Provincial Council.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 486, 1 July 1857, Page 5

Provincial Council.

PKOROGATION. At the time of the departure of our last advices from Christchurch yesterday, 3 p.m., the ceremony of prorogation was only just complete; but we are in possession of a copy of his Honor's address on that occasion, which was of considerable length. We are unable to present it in full before oar next issue, but the chief points are as follows :— His Honor assented to eight public bills passed by the Council, reserved two for the Governor's assent, and disallowed one, the Superintendent's Payment Ordinance; this on the ground that it provides for the salary of a chaplain to the Council who is not a member of the Legislature. He also assented to two private bills, White's Bridge and In wood's Mill; and reserved two, Fuller's Remission of Purchase Money and Peacock's Wharf. His Honor congratulated the Council on having carried out the line of policy laid down in 1853; especially on the legislation on roads; on the passing an Education Bill; on establishing agencies^ in Melbourne and Sydney, and postal communication with Australia; and on the large vote for Immigration. He then adverted to the distribution of the grant for Immigration over three years, and pointed out that the Government in three years' time may probably desire to spend a much larger sum than is now contemplated for the purpose. His Honor added his conviction that before the sum voted for the present year, £10,000, can be spent, the province will be crying out for the expenditure of very much larger sums on the introduction of labour. His Honor than spoke of the request made to himself to undertake the office of Immigration agent. He would not have thought it worth while to send an agent home at so great cost merely to spend the small sums specified in the first resolutions of the Council. But if the Government desired to undertake the work of real colonization for the next three or four years, he would be glad to resume the labours which he underwent in 1850, as one of the most active agents in the colonization of this country, and, he°hoped, with success. Adverting to the loan authorised to be raised, his Honor acquainted the Council that the unexpectedly high commission charged by the Union Bank of Australia upon that portion of the loan to be raised and spent in England had put an end to the negotiations in that quarter. Considering that the Treasury was for the present more than supplied by the sales of land, he recommended that the money should be raised in England as wanted for Immigration purposes, and not transmitted to the colony unless required here. He hoped that the revenues ot the province would be so ample as to leave the whole of the loan available for immigration. His Honor intimated that he had requested the for the next elections to be sent down • \

by the first steamer, and that every arrangement would be made by him for facilitating the elections. He mentioned the progress of the public works, and, with reference to the Courtenay ferry, said that the river was filling up, and that a bridge would soon be indispensable. For the next two years the ferry would be worked as at present. He \egretted that the reserve of a mill site in Hagley park was refused. With reference to the watercresses, information on the subject would be called for, and a reward offered for the best plan proposed for eradicating them. _ The address (which was read by the Speaker, his Honor being seriously unwell), concluded by an expression of his Honor's thanks for the cordiality which the Council had ever manifested towards him, amidst much difference of opinion, The Council was then declared prorogued. Further papers relative to addresses, resolutions, &c, from the British colonies on the subject of the late war with Russia, have just been printed in the form of a blue-book. They include loyal addresses from all our colonial possessions, generally accompanied by a liberal subscription to the Patriotic Fund. Madame Seacole, of Crimean notoriety, has passed the ordeal of the bankruptcy court, obtaining a first-class certificate. She was warmly congratulated by those in court, and said that she was quite ready to go out to India for the Persian war, if she could be of any service to the army. Some of the French journals speak upon the China question and the defeat of Lord Palmerston. The Patrie says—" Will the motion of Mr.Cobden, voted by the House of Commons, (which must certainly lead to the dissolution of the Cabinet or of the House,) result in arresting the progress of events before Canton ? We hope not. '[ Should Sir John Bowring succeed before the amval of the vote of censure recorded by Parliament in entering as a Conqueror into that city, which he first sought only to enter as a simple visitor, we do not think that England, which has absolved Warren Hastings and Clive, whose glory was nevertheless tarnished by well-authen-ticated crime, will impute blame to a man for an excess of zeal, justified and glorified by success." The Univers takes the same side—" What do all these solemn debates and philanthropic I declamations really signify? One sole object—the political adversaries of Lord Palmerston wish to obtain his place. And while the Parliament of England is gravely discussing the justice or legality of this war, the Chinese are setting a price on the heads of Europeans, and are surrounding them with assassins, incendiaries, and poisoners. The Bishop of Oxford in his speech evidently lost sight of all that Christian nations have suffered from China. .... The English orators are really too considerate when they invoke the right of nations, justice, and humanity, in favour of a population which by every act places itself beyond the right of nations, and systematically violates all the laws of humanity and justice." The Siecle thus expresses itself—" Immense will be the joy of the Royalist journals on this side of the Channel; but it is a child's joy: the person they dislike is beaten, and they laugh without reflecting on the serious consequences of the event which inspires their delight."

The Assemblee Nationale says— " The vote of the House will remain as the eternal condemnation of a policy which has heen justly censored by the most eminent men of all parties, and by those who are most devoted to the real grandeur of England. Were another Ministry possible in the present dissolution of political parties, the Cabinet headed by Lord Palmerston would have no other alternative than to bend its head and withdraw before this condemnation."