SYDNEY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 287, 29 April 1848, Page 3

SYDNEY.

The following speech was delivered by his Excellency Sir Charles Fitzroy on the opening of the Legislative Council : — Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Legislative Council :—: — I have called you together at this early period of the year in consequence of the approaching dissolution of the Council. I am, happy, however, to believe that whilst this arrangement will allow ample time for the business of the Session, it will equally suit your convenience. It is consolatory to reflect that, notwithstanding the commercial depression which prevails to so great an extent in the Mother Country, and the consequent low price of colonial produce in that market, the chief resources of this colony have continued to increase in a manner alike rapid and surprising. ' The exports of wool — its main staple — reached in the past year the large quantity of upwards of twenty-two millions of pounds, of the official value of £1,260,000; being an increase on the previous year exceeding five millions seven hundred thousand pounds in weight, or equal to the whole export of that article in the year 1838. The export of tallow in 1847, was sixty-nine thousand cwt. of the official value of £107,000 ; being an increase on the previous year of iorty-nine thousand cwt. It is our privilege to continue to enjoy, under the blessing of Divine Providence, a great superabundance of all the necessaries of life, of the best quality, and procurable at very moderate rates. Although the advanced and still rising price of agricultural and pastoral labour, consequent on its scarcity, has lately pressed so severely on the employers, it has on the other hand been the source of highly remunerative employment to the working classes ; but as no community io the aggregate can long continue to be prosperous where the fair profits of- the capitalists are liable to be absorbed in the payment of an excessive or disproportionate rate of wages, I have endeavoured, by seeking fresh supplies of labour from the mother country, to restore that equilibrium, the maintenance of which between the two classes is so essential to the general, as well as to their mutual welfare. The anticipations which I entertained in my opening Address to the Council have I am glad to say, been fully realized. The whole of the Land and Immigration Debentures have been paid off, and the territorial revenue has exhibited so prosperous a state as to have enabled me to request her Majesty's Government to send out to the colony, in addition to the 5000 statute adults already promised, and of *horn the two first ship loads lately arrived in the Hyderabad and Lady Peel, an equal number in the ensuing season. There is every prospect that the whole of this immigration may be effected without the necessity of incurring any debt. The territorial revenue will thus remain available as a security for raising the necessary funds for any additional supply of labour which circumstances may render expedient. The emigrants now in progress of arriving are to be selected equally from the three great divisions of the United Kingdom. They are also to be equally divided between the Sydney and Port Phillip districts, and the expense charged accordingly, so that each district will receive the number for which it pays. I will cause to be immediately laid before you the correspondence which has taken place on the suLject with her Majesty's Government and the land and emigration commissioners. Connected with the supply of labour to the colony, I will also cause to be laid before you, a despatch from the Right Honorable Earl Grey, setting forth the terms on which her Majesty's Government will be disposed to send out exiles and ticket of leave holders, to be subsequently followed by their wives and families, and by a number of free emigrants, equal to the number of such exiles and ticket of leave holders, at the expense of the British Treasury. This proposal is made subject to the concurrence of the Legislative Council, and I accordingly recommend it to your early and attentive consideration. Immediately on receipt of Earl Grey's despatch, No. 203, of 31st July, 1847, I considered it my duly to cause it to be published for general information. It communicates the important derision at which her Majesty's Government have arrived of proposing to Parliament'the erection of, the district of Port

Phillip into a separate colony, under the designation of Victoria. It also communicates the intentions of her Majesty's Government with respect to some important alterations in the constitution of this and the neighbouring colonies. The usual abstracts of receipt and expenditure for the past year will be forthwith laid before you. I am happy to be able to say that the revenue continues in a very prosperous state. The collections in 1847 show a considerable increase on the previous year, particularly in the district of Port Phillip. The estimates are in course of preparation, and will be presented to you on as early a day as possible. In conformity with my previously expressed intention I have appointed a board to superintend the temporal regulation of the denominational schools supported in whole or in part from public funds, leaving, as heretofore, the religious instruction of the children in these schools entirely under the direction of the clergymen of the different denominations to which they respectively belong. I have also appointed a separate board to superintend the schools to be established on Lord Stanley's national system. I confidently expect that the appointment of these boards | may be attended with beneficial results as regards the general education of the people ; but I am fully aware that much is required yet to be done in this respect beyond the settled districts, and it is my intention therefore, on submitting the estimates, to propose to you an appropriation for this purpose from the produce of the revenue arising from the assess- ' ment on stock in those localities. I have received a despatch from the Right Honorable the Secretary of State, on the subject of establishing steam communication between England and this colony by way of the Cape of Good Hope, by means of vessels fitted with auxiliary screw propellers ; — this despatch will also be laid before you. The great importance of a speedy introduction of any means to effect a certain and rapid postal communication with England is so obvious, that it is on!y requisite for me to recommend the subject to your further attentive consideration, and to repeat the expression of my willingness to co-operate with you to the utmost of my power, in devising the means of speedily accomplishing this most desirable object. I will also cause to be laid before you a despatch from the Secretary of State, conveying to me the authority of her Majesty's Government to introduce a measure authorising the employment of the funds of the Savings Bank in the prosecution of any public works of general utility. This will place at the disposal of the Government a fund which, so soon as the state of the labour market will allow, may be very usefully employed in facilitating the means of communication between the different parts of the colony, and will enable the depositors in the Savings Bank to enjoy a moderate rate of interest on their earnings. A bill for this purpose will be presented to you on an early day. It will be my further duty to place before you some other Despatches, on subjects of interest to the colony, which I have received from Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonial Department ; among them is one transmitting a series of Reports relating to the project of constructing a Railway from Halifax to Quebec. His Lordship directs particular attention to one of these Reports on the result of experience in the United States of America with regard to the wooden railways, and points out the great importance of establishing such means of communication at the earliest possible period in this colony. I shall avail myself from time to time of the usual medium of conferring with you by message on any other subject of importance ; which it may be necessary to communicate to j you. - - v , . Chs. A. Fitz Roy. Sydney, 21st March, 1848.