LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 109, 10 May 1870, Page 2

LAST NIGHT'S COUNCIL.

The Council met at five o'clock. Present, all the members hut Mr. Macmahon and Mr. Tarrrant. The Provincial Secretary moved that an address be presented to the Superintendent requesting him to send down to the Councii a recommendation to grant a sum of money to meet the unauthorised expenditure for the last year amounting to £2435 12s. sd. This action was necessitated by the Provincial Audit Act, which required that the sum should be voted at an early part of the session. Mr. Luckie thought the present a singularly inopportune time for bringing forward such a motion which in good taste should have been delayed. He then attacked the Superintendent for hia speech to the electors after the last session, when he had passed a deliberate insult upon the members of the Council, more especially with regard to Mr. Dent's salary which they were now asked to sanction. He did not wish to avail himself of it, but the present was a fine opportunity for revenge, as the law provided that the unauthorised expenditure should be voted within a fortnight of the commencement of the session, and the consequences of its not being so voted were of a serious nature. Mr Collins would remind the hon. member, with reference to the expenditure of the sum of money by which it was said that the vote of the Council had been outraged, that the Superintendent had, since expressing his determination to pay that sum, been re-elected by an overwhelming majority of the electors of the province who had thus expressed their approbation of his conduct. Mr. Donne wondered the Government could have the face to table such a motion with a vote of want of confidence hanging over their heads. Hej objected, too, to the items being placed ou the table simultaneously with the resolution being moved, the more so as from Mr. Dent's salary being among them they were open to grave suspicion. He moved as an amendment, That the debate be aojourned until after Mr. Luckie's motion for to-morrow night has been disposed of. Adjournment carred on a division by 9to 7. Mr. Reid moved for the discharge of the Committee appointed to consider paragraph No. 4 of the Superintendent's address. He would not at that time go into any elaborate explanations for bringing forward such a motion but thought it due to the members of the Committee to give some of his reasons. When the Committee was first appointed he did not altogether approve of it as he considered it was but a halfmeasure. It seemed to him to be sailing on the great circle principle, adopting a circuitous and elaborate method of attaining the object in view. He thought it better to sail straight up to the enemy and give him a good broadside or a friendly overhaul as the case might be. If the Council was disposed to give a fair and deliberate opinion on the address, let them do so on the whole and not take it piecemeal. There were other matters for criticism and among them the appointment of the Commissioner as a member of tbe Executive, which was suggestive of many things, and among others of the circumstances that gave rise to that appointment, one of which, he believed, he could show to be the great lassitude, or as some people called it, the unmitigated laziness of the head of the Government. He wished to repudiate what was hinted at by some of the public journals, namely, that he and Mr. Luckie were in Opposition ; for his part he did not recognise the existence of an opposition as yet, as there was no responsible Government to oppose. He also protested against its being said that the line of conduct they were adopting was calculated to lengthen the session, on the contrary he believed it to be the most energetic and straightforward line of conduct that could be adopted. Motion for discharge agreed to. The Council then went into Committee on the Waterworks Bill, and adjourned at 7.30 until this evening.

Bank of New Zealand. — The usual half yearly meeting was held at Auckland on 27th April, when the official report was read. The net profit on March 31, after making liberal provision for every bad and doubtful debt and depreciation in valuo of bank furniture and premises, was £40,974 ss. 6d. The balance of undivided profit on September 30, £4,539 3s. sd. added to this amount, leaves £45,513 Bs. lid. available for division. This sum was appropriated in the following maoner: — To payment of dividend, at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum, £25,000; bonus of ss. per share, equivalent to 5 per cent per annum, £12,500; balance carried to profit and loss (new account), £8013 Bs. lid. The Chairman intimated that it was the intention of the directors to ask the authority of the shareholders to raise additional capital to the extent of £100,000. In connection with the San Franciscan Mail route the Auckland Herald says : — As a large graving-dock will iv all probability be shortly constructed in Auckland, capable of receiving a vessel of 3000 tons, this port will probably be made the terminus. The railway to the Manukau harbor, a distance of a few miles, will be completed at the same time, and Australian and west coast of New Zealand mails and passengers will in that case be conveyed thence to their various destinations. We (Lyttelton Times) have had the opportunity of inspecting a sample of flax: prepared by boiling and scutching, which is certainly equal, if not superior, to the general run of machine-dressed flax. A Mr. Pegg, of Oxford, first tried the experiment, aud Mr. Dumergue has since followed it up. The great merit of this system is its cheapness, as flax of very fair quality can be produced for something like £8 per ton. Reported Marriage of the Queen. — The Latest News, a recently established London paper, is responsible for the following: — Those of our readers who are not in, the secrets of the palace will certainly be startled to hear that tbe cause of frequent visits of the Prince of Augustenburg-Son-derburg to Windsor, will in a few weeks be explained to her Majesty's loyal subjects in a manner calculated to cause them the highest gratification, aud to withdraw our gracious Queen from the privacy in which she has spent her widowhood. We beg to call the attention of tbe Public to the Ready-mide Clothing now being imported into the market by Messrs. S. M. Solomon aad Co., being all Melbourne made, and of the very best material, well shrunk. Parties who have not as yet visited that establishment, and made selections from their valuable Winter Stock now on sale, are advised to do so at once, as the demand seems greatly to exceed the supply. 939