Provincial Council.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 413, 18 October 1856, Page 7

Provincial Council.

On Thursday last the 7th Session of the Provincial Council was opened by His Honor the Superintendent.

At 4 o'clock p.m., a large number of the Council beiiig assembled, His Honor entered the Chamber and read the fo lowing address. Mr. Speakee, and Gentlemen or the Pbovincial Council, — Whatever inconvenience you may experience from the occurrence of another session so shortly after your prorogation, I am sure you will admit that the occasion justifies me in requesting your attendance.

The subjects which will be referred to you are those only upon which immediate action has become necessary, arising out of the recent legislation of the General Assembly; and you will, probably, think it inexpedient to enter upon other subjects in a special and exceptional session, such as the present. A copy of the Acts of the General Assembly will be laid on your table. You will see by the Waste Lands Act that full legislative power over the Waste Lands, together with the administration of the Land and Survey Department is transferred to the Provincial Government. Owing, to certain legal and formal obstacles, the Land Fund is to remain for the present year General Revenue; but, with the exception of a fixed charge of £4,000 a year, it is to be treated practically as any other Provincial Revenue. The costs of collection and management are to be paid as heretofore under the Governor's warrant, but the amounts are to be fixed by the Provincial Governments. It therefore becomes my duty to ask you to fix those amounts in the same form as the ordinary Provincial Estimates, and your votes will be earned into effect by His Excellency's warrants. The Local .Posts Act requires that you shall, by resolution, fix the maximum amount of postage to be charged for the conveyance of letters by local posts, and that you shall guarantee out of Provincial Revenues any deficiency which may arise in their maintenance. The General Government does not propose to maintain any Local Posts beyond Christmas next; consequently they must be re-established under the new act, after that date.

These two subjects alone would have rendered your attendance in session imperative for a few days. But there is one other of more immediate importance, which will demand your attention. I mean the state of the roads and Public Works, and of Immigration. The settlement of the pre-emptive right question has been followed by the revival of a Land Revenue, and the resumption of Public Works; but the funds likely to be at our immediate disposal will be far from sufficient to satisfy all the pressing demands which the greatly increasing traffic on the public roads is daily making on the Government. On the other hand the final adjustment of the public burdens by the General Assembly places it in our power to offer such security as will justify us in borrowing money, for the purpose of promoting Immigration, and executing the necessary Public Works. You will therefore be asked to authorise the Government to raise the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds, half to be spent in Public Works and half in Immigration. It is proposed to limit the sum to be spent on the Public Works, to twelve thousand five hundred pounds, because it would not be possible efficiently to expend more than that sum in one year, with the labour at our command; but the prospects of the Land Fund are such that I do not anticipate having to raise so much by way of loan. The Union Bank of Australia has undertaken to advance the sum of £4,000, should the Government require it, to enable us to carry on our Public Works for the present summer; but it is proposed that the loan of £12,500 now contemplated should include this advance from the Bank. Estimates will be submitted to you for the expenditure of this money on the various roads, thereby opening up fresh land for sale. Amongst the Public Works to be completed, the comnmnication between the port and the inland country stands as the most important.. I am well aware that there is much dissatisfaction in the province on this matter; a dissatisfaction in which I fully share. lam sure all thinking men are equally agreed with professional men as to the necessity of land carnage, and that the line which has been adopted is the

only one available; but most persons are disappointed at the expenditure of large sums of money with no present result. I am willing to admit that it might have been wiser to have done nothing, unless you were prepared to vote such sums as would have completed the whole work at once. But it is a proposition, not to be questioned or gainsayed, that nothing which you can do will secure anything like a rapid progress for this province, until you have provided a safe and expeditious mode for the conveyance of merchandise and agricultural produce between the inland country and the port town.

It will be proposed to you to construct a railway to be worked by horse-power; a plan which, if completed, will save to the farmer from 20s. to 30s. on every ton of his produce exported. I am quite aware that in the multitude of other pressing demands it would be unacceptable to the province, generally, now to vote money for this purpose. But I think the public will fully concur in the expediency of following the same course which has been successfully pursued in other countries, that is, specially to set aside a portion of the public lands, to be sold or otherwise disposed of for the purpose of constructing a railway. A bill will be laid before you for this purpose. The sacrifice of the required tract of land will be a very small price at which to obtain so great a benefit, And, if the Council will entertain such a proposal, I have no doubt but that in about two years the railway may be in full operation without making any further demands on the ordinary public revenues, or delaying any of those other public works which are so greatly called for. A very short bill will be laid before you for making some trifling alterations in the land Regulations, to obviate some slight practical difficulties which have arisen in their working.

On the subject of the Waste Lands Regulations, generally, I speak the unanimous mind of the Provincial Government when I say that it is intended to maintain them in their present form. Whatever differences of opinion you may individually entertain of the expediency of particular clauses, it must be admitted that those Regulations were passed after much consideration, and that the system ought not to he altered until it has had a fair trial. Until within the last few weeks, owing to a variety of obstructions, it may be said they have not been tried at all. Nothing so surely frustrates the Land Revenues as the prospect of changes in the price of land and in the system of management, and it would be most unwise to disturb the settlement which has at length been effected until full time has been allowed for the emigrating population of Great Britain and the neighbouring colonies to become acquainted with the terms on which lands in this province can be obtained. I cannot but record my strong opinion that the maintenance of the present price of the land will, in two or three years, place this province in a position of prosperity which it never could have attained had the land be sacrificed into the hands of speculative purchasers and large monopolists at low rates. A short Bill to bring the last clause of the Canterbury Association's Ordinance into operation, by making the Debentures receivable at land sales, will complete the subjects to be now laid before you. Although of importance, these measures are so simple in their nature that their consideration will not demand your prolonged attendance. Should you differ from the views which have suggested them, you will, I hope, at all events,admit that they have been proposed with a sincere desire for the welfare and progress of the province. His Honor then left the chamber. Prayers having been read by the Chaplain, The Provincial Secretary'then laid upon the table the bills referred to in his Honor's Address, and copious returns bearing upon the different subjects; and proceeded to detail at some length the measures the government were about to lay before the House, and the manner in which they proposed to bring them forward. He did not consider the questions about to be brought forward as political but economical ones; and, should the Council determine to reject the government schemes, he did not think that such a course necessitated any inconvenient political changes (laughter). Several members then gave notice of motion for the ensuing day. The House then adjourned. The Council met again yesterday at 10 o'clock,

and after an animated debate, adjourned till Thursday next The discussion of the principal measures, is further postponed till Tuesday week, the 2Sth instant,