The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1867. MEETING OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 134, 11 June 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1867. MEETING OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

/ The Sixteenth Session of the Provincial .Council was opened this day at 1 o'clock, .fat which hour the Speaker took the chair. ? The members present were, the Provincial ■ Secretary, the Provincial Solicitor, the Provincial Treasurer, Messrs. H. Redwood, A. Pitt, Gibbs, Sparrow, Kingdon, C. Kelling, F. Kelling, H. Beitt, Akersten, Dreyer, Wigley, R. Burn, Simmonds, Parker, Macmahon, Baigent, and Wastney. An unusually large number of spectators were present, including many ladies, who \ occupied the reporters' gallery. '**_-' The ci er _!_ 0 f the Council read the proclamation summoning the Council to meet ou this day, and also notifications from the Government Gazette, of the election of Thomas H. Wigley, Esq., for the Amuri, in the room of J. Rutherford, Esq., resigned ; of Albert Pitt, Esq., for Nelson, in the room of O. Curtis, Eeq.; of George Donne and of A. S. Dreyer, Esqs., for the Grey; of W. White, Esq., for Waimea-south, in the room of -, A. R. Oliver, Esq.; aud of E. Wastney, Esq., in the room of G. Dodson, Esq. The new members were then respectively

presented to the Speaker, and received his congratulations. His Honor the Superintendent entered the Hall at a quarter-past 1, attended by the members of the Executive Council, aud at once proceeded to read his speech, which we shall present to our readers to-morrow, its length precluding the possibility of its publication in our present issue. His Honor congratulated the Council, ou the prospect of an increase in the Provincial revenue, aud referred to the full and able report of the Proviucial Engineer for a record of the various public werks on which the revenue had been expended. He then recommended to the Council the expediency of framing couditions upon which all departmental officers on the Goldfields shall for the future be appointed, so that in the event of their services not being required, the Government might be in a position to dismiss them on certaiu terms. After a brief allusion to the Governor's visit to Nelson, and the gratification which his Excellency had derived from tbe reception afforded him here, His Honor dwelt upon the continued progress aud extension of the West Coast Gold-fields, which he considered to be in great measure attributable to the liberal policy adopted by the late Superintendent, aud carried out by Mr. Blackett and Mr. Kynnersley, expressing his entire confidence in the latter functionary, in whose hani.s the expenditure on the gold-fields is almost entirely vested. The Estimates for the- current year would be found to contain a very liberal appropriation for the South-west Gold-fields, both as regards the staff of officers and the public works ; but his Honor was of opinion that the whole of the gross revenue derived, either directly or indirectly, from mining pursuits on the waste lands ofthe Crown, should not, as a matter of right, be expended on that part of the province whence it is derived, leaving the remaining districts of the province to take upon themselves the expenses of that government to which the miners were indebted for protection and for the means of pursuing their avocations. His Honor then alluded to an offer from Mr. F. Stevens to go England at his own expense, in order to negotiate the construction, under certain conditions, of the proposed railway to the West Coast, which would be laid before the Council. Allusion was then made to a bill which would be laid before the Council, to facilitate the formation of a railway between Westport and Charleston ; to the want of extended telegraphic communication with the West Coast ; to the exploring party sent out to ascertain the existence of a practicable line for a drayroad from the Valley of the Motueka to the Keremea, across the Mount Arthur range ; to the necessity of appointing a Committee of Management for the Nelson Hospital, under the provisions of tho Hospital Act of 1 859 ; to the question of the erection of a patent slip or dry dock in Nelson Harbor, and Mr. Balfour's visit and expected Report; to the correspondence with the Canterbury Government with reference to the proposed bridge across the Hurunui; t tohe site fixed upon for the Waimea Bridge on the line of the Appleby Road, a work which will be proceeded with probably in a month or two ; to the construction of the Waterworks Reservoir, and the benefit it will confer upon the sanitary condition and safety of the city ; to the necessity for the erection of a lighthouse on Cape Farewell ; to the propriety of a . more liberal appropriation in support of the Volunteer Force; to a draft bill, hereafter to be submitted to the General Assembly, with a view to repeal certain impolitic and injurious provisions of the Nelson Crown Lands Leasing Act, 1865, and the attention of the Council was finally invited to a measure for the amendment of the Educatiou Act, with a view to enable the Roman Catholic body to bring their schopls under its operation. His Honor then withdrew, attended as before. The Speaker then laid on the table the Proviucial Auditor's Report for the past year, with the quarterly statement of accounts. On the motion of Mr. R. Burn, it was resolved that the Superintendent's Address be printed. Mr. Kingdon gave notice that he should move on Thursday next, that the Honse go into Committee, with a view to consider that portion of his Honor's Address which had reference to Mr. Stephens's offer in connection with the railway to the West Coast.

The Provincial Secretary gave notice that he should move on Thursday next, for a vote of supply of £5000,. for salaries and contingencies for the present- month. It having been resolved, on the motion of Mr. R. Burn, .hat Standing Order No. 28, should he suspended, in order to enable him to move for a committee to prepare a reply to the Address to his Honor the Superintendent, Mr. Burn then moved, that a Select Committee, consisting ofthe Speaker, Messrs. F. Kelliug, Pitt, Parker, Baigent, Kinjrdon, and the mover, should be appoiuted for this purpose. The motion was carried. The Provincial Solicitor gave notice of amotion to-morrow for leave to bring in a Bill to ameud the Education Act, and that on Thursday next the Council do go into Committee in order to consider a Bill to be laid before the General Assembly to amend the present Land Regulations. The Council then adjourned until 5 o'clock to-morrow (Wednesday).