New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 28, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 616, 28 June 1851, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, June 28, 1851.

During the present session of the Council we have devoted a large portion of our Journal to a report of its proceedings, to the exclusion of other matter, because from the general interest and importance of the measures which have been brought forward, we were very desirous of giving a faithful report of the discussions on them, in order that they might be circulated throughout the colony, and that the settlers might form their own opinions upon those measures from the arguments which have been advanced in their support. But'these reports have a further value from the candid and explicit

statements which the Governor-in-Chief has given to the Council of his views, from the clear outline of his policy which these statements furnish, and the sincere desire to promote the good of the colony by which they show he is actuated. In no instance has this been more distinctly shewn than in the Provincial Councils Bill, the report of the committee on which was brought up and adopted on Thursday, so that the bill mav virtually be considered to be passed. On that occasion Sir George Grey clearly shewed, by a reference to a despatch in the last Blue Book, which is re-published in our present number, that so long ago as October, 1849, he had earnestly been endeavouring to introduce into this country Municipal Institutions of the most enlarged powers and liberal nature, and that while labouring to bestow on the settlers extensive powers of local self government he was careful at the same time to reduce the expense and simplify the machinery of Government. He also shewed conclusively that the present measure was more liberal in its provisions than any that might be expected from England, if indeed the recent changes did not almost preclude the hope that the political chiefs in England, in their struggles for power, in the all absorbing nature of home politics and the important questions that were continually arising, would find time to bestow a passing thought on so small and so remote a dependency as New Zealand. The proceedings on Thursday were further important from the letter submitted to the Council from the Agent of the Canterbury Association requesting the Governor-in-Chief to proclaim Canterbury as a separate Province. Both the letter and the Governor’s reply, which was laid before the Council yesterday, will be found in our present number.