NELSON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 490, 15 July 1857, Page 4

NELSON.

We have Nelson papers from the 17th June to the Ist July, from which we have not been able hitherto to extract. Some opposition lias been made to *the * Education Amendment Act,' and we find that at a public meeting a resolution was carried, thanking two members of the Council who had opposed the Government on the measure. A petition had been drawn up and circulated for signature, begging his Excellency the Governor to disallow the Waste Lands Act of the Provincial Council, on the grounds stated that the system of selling public lands on credit was contrary to sound principles of political economy, tended to withdraw money and enterprise from industrial pursuits, and to encourage speculation in land ; and further destroyed the value of the security which the province had to offer for any necessary loan. Stabbing.—Two seamen^ on board the Mountain Maid having quarrelled on Monday last, about some, trifling matter, one of them drew his knife and- stabbed the other in the breast, besides wounding him in the head. The wounded man is in the hospital, and the case at present does not promise to be very serious. The ruffian who inflicted the injury is in custody, .awaiting the result, as a day or two is necessary to show how far the life of the wounded man is in danger. —July 1. la the ' Examiner ' of the 20th of June an interesting report is given by Mr. McGregor of his explorations for gold. In his aniicipations of the future he confines himself to very moderate language, but asserts the fact, resulting from his survey, of the existence of a large paying gold-field country round the Aorere. same paper contains the prospectus Dan Mountain Copper Mining Comas published in England, wirh a very able report on the ore sent home and i there by Messrs. Henry Bath and ?f Swansea. . new coasting steamer, the Tasmanian lately purchased by the Nelson Coast , Association, and commanded by Mr. cellar, late chief officer of the Zingari, her trial trip to Massacre Bay on the ■f June. Her performances are stated c been very successful, in spite of the lurable state of the weather. Since he has taken a trip to Wellington. CIA.L SCHEME OF GENEEAIi ASSEMBLY. , Moneo, in the Nelson Provincial il, on Wednesday, June 17, in c speech moved the adoption"of the ing memorial: o-o the Right Honourable the Secretary of the Colonies. The Memorial of the Provincial Council of the Province of Nelson, Respectfully sheweth. : That by certain resolutions passed in the last session of the General Assembly of New Zealand, a proposed adjustment of the public burdens of the colony was made, commonly known as the financial scheme of the 4th session of the Assembly; and they believe that this scheme is at present under the consideration of her Majesty's Government, with the view of obtaining the guarantee of a loan of £500,000 for New Zealand. That one of the objects for which this loan is required is to pay to the New Zealand Company the sum of £200.000, in compromise of the lien held by that body upon the sales of land in New Zealand, as guaranteed to it by the Constitution Act. That it is one of the principal features of the financial scheme that the North Island of the New Zealand group shall take upon itself the burden of purchasing all native lands the title to which has not yet been extinguished, and that theburden ■of the repayment of like sum of £200,000 to be accepted by the Company, shall fall entirely upon the the provinces of the Middle Island, j namely Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, in equal proportions: that is to say. each of them is charged with one-tliird of the debt, or j £66,666 13s: 4d. That your Memorialists do not intend to offer any opinions upon the merits of the scheme as a whole; they would be travelling out of their assigned sphere of duties were they to presume to do so; but they wish to bring to your attention the fact that,in dividing the New Zealand Company's debt in equal shares between the provinces of the Middle Island, a great injustice is done to Nelson. The NewZealand ■ Company's debt is really the price of the land to which the New Zealand Company was entitled in the year 18-17, being 1,072,000 acres at ss. per acre, which the Crown purchased on behalf of the colony, and handed over to it upon the surrender of the Company's charter. That the landed estate thus purchased by the Crown from the New Zealand Company consisted partly of land actually selected and partly of an unexercised right of selection. The former, or land actually selected, consisted of about 600,000 acres. The right to select land would run over 470,000 acres more. That the Company's estate was either actually selected or might have been selected within a territory nearly coinciding in limits with the present Provinces of Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, Otago, and New Plymouth; but for practical purposes the Province of New Ply-

mouth may be taken out of the calculation, the quantity of Crown Land in that province being extremely limited. The Company's estate may therefore be assumed to be divisible between the four provinces, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago. That the New Zealand Company did actually select a block of land in the Province of Otago, containing 400,000 acres, for which it received a Crown Grant. That the Province of Otago received therefore move than a fourth part; of the whole estate of tne New Zealand Company, leaving 672,000 acres to be divided among the other abovenamed provinces; or, assuming it to be equally divided among the three, 224,000 acres each. That after the New Zealand Company's estate had been purchased by the Crown, and although the New Zealand Company had represented the liabilities impending over it to be of a very trifling amount, it was found to be subject to large deductions to meet unfulfilled contracts. That in this island, the whole burden of giving compensations in land for these unfulfilled contracts fell upon the Province of Nelson, there being no such claims in the Provinces of Canterbmy and Otago. That by a return made up to the 14th May, 1857, and just presented to this Council, it appears that land scrip to the value of £90,706 lias been issued in this province to satisfy the claims of purchasers from the New Zealand Company, and this large amount of land scrip lias been issued since the year 1847, when the arrangement between the Crown and Company was completed, and the Secretary of State {Lord Grey) was informed by the former that the liabilities impending over it were of very trifling amount. That of the £90,706 of scrip above mentioned, £61,156 have been given as compensation, and £26,550 in exchange for land given up to Government, a process whereby land originally selected of inferior value is exchanged for good land. That, assuming each £1 of scrip to represent an acre of land, and not reckoning the worthless land surrendered, the loss to the province has been 90,706 acres, which, deducted from 224,000, leaves 133,294 acres to the credit of the Province of Nelson, while Canterbury receives 224,000 acres, and Otago 400,000. That this does not, however, represent the true character of the arrangement, which is infinitely more disastrous to the Province of Nelson ; for the amount of available and desirable land in this province is really comparatively very small, and is not anywhere met with in blocks of large area. Thus, bearing in mind that the New Zealand Company was obliged to select its land in rectangular blocks of 30,000 acres, it would be impossible to take any number of these in the province, so that they should not contain a very large proportion of almost worthless land; arid if from these blocks you pick out the fertile land of the valleys, and leave the mountain sides and other barren portions, the mere loss of acreage does not by any means represent the real value of the land lost to the community. That this is by no means an extravagant or unreasonable calculation to assess the land taken with scrip at £1 per acre, and that which , remains at its original value, namely, five shillings. That upon the basis of this calculation, it appears that, while the province of Nelson has had to give in compensation land to the value of £90,706, the value of the remainder of its snare of the New Zealand Company's estate cannot be estimated at more than £33,423 10s. While, by the financial scheme of the General Assembly, the share of the debt imposed upon Nelson is £66,668 13s. 4d. That the operation of the financial scheme is briefiytliis. The province of Otago has received 400,000 acres without deduction; and the province of Nelson has received 224,000 acres subject to its having all the land it contains of any value picked out of it. The diminution in value of the landed property transferred from the New Zealand Company to the Crown, on behalf of the public of the province of Nelson, has been already shown to be about three- ] fourths; or, reckoning the land at 55., while Otago from its 400,000 acres would receive what was worth £100,000, and Canterbury for its 224,000 acres what was worth £56,000, the province of Nelson for its 133,224 acres would receive what was worth £33,423 10s.; and yet Otago, Canterbury and Nelson are made to contribute an equal share towards the burden of the New Zealand Company's debt, the share imposed upon Nelson being £66,666 13s. 4d., or at least twice the value of the land which it has received. That your memorialists respectfully request that you will take this ftheir case into your earnest consideration, and' that you will be. pleased to oppose the consummation of a scheme which would be so obviously unfair to this province, and by which a burden is imposed upon its resources so veiy disproportionate to the advantages which it receives. Mr. Kelling seconded the adoption of the memorial. Tiie resolution was sh-enuously opposed by Messrs. Wells, Elliott and others, but were finally put and carried. CLOSE OF THE COTTNCIX. (From the Examiner, June 20.) The fourth and final.session of the first Provincial Council of Nelson was closed on Thursday last by his Honor the Superintendent, in art address which will be found below. I'he number of Acts passed during the past session is greater than any former

one. and amounts to eleven ; but of these, three are to amend Acts of former sessions. The closing speech of his Honor seems to have been framed on the model of speeches from our Sovereign to the Parliament—saying as little as possible on public affairs, and altogether unlike the speeches which their Honors of Wellington and Canterbury address to their respective Councils, and in which is embodied whatever is at the time of interest to the public. One feature, however, in the wind-up of our Council, and which is not, we believe, peculiar to all the provinces of New Zealand, deserves to be noticed. To show that no ill-feeling existed towards each other, notwithstanding their differences on public questions, the members all dined together, after receiving their dismissal, at the Wakatu Hotel, the Superintendendent being present as a guest, and a more harmonious dinner party we never witnessed. It is something to be able to say for our Nelson legislators, that they can differ in opinion, without any sacrifice of personal esteem for one another. The following was the Superintendent's closing address:-— Me. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Pkovinctal Council— 7 Your labours having now been brought to a close, permit me to express my regret that you have been detained from your homes and usual avocations much longer than I had anticipated at the opening of the session; and to thank you for the assiduity with which you have discharged the onerous and important duties that the inhabitants of this province have confided to your care. I have the honour to inform you that I have, on behalf of his Excellency the Governor, given my assent to the following acts which you. have passed, namely, the Compensation Act, Country Roads Amendment Act, Nelson Improvement Amendment Act, Appropriation Act. And I have, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution Act, reserved the following acts for the assent of the Governor, namely, the Education Amendment Act, Education Loan Act, Waste Lands Act, Debentures Act, Coasting Passengers ActPublic Reserves Act Motupiko Public Reserve Sale Act. In reference to the Debentures Act, I consider it my duty to remark that the amouut which it is. proposed to obtain under its operation is greater than I had my.self considered necessary, and greater than I still consider it expedient at present to obtain j. and, in th& event of its receiving the Governor's assent, I shall consider myself at liberty to procure only such amounts in the first instance as will enable me to accomplish the surveys necessary for the growing demands of the province, and the construction of roads in those districts which are more immediately _ required to supply the wants of our increasing population. I thank you for the supplies you have so liberally voted; and sincerely hope that my estimate of the probable revenue will be so far exceeded as to place the respective amounts at my disposal; and it shall be my earnest endeavour to obtain with them the most efficient public services, and the greatest possible amount of benefit to the province. I now prorogue this Council, and it stands prorogued accordingly. , J. P; Robinson, Superintendent. Nelson, June 18,1857,