial Council.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 163, 18 February 1854, Page 8

Provincial Council.

The second Session of the Provincial Council was opened on Wednesday last, the 15th inst. After attending full Morning Service, with a sermon and Holy Communion at the church, the members assembled in the Council Chamber about two o'clock, when His Honor delivered the following address :— Gentlemen of the Council, At your first Session your labours were principally directed to those preliminary measures which were deemed necessary in order to establish the Provincial Executive Government upon an efficient and permanent footing. On the present occasion your attention will be directed to questions more immediately bearing on the social well-beiug of the Province. I regret that it should have been necessary to call you together after so short a recess, but two reasons will, I am sure, justify this step : first, because there is necessity for some immediate legislation upon several subjects, especially the law of trespass, public works, and immigration ; and secondly, because it will probably be found most convenient for public business that the annual session of your Council should take , place about this season, so that the public ac- | counts o£ the Province tnay be laid before you, j as soon as they can be made up after the conclusion of each year, and that the estimates may be voted for the service of each year as soon after the commencement of the same as possible. Having on a former occasion explained at considerable length the policy which I proposed to pursue, it is unnecessary that I should detain you by any detailed explanation of the measures which will be now laid before you, and which have been framed with a view to carry out that policy. The Bill for ; the amendment of the law of trespass which was under your consideration at the conclusion of last Session will, with some modifications, be again submitted to you. A law will be proposed for the purpose "of enabling the inhabitants of particular districts to make and keep in repair roads and other works of public utility, and to raise rates for the purpose. The necessity for some such provision has been recognized in other Provinces of the Colony, where laws, with objects similar to that which will be proposed to you, have been passed. Your attention will also be asked to a Bill for j establishing a general system of education for the Province. \ Statements will be laid before you in reference i to the revenue and expenditure of the Province for the quarter ending the '31st of December. The expectation that the sum of three hundred pounds would be received from the General Government at the commencement of the financial year as set down in the estimates, has not been realized. Upon adjusting the accounts according to tbe instructions of his Excellency, it appears that, if those instructions be rigidly adhered to, this Province will have commenced with a debt of upwards of three hundred pounds to the General Government. The papers laid on your table last Session will enable you to understand how this debt has arisen. His Excellency directed the late Sub-Treasurer to pay over to the General Government out of any balance in his hands on the 30th September, a sum equal to the difference between one-third and one-fifth of tiie whole revenue of the Province from the 17th of Jan. to the 30th of Sep. This demand exceeds the balance in the SubTreasurer's hands by upwards of three hundred pound?. I have not yet received an answer to the application I made for further instructions on this point. Notwithstanding this, however, the revenues for the quarter huve so far exceeded, and the expenditurehas so far fallenshortof the respective sums placed on the estimates, as to leave a small balance applicable to public works. And I took upon myself to anticipate your appropriation of this money by applying it at once to repair the main lines of road. Detailed statements will be laid before you of the sums already expended and of the engagements entered into. The htep which the Provincial Government has taken is one, howerer, which ought not to be drawn into a precedent for the future. I anticipate your approval of it in the present iv-

stance solely on the grounds that no time was to be lost if the main roads were to be made passable for the coining winter, that it is impossible, in the present state of the Settlement, to obtain any considerable number of labourers, and that these disposable funds had not arisen and were not anticipated during your lust Session, With regard to the mode of dealing with these funds for the future, it is impossible to calculate what sums may be so available during the current year. I shall therefore ask you to approve provisionally of such expenditure as may be necessary for carrying on such public works as you may deem most advisable without regard to any estimated revenue, and that you will indicate the order in which you wish those those works to be executed, according to their several degrees of importance, leaving it to the discretion of ;the Executive [Government, to apply the monies accruing from time to time to the execution of those works in such manner as circumstances may admit. I regret to say no instructions have yet been received in the Province on the subject of the disposal of the funds arising from the Waste Lands within the Canterbury Block. Eight months have now elapsed since the management of these lands came under the General Government. A considerable sum has accumulated, and is now lying in the bank, and cannot be used because no instructions have been received for its issue to the Provincial Government. The difficulties which you experienced at your last session in relation to the financial policy of the General Gorernment have as yet received no solution. The seat of the General Government having been removed to Auckland, and the Civil Secretary's office at Wellington having been broken up, no reply has been yet received to the communications from the Provincial Government, transmitting the resolutions which you passed. In the mean time, as long as any doubt exists as to the legality of the present arrangements, the only consistent course appears to be that the monies paid to the Provincial Government from time to timeunder His Excellency's instructions, should be taken and deemed to be in the nature of an advance from the General Government, liable to be accounted for out of any monies appropriated to, or declared to have been legally appropriated to, the Province by any Act of the General Assembly. Apian for restoring a regular immigration to the settlement will be submitted for your approval. The enquiries which I have made lead me to believe that it would not be wise to look to the Australian colonies as a source whence any large and immediate'supply of labour is to be obtained, or to propose the expenditure of the public funds upon immigration thence. It seems to me that the immigration fund can be employed in no way so beneficially as by organizing a regular line of passenger-ships from England, bringing with them not only a regular supply of the best class , of labour, but also all those additional and substantial advantages which direct communication from England confers, and which were so lavgely felt during the first eighteen months of the settlement. This is the object I have had in view in the Bill which will be laid before you. Although ?you have at present no power to make laws respecting the Waste Lands, yet the time appears to have arrived when it is desirable for you to express some distinct opinion on the best plan for their disposal and management, having regard to the general advancement of the Province, and to the interests of all classes of the community. I hare therefore caused to be prepared a complete scheme for the management of the Waste Lands, upon which I shall ask you to express some opinion by resolution. The accounts of the Canterbury Association have arrived in the colony, and a digest of them has been transmitted to the Government, and will be laid before you, together with the correspondence which has taken place thereupon between the Government, and the Agent of the Canterbury Association. You will perceive that a proposal has been made by Mr. Sewell, which will demand your serious consideration. It appears from the accounts that the Association have expended in the service of the settlement a larger sum than that which they received by the sales of land. This over expenditure has been temporarily provided for by loans from private individuals on the security of the property held by the Association, and their agent now proposes to transfer that property to°the Province upon condition of its making provision for the outstanding debt.

I shall not anticipate your judgment upon this in Jitter by any observations. The wording of the 76th clause of the Constitution Act seems to intimate that the subject is one to be dealt with peculiarly and especially by your council; and although I should not shrink from stating the line which the Provincial Government are prepared to recommend, should you desire me to do so, or should the time have arrived when it will be incumbent on me to do so, in the exercise of the prerogative attached to the office of Superintendent, still I think it more consistent with the intention of the Constitution Act to leave the matter in the first instance entirely in your hands, and to allow the responsibility of originating any measure on the subject to emanate from yourselves. The Government have for these reasons determined to consider this as an open question in your discussions. There is one other subject, Gentlemen, upon which lam anxious to obtain your opinion. I mean upon the expediency of increasing the number of members of your Council, and of revising the electoral districts. Should you agree with the Provincial Government in deeming such a step desirable, a bill will be prepared with that object; but I submit to you at the same time whether it would be wise to pass such a measure until a fresh registration of the electors has taken place. It is generally supposed that the last registration was a very partial one ; and in that case, is not fitted to be the basis of a new arrangement of the electoral districts. The next will no doubt be fuller, and when it becomes generally known that the re-arrangement of the Electoral districts, and the apportioning of the members accordingly, will be decided by the next registration, I earnestly (hope that every man possessing a qualification will feel it his duty to take advantage of the privileges conferred on him by the Constitution Act, and to place his name on the Electoral Roll. These, Gentlemen, are the principal questions to which I have to invite your attention during the present Session, in the assurance that your deliberations will tend to the good government, welfare, and happiness of the people. I now declare this Provincial Council to be opened for the despatch of Public Business. His Honor then left the Council Chamber. Mi-.Tancred, on the part of the Government, laid on the table variouspapers relating to land claims, Registrar's Office, Finance,1 Post-Office, Land fund, Canterbury Association, &c. He then enumerated the measures to be introduced by Government in the present Session, which were— 1. A Bill to repeal all former laws and ordinances relating to the trespass of cattle, to the recovery of damages for the same, and to amend and consolidate the law thereupon into one Ordinance within the Province of Canterbury. 2. A Draft of Rules for the Sale and Leasing of the Waste Lands of the Crown in the Province of Canterbury, and for the issuing of Licenses for depasturing of the same, and for the sale of the timber thereon. 3. The division of the Province into districts, with Commissioners in each, to direct private efforts for road-making, and to levy rates for the same. 4. The promotion of immigration from England, and the appointment of an agent in London for that purpose. 5. A Bill for promoting Education. He also gave notice that on Thursday he should propose an Address to His Honor in reply to his Speech on opening the Session ; and also a Select Committee to examine and report upon the accounts of the Canterbury Association. He stated that it appeared to result from these accounts that the payments made by the Association had exceeded their receipts by a sum of £18,417, which had been made up by loans by individuals secured on the property of the Association. He further announced that Government wished to take no part in relation to the questions between the Association and the Settlement, but to leave them to be dealt with by the Council. He also gave notice of resolutions for the enlargement of the Council, and for a Committee of Supply, on Friday next. Mr. Hall then presented a petition from Henry Sewell, Esq., as agent of the Canterbury Association, praying the Council to appoint Trustees for the management of the Ecclesiastical property held in trust by the Association. The petition was read at length by the Clerk, and referred to a Select Committee,

Mr. Hall also gave notice of a motion for a return of the numbers of letters and newspapers received at the Post Office, Christchurch, for the last 3 months. Mr. Dampibu gave notice of a motion that the names of members should be taken clown on each division. Mr. Bowen gave notice of a motion for an address to Her Majesty, praying for the summoning of the General Assembly. Adjourned till 4 o'clock, Thursday.