The Lyttelton Times. Wednesday, January 12.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 645, 12 January 1859, Page 5

The Lyttelton Times. Wednesday, January 12.

_, Wednesday, January f he Year 1859 promises to be a marked one in the records of the progress of Canterbury.' 11 is a reasonable'expectation that in material position the province will be shown by statistics, at the end of the year to have advanced as far beyond 1858 as that year surpassed the one which preceded «• 11ns assumption may be taken for granted; the rather remarkable figures which a simple calculation based on: this ratio presents, are as little open to a doubt of their realization as any mundane estimate of the future can be; if we want proof, already every week winch passes over our head does more than fulfil the promise. . But it is not only in the increase oi substance that the year upon which we 'n V6 e^ed is likely to make itself remark<VJJe; it the returns of the twelvemonth should wiowthat wool has been exported and land °ia ot ten times greater aggregate value wian the exports and sales of 1858, still the record of these figures would serve only as SL ??v ofan idle boast > unless wecan w at the same time that we have done wose important public duties for which only

I we pretend; to dpsire: wealth for the province, and to wjncji only,its revenues can be properly applied. It is in the certainty that the year be ore uswill show a remarkable advance m the. distribution of money—many great works entered upon and supported— many great wants supplied—many diffii vi r^SJf? C£! m*-~that we venture to predict that 1859 will be a year conspicuous in the records of the progress of Canterbury. i At the present moment, two years' funds have been as it were added together to fill the Provincial Exchequer. It is but a few years since the treasury of the province was exceedingly poor—so 'poor that the undertakings winch we now treat as commonplace were then scarcely dreamed of: it was difficult to-provide for even current necessities. Ihe first step forward was satisfactory, but the second distanced all reasonable expectation. It followed'that the means provided for apPtying the funds of the province to its requirements were not so ample as they jwould have been, had the future been foreseen j the material was deficient, the machinery was inadequate. For instance, after the revenue had reached that point when it was estimated that funds for extended immigration could be provided, time had to elapse before those funds could be expended. "When there was money enough to have sent parties of labourers on to every road in the province, actual and in prospect, at once, the staff to guide the works had to be formed, and the labourers themselves were; difficult to find. So with every other undertaking which it has been the long-deferred wish of the inhabitants of the province to see completed. The year now commencing exhibits a different state of things. Ships; loaded with immigrants are beginning* to pour into our harbour ; and by the fact that the demand for the services of those they bring does not slacken or fall off, we are enabled to judge'what, would ■■ l have been the state of things if the stream of • immigration had not by this time set in., Ait the same time we see all over, the face,of the country gangs of those employed on public works, imder whose hands roads grow by the mile. Simultaneously with these; we find the. assistance given to the public for the encouragement of education beginning to bear fruit abundantly in the rise of schools and the arrival of schoolmasters. „-We see. the l'esult of money spent in .public and semi-public : buildings; in the preservation of order, in the adornment of towns. We look forward to the results soon becoming, apparent of expenditure upon a great variety of larg*er and smaller undertakings, which in the want of means would have , been postponed indefinitely till the necessaries of life in a new country had been provided. We speak of our great resources and great undertakings^ for they are great when placed in comparison with the small population which contributes to and uses them; and it does not take one iota from the .estimate of" our resources to "be told that their absolute: magnitude is nbthirig^ in the scale with those= of surrounding colonies'.; 'nor does it add any - self-glorification to ■ know 'that1 some states measure their advances by even a smaller unit than ours. Suffice it that_the^lbnyl.wjjichl tko-Oauterbury^sgbciati^ and 'towhose fortunes we have all committed ourselves has struck root and is flourishing beyond the most sanguine anticipation! We .have spoken solely of the province and its resources as a state. But the individuals which compose, the community will have, we are bold enough to say, equal reason in the future ,to mark down the year 1859 as one of especial advancement.