ADDRESS OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL TO HISEXCELLENCY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 332, 5 January 1856, Page 4

ADDRESS OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL TO HISEXCELLENCY.

To His Excellency Colonel Thomas Gohe Brown b, Companion of the Most hoiio-^ ruble Order of.the Ball), Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over the Colony of New Zealand, &c. &c. Wu, the Provincial Council of Canterbury, beg to express to your Excellency our sincere gratification at the arrival among us of Her Majesty's Representative, and to assure your Excellency of our loyalty and attachment towards Her Majesty's throne and person. observation will prove better than we can proclaim the capabilities of this Province, and the progress which it has made in the short space of five years since its foundation. •ivYour Excellency will, we feel assured, take pleasure in remarking the degree of prosperity that now surrounds our population. We avail ourselves of tfm opportunity of submitting to your Excellency that, although individual progress may have been great, this young community is still struggling with financial difficulties which liave perplexed its relations with the central Government from the first introduction of the Constitution act. Owing to a sudden suspension of revenues which we were led to believe and still believe to belong to this Province, Public Works essential to our commercial progress remain unexecuted. We feel it our duty to declare to your Excellency that so long as our Provincial* Revenue is derived under no security of law, the Government of this Province cannot he conducted without extreme ri.-k and embarrassment. The fact incessantly forces itself upon our attention that one source of our difficulties exists in the great distance of the seat of Government, and in the consequent delay in interchange of communication. We look earnestly and hopefully for the decision your Excellency shall give upon the claims this Province advances, after having had the opportunity and leisure to weigh their merits. Believing that your Excellency's desire is to have subjects of importance to "the Province brought to your notice, we hope we may not be considered to have trespassed beyond the limits which the courtesy of an'ordinary address of congratulation and welcome prescribes in thus mentioning them. In congratulating you on your safe arrival in the colony, we offer our siueere and heartfelt wishes that your Excellency's efforts in administering its affairs may be marked by the same success which attended you in another Government which Her Majesty committed to your charge. In the name and on behalf of the Provincial Council this 23rd day of October, in the Year of our Lord 1855. (Signed) C. Bowen, Speaker. his excellency's keply. To the Provincial Council of the Province of Canterbury. Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen,—I thank you much for the gratifying address which you have presented to me Six the present occasion, and I accept on behalf of Her Majesty your assurances of loyalty and attachment to her throne and person. The capabilities of this Province, and the progress it has made in so short a period, have exceeded my expectations,—though I was prepared to see a most flourish tlement ; and the evident prosperity of your population is the more gratifying from the contrast it affords to the poverty which prevails to so great an extent in our native land. I very much regret the financial difficulties which have perplexed your relations with the Central Government, but trust that the next Assembly will devise some plan to obviate them in future. I also regret the sudden suspension of ■ revenues which had been calculated on for " the execution of Public Works; I trust however, tins was but of short duration, as 1 lost no tune after my arrival in givin f-

ect to the resolutions of the House of Representatives on that subject, I am aware of the great inconvenience md the difficulties attendant on the distance )f the seat of Government from this Pronnce, and am now engaged in making ar-' ■angements by which postal communication jv.yi.be considerably hastened. irhe removal of the seat of Government, ,he adjustment of claims to revenue, the leral security for that revenue, are subjects ivhich I could not entertain satisfactorily to pou, or to myself, until I am enabled to call to tny Council advisers possessing the confidence of the Assembly. You do but judge me rightly in believing tint I am actuated by no idle curiosity in visiting your Province, but I do so from a desire to see and become acquainted with all that affects the welfare and happiness of its inhabitants. I beg again to thank you most sincerely for your kind congratulations, for your flattering allusions to the past s and, above all, for the liberal hospitality I am receiving at your hands, and to assure you that to aid in the advancement and prosperity of this im- ! portant Colony is the object of my ambition, and the earnest desire of my heart. (Signed) T. Gore Browne. {