OTAGO.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 628, 13 November 1858, Page 5

OTAGO.

By the Queen steamer we have papers from Dunedin to the 6th instant. The Provincial Council was opened on Wednesday, the 3rd inst, by his Honor the Superintendent who delivered the following ADDRESS. Gentlemen,—l havebeen under the necessity of calling you together at this time, as the Constitution Act has required you to be assembled, in order to be within one year of your last Session. Since your last prorogation, many important Acts, '.affecting provincial interests, have been passed by the General Assembly of New Zealand, which Acts were only received on the 18th October, ult. Your Superintendent, in the discharge of his duties as your representative, has been absent from the province for several months. The Provincial Solicitor and another member of the Executive have been laid aside from their duties, the one through a serious accident, the other throngh illness, which has resulted in his resignation, and involved the necessity of appointing another member in his room. - This concurrence of events on the very eve of your being assembled, has made it impossible to prepare the business for your present meeting with the fulness and deliberation which is due to it; and it is therefore proposed to limit the business on this occasion to such matters as are immediately and pressingly called for; to give a general view of the further objects to be considered; and, should you deem it advisable, to prorogue the House for some four or five months, in order that the necessary bills and resolutions may be maturely prepared for your consideration.

The estimates of revenue and expenditure will now be laid before you—on which it will be observed, with respect to sums which you' will be asked to vote for Public Works, Immigration, and Steam, and which are largely in excess1 of the estimated revenue, that, on the one hand, the actual expenditure or contracts to expend will be, kept within the revenue received, and without exceeding the amount fixed by law for borrowing on Provincial debentures—and, on the other hand, that in the event of extensive sales taking place under the "Land Sales and Leases Ordinance, 1856," or otherwise, the Government may be enabled to expend on the objects referred to the amounts proposed to be voted.

A report on public works with estimates, by the Chief Snrveyor and Civil Engineer, showing the extent of main roads to be executed—the portions of them requiring to be metalled, according to the amount of traffic—the appliances that should be nsel for opening and keeping in repair the unmetalled main roads—and lastly, the order in which this work should be proceeded with, according to means, in each successive year. „ # The promise made at your last prorogation of a Bill for conservation of the Otago Education Scheme in all its original principles, and with amendments in matters of detail, which experience has proved to be desirable, has. been so far attended to that a Bill to that effect was drafted, but owing to the unsettleraent of the Executive, as already referred to, there has not been time for its completion by the present Government so as to be laid on your table. The principles, however, of that Bill, and modification ot details, will be submitted to you in the shape of resolutions, setting forth those principles, and making the adoption of them in the Bill to be binding. Amongst the more important Acts of the New Zealand parliament, as affecting the province, may be noticed the ••Waste Lands Act, 1858, by which it is declared that the sale and administration of all Crown Lands are vested in the Governor; but presently delegated,as heretofore, to thp Government of each province*, and it sets forth also the power of the Governor, with advice of his Executive Council, to change that delegation into the hands of any other party—r»o that each province, as regards tho sale and ad-

ministration of Crown Lands, now stands upon its trial to be judged of by the Ministry of the day.

Another Act, the " New Provinces Act, 1858," gives power to the ministry on certain conditions, but wholly irrespective of general wishes of any province, or of its representatives in the Council, at any time, to break /up such province into separate portions,)iudependent of} and naturally antagonistic to each other, in respect of any uniform and comprehensive system for surveys, immigration, steam communication, and road making, so as to open out, provide for, and connect the whole territory in each of its parts, so far as a judicious and economical application of the-land fund can suffice. And in connection with this subject; I have further to call your attention to the enactment, evidently baaed upon the conviction that the land fund arising from sales at 10s; an acre is insufficient, and which therefore enables the Governor, by giving his assent to a Provincial Ordinance for raising the price, to make a change to that extent in the Land Regulations—any other change whatever in existing regulations by a Provincial Legislature being wholly precluded, •

With reference to these Acts, and: the whole tone of recent legislation, showing a desire for centralization, and the abolition of the provinces as such; there is much to be maturely reflecteS on by the Government and Provincial Council, as well as by the people of Otago at large, with a view to such action thereon as may be found expedient. • V

The following Bills and resolutions will be introduced for your consideration :—- ---1. Leases of Trust Lands Bill. 2. Dunedin Cattle Trespass Bill. 3. Appropriation Bills. 4. Immigration Fund Bill. 5. Pastoral Districts Bill. Resolutions in reference to 1. Towns Endowments. 2. Public Works; : ' 3. Education. ' ; .

Gentlemen, I have noW the pleasure to leave the business of the session in your hands, in the full confidence and assurance that your deliberations will be influenced by a cordial desire to promote the progress and best interests of the province.