LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Wellington, May 1, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 391, 2 May 1849, Page 2

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. Wellington, May 1, 1849.

The Legislative Council of this Province commenced its sittings yesterday at Government House. Shortly after three o'clock J his Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor entered the Council Chamber, attended by the Hon. Lieut.-Colonel M'Cleverty, commanding the Forces in the Southern Province ; the Hon. Alfred Domett, Colonial Secretary ; and the Hon. Daniel Wakefield, At-torney-General. The following Members were also present :— -The Hon. Henry Petre, Colonial Treasurer; William MacLeod Bannatyne, Esq. ; William Hickson, Esq. ; George Hunter, Esq. ; Alfred Ludlam, Esq. ; and George Moore, Esq. Prayers were read by the Rev. R. Cole, M.A., Colonial Chaplain, after which his Excellency delivered following Address :—: —

Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, — It affords me much satisfaction to be enabled to call you together for the despatch of public business, and to have it in my power now for the first time to resort to the advice- and assistance of a Legislature in carrying on the Government of-, the • Province ; nor is it a source of less gratification to me to reflect that, in thus caßing/you to share with me in the responsibility of directing and fostering the energies of our young and rising community, I do so at a time when the difficulties and "'impediments in the way of an onward progress are rapidly clearing away, and a bright and promising prospect opening .out/op th© future. To place before you, the means of .obtaining information on many, points /^hjch Jure important in considering the Questions, likely, to; engage your attention', I have -directed a variety of statistical and comparative re-i itarns: to be prepared, and laid before :you." •Some -of- those for past years : ark,-* I - regret 1

ta say/ less^perfect than I could hare wished, o^rig'totke^vpry imperfect records then kept i difficulty -has also been experienced' in collecting Jot compaphgre-_ turns from the more distant: settlements, owing to the infrequency and uncektaintyrpf communicating with them. Every exertibn, however, which circumstances would admit of, has been made to render the returns as complete and as useful as possible. The usual financial returns will be laid before you as soon as they can be completed, and^it will be my duty in bringing forward the estimates for the year to make such remarks in explanation of them as each particular service may seem to call for. I am happy to inform you that the revenue of the Province is steadily and progressively improving; and, although at present not quite equal to the expenditure, I confidently trust that it will be so another year. I rely upon your assistance and co-operation in administering the public resources as economically as is consistent with the efficiency of the public service, but I would guard you against the fallacy of supposing that there is any true economy in reducing the strength of public departments to a degree incompatible with the proper discharge of the duties expected from them. I would remind you, also, that in this Province many of the departments ,have been but very recently called into existence ; and that, in first organizing the establishments necessary to carry on the business of Government, a much larger expenditure is unavoidably in* curred in proportion to the revenue than is the case when the various departments .of the public service have been in full operation for some years. It is probable, therefore, that the existing establishments of the Province will, with some slight modifications and additions, suffice for conducting the business of the Government when the amount of revenue shall have become double what it is at present. It ought to be a source of great thankfulness to us, Gentlemen, that, under the Divine blessing, this Province continues to enjoy peace and tranquillity ; and that the amicable relations existing between both races of her Majesty's subjects are daily^being strengthened and cemented by a better knowledge of each other, and by a growing conviction that their dependence upon each other is mutual, and their interests iden r tical. ( - > - , ' Of the many embarassing questions which at one time existed in, reference to land, and out of which in reality arose most of the differences or, disagreements between the two races, but few now remain unadjusted ; and these few are, I trust, gradually tending to a satisfactory issue. ' It affords me much pleasure to announce to you, 'that since this Council met here in December last, two very important land questions have been arranged ; — the first relates to a purchase in the Middle Island, comprising the whole country between the Wairau and Otago blocks, and extending from one coast to the other. For the acquisition of this district negotiations were commenced and terms entered into early in 1848 ; but it has only been within the last few months, when all the native reserves were determin r edand marked out upon the ground, that the purchase could be considered complete, and all sources of future difficulty or disagreement removed. . The second land question is that of the Rangitikei, a district lying between the Rangitikei and the Wangaehu rivers, and containing about 500,000 acres of land, " of which" Mr. M'Lean (the Commissioner employed on behalf of the Government in negotiating the purchase) considers "^Mrejy large portion to be of a most fertile and valuable description, capable of maintaining a numerous European population, and superior to any other part.pf the island for cattle runs." For the acquisition of this' district the arrangements are so far advanced that the purchase money is named and a surveyor engaged in marking out the native reserves. I have every reason to'bjelieve, therefore, that in a few days, at 'the! utmost, the purchase will be finally concluded, and the first instalment of the purchase money P ald - , - . : , „/■-.. -- vl Two very fine and extensive, tracts" of country will thus be secured for .the purposes of colonisation, and as both are suitable for immediate occupation, by. stock, they will probably become .rapidly located, and a considerable limpetus be .given, to grazing pursuits, — a branch of industry of the highest importance in a colony adapted to such occupations, both jfor . the, p,urp,ose n of securing abundant and cheap food, an'dm'a means_pf creating a valuable .and certain export. ,t , In , w^itb .this; subjept- {} wpujd briefly bring under your* notice i the rapid -progress which has* recently to'een-ma'depn the two' great lines- of -road leMirig ' f to thY interior districts, and the* |jreat facilities which will be 'afforded by- them, when com-

rfeted; to settlers intending to locate there. In Gaptaih Russell's last report, that officer informs iriethat a'bbut 30 chainß of unfinished side' 'catting- in theHorokiwi valley, and aboutUeri mo^e" chains near Duck creek, are the^only- obstacles' now existing to the passage : of a tlray from Wellington to Rangitikei, "and these it . is expected will he removed, and the road' opened, during the next three months. On 'the Wairarapa road/ also, the most vigorous? exertions have been made during the summer months, and great progressjbeen effected.' I hope, therefore, if nothing unforseen occurs to interfere with a*renewal in lhe>'spring- of those active measures which have necessarily been suspended during the winter months, that in the course of the ensuing summer the- Horokiwit line will be. fully metalled and. completed, and that of the Wairarapa cleared and levelled quite into the valley, so as to be open for carts, and in a state -sufficiently advanced to hold out the. prospect, of its final completion during- the- succeeding, summer. - - Another 'important- line -of* road 4s ..also shortly about- to be commented, for the^purppse of- connecting the Waitohe ,with the Wairou, by means of which, when completed, a -.short and easy access will- be open^ from-the. extensive and already, occupied plains of the latter to a good and convenient , port- at .the former. ' . ' Jn examining the returns which will be. laid before you, you cannot fail to notice, as a' subject' Of sincere congratulation, the very small amount of crime committed in the Province as compared with its population, small even as'compared with previous years ; for I find that, in 1844, the convictions before the Supreme Court were 19, in 1847' they were only 11, and in 1848 only 10, 4 1 refer to this- mdre particularly now from the ; recent : occurrence ' of the crime of murder, an offence which! is' occasionally committed in every country, though happily most rare in this ; whilst the immediate, detection and speedy punishment of the criminal cannot fail to have a salutary effect, and tend to deter others from such crimes in future. - Startling, therefore, as the interruption to our ordinary quietude has been in the instance "Iv allude to, I see nothing in it beyond an occurrence which might, and which does take place occasionally every where ; there is nothing which ought to alarm or deter intending emigrants from coming to our shores ; and indeed I believe that at this moment-there is no country in the world where life and property are more secure tban they are in New Zealand. » It has been a matter of deep regret to me that this Province has so long laboured under- a deficiency of Ministers of religion, and of the means of Christian education. In the Wellington district alone the European population, exclusive of the military and their families, numbers 4500 souls, of these no less than 2500 have returned themselves in the last census as belonging to the communion of the Church, of England, and yet to supply the spiritual wants of these 2500 there has been;' until recently, but a single clergyman. I need hardly point out to you the multifarious and onerous duties attaching to such a charge. To officiate at two churches in the town more .than a mile apart, and two in the .country,* of which- one is five, ,and the other nine miles distant, and each in a different direction, to attend the hospital and jail, and to , visit the poor andafflicted, are so_me of the more apparent and palpable of these duties,~others, and scarcely less important onesj jn connection with, the : younger-. portion of the. community, will readjly suggest themselves to you, and you will at once perceive how utterly impossible^ it was that one individual should discharge them all, "however active and zealous he migfit be ; and I believe the one individual upon- jvhom this fearful amount of responsi- " bility^was thrown, to have been niost active and zealous to the; limits of physical capability; Lamentable, .however, as this state of -things was, it was not the worst to which the portion' of the community lam .speaking of were- liable, for .■the contingency of illness^ absence, or any , of the many causes wHich occur to interrupt the ordinary pursuits of life, no provision ' was made, and it did so happen, that on one occasion, for three sulc-_ qessive Sabbaths , there was not an officia-, ting- clergyman of the Church of England ia* Wellington ; and'for,the wfio|e\ of that pe-, riod, thWefo^e^inore ,than one half of the population of thVprincipal settlement of New Munster were deprived of. all services' of miriistratiohs~of religion whatever. £ *To-obviate; if possible, the recurrenceof .any similar contingency, and and at least to sedure'for ' the public Institutions that reli--gious attendance jwhich every Government is^bpjui'd to provide, 1 have' appoyited'a Colonial Chaplain'; • and it' affords me ' much pleasure to be abjerto, state- that, in rc6nse-' r c6nse-' quence pf such ' appointment, an' additional clergyman will «f or the future always bestatioried jjirthe district:, ' ' '* -,j '' ' ,;

Intimately associated with the subject of religion, ancj second only to it in importance, is that of education, an object for which as yet even less provision has been made in the Province, and more especially in this portion of it, than for religion. I would earnestly commend both these subjects to your most serious consideration, as involving interests of the highest importance to the future welfare of the Province, and ! as beings in fact, the very points upon which the character and conduct of the rising generation will so materially depend. Not only do religion and education constitute the means of developing, fostering, and raising the . physical, intellectual, and moral capabilities of man, — of fitly preparing him for the duties and trials of life, — of teaching him to. become a good subject, a good citizen, and a. good member of the family circle, but they are also the barriers, and the only barriers, which, interpose between him and .the commission of crime ; and it has been well observed, therefore, that " there is no evil which may not be feared from ignorance, and no good which may not be expected from a well educated community." Another question to which I would invite your attention (and it is one of vital importance to the prosperity and progress of the Province) is that of emigration ; with peace and tranquillity reigning around us, with the necessaries of life in abundance, and at moderate prices, with large tracts of fine and fertile country waiting only to be occupied, and with a climate which may vie in healthiness with the most salubrious in the world, there is yet one great drawback to our prosperity — one, until removed, insuperable bar to our onward progress ; we have no emigration. The natural result of this is, that labour, and more especial y skilled labour, is both exorbitantly dear and difficult to be obtained, and the best energies of the settlers are cramped and restricted by an inability to carry out improvements, or extend their operations. In other colonies, and in the Northern Province t f this colony, theproceeds of the sales of land constitute a fund from which the means of promoting emigration are provided, but in this Province, owing to the peculiar arrangements which exist in reference' to the demesne lands, no lands are sold in the Province, and no such fund exists. I, of course, exclude from consideration in these remarks' the Otago district, where the New Zealand Company are still sending out emigrants ; and I exclude also the prospective Canterbury settlement, not because an emigration in connection with those settlements will not be productive of indirect advantage to all the others, but because there is 'every probability that they may shortly be erected into separate Provinces ; and I both think that each Province should have a distinct emigration fund of its own, and I believe that such a fund might be obtainable, in all, if the usual facilities were afforded for the sale of land within the Provinces themselves. I should be happy to find that you can make any recommendations or suggestions for remedying for the, future the serious drawback upon the prosperity of the Province which I have pointed out, and I feel assured that the Directors of the New Zealand Company would attach great weight to j any representations coming from such a quarter.' In connection with the subject of land, it will be my duty to lay before you copies of a correspondence which has taken place between the Local Government and fhe Principal Agent of the .New Zealand Company in reference to providing funds to meet the necessary expenses of acquiring tracts of country from the natives, to enable that body to carry on its colonising operations ; and I shall have^ to ask you to make such proyision,froin the revenues of the Province for the purpose, or to ,take such other steps asjyou may"thinkthe exigencies of the case to require, j Of ,the principal laws which I propose to submit to your consideration during this session,- an outline has already appeared in the Government, Gazette ; for I was desirous that the settlers t should have, the opportunity of, considering and expressing their opinions, ] upon questions in which their interests were [materially involved, prior to the provisions which it was,proposed to introduce into the ; ordinances relating to those questions being brought .forward for discussion and enactment in the .Council. Every care has been takea inthe^ preparation of the bills which will be laid before you, to adapt them, as far as possible, to the, .circumstances and wants of the Province ;-rrb'ut ' they may yet be capable of 'much improvement, and it will bd'your 4uty to supply, such additions, or alterations' as "your practical experience, and local' knowledge may lead you to believe wiili'rehder^ them more efficient or more generally, 'useful^ /. ' * ? , ,Commending,, then, to your best attention', th'e variediihd important ihterests'upb'n

which you are called upon to deliberate, and confiding in your active and zealous discharge of the trust committed to you, I rely with confidence on you for advice and assistance ; and I beg to assure you, on my part, of my earnest desire to co-operate with you in your efforts to promote the welfare, and advance the prosperity of the Province. E. Eyre. Legislative Council Chamber, Wellington, Ist May, 1849. His Excellency then laid on the table the copy of a Correspondence between the Local Government and the New Zealand Company, with reference to the recent purchases of land from the natives. Notice was given of the first reading of the following Ordinances for Tuesday next : — The Naturalization Ordinance ; the Ordinance for taking a Census ; the Ordinance ib regulate the Sale of Bread ; and the Ordinance to prevent Entire Horses from being suffered to run at large. Tt was then moved by Mr. Hickson, and seconded by Mr. Moore — i That this Council do now adjourn until Tuesday next, in prder to give time for the arrival of the three gentlemen who have been appointed to represent Nelson in the Legislative Council of this Province. The Council then adjourned until Tuesday next, the Bth inst., at two o'clock.