Page 3 Advertisements Column 2

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 243, 28 February 1855, Page 3

It is not without considerable hesitation|that I presume to make this demand on your confidence. But, I have received so many solicitations io do so, that I feel compelled to waive all private and personal considerations, and present myself to you. Should it be your pleasure to return me as one of your representatives, I assure you that I shall enter on the duties imposed on me with a single eye to. the public good. I have no-ambition to gratify, and no .'party to conciliate. Whatever may be the Government of the day, I shall be top happy to afford it support, if its measures be, in my opinion, calculated to promote the public warfare. If, on the contrary, they do not appear to me to be so framed, I shall as unhesitatingly oppose them. There is one question above all others on which probably you will expect some declaration of opinion on the part of those who may be candidates for senatorial honors. I refer to the Regulations to be adopted by this Province for the disposal of its Waste Lands. It would not "be convenient on an occasion such as this to enter into a critical analysis of the various schemes winch have been laid before the public. As one, however, soliciting your confidence, I feel it my duty to state, that the main objects, i .which .it appears'to me,it willbe the duty of the | Provincial Legislature to keep in view are, to : render our lands as attractive in price as possible to the world at large; taking care at the j same time, that they are made sufficiently productive to ward off for the greatest possible i length of time "all taxation, by furnishing the I means by which the government may, by the ! construction of foadsand the erection of bridges, by arterial- drainage and other public works, ■: effect those internal improvements which are essential to the perfect ■■/ developement of the resoui'pes of this rich and fertile country. You are probably aware that a Bill has been sent to England from the General Assembly asking for power to confer on the separate Provinces the control of their own Waste Lands. Should that Bill be assented to much of the complication in the existing state of things would be removed. Legislation on this all-im-portant subject would then be rendered comparatively simple. It is therefore earnestly to be hoped that it will be returned, approved of. But, whether it is or not —whether we are enabled to deal with the'waste Lands by our own direct legislation, or have to act with the concurrence of the Government at Auckland, the objects which I have stated above, are those which, should you do me the honor to elect rue as one of your representatives, I shall consider it my duty steadily to keep in view. There are doubtless many other topics on which explanation would be proper. But it is not possible to enter upon them all on this occasion. It will be my duty to wait personally upon you, when I shall be happy to answer any questions which may be demanded of me, meanwhile I have the honor to remain, Gentlemen, Your very obedient servant, Joseph Bhutan. Feb. 14, 1854. To the Electors qf the Christchurch Country District. Gentlemen,— I I IT AYE the honor to offer myself as a candidate for your suffrages at the ensuing election of, members of the Provincial Council of Canterbury. In taking this step I have been influenced not so much by reliance on my own judgment, as by the request of many of the electors in whose opinion I have every reason to trust,*and I do so with the more confidence from the circumstance that I am personally interested in many of the employments followed in the Settlement. With respect to the land question which now chiefly^ interests the public mind, my wish, as many of you are aware, is so to regulate the terms of sale as to secure the land from the grasp of the monopolist, and at the same time to offer every facility to the bond fide cultivator, in acquiring*a freehold landed property. The subject of Education, though not at present prominently before you, is one on which the continuance of the present character of this Settlement mainly depends, and with this view, I should endeavour to render the highest Education accessible to all classes, and carefully to guard the rights and interests'of all varieties of religious opiniou.