NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, December 7, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 871, 7 December 1853, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, December 7, 1853.

The course pursued by the Provincial Secretary with lespect to the estimates appears to be a*very unusual one. If we understood him rightly, in his reply to Mr. Ludlam's question on Saturday as to when the estimates would be brought forward, he seems to intimate the Council must be prepared to vote for raising any sum of money the Government choose to ask for before the slightest information is given as to the appropriation of a single shilling of it. The public were informed in the Superintendent's speech on the opening of the Council that, after all the ordinary expenses of the Government are defrayed from the current revenue, a considerable surplus will remain for public improvements. The amount at the disposal of theGovernmentarisingfrom the revenue of the Province is considerably more than the revenue of the three other Southern Provinces put together and capable, under judicious management, of being turned to good account. Surely, then, before anymore money is raised, before we think of borrowing, at least we ought to know to what purposes the money we have already is to be applied ; what under the new system is to be the expense of Government, what improvements are contemplated to be made with the surplus which we are told will be available from the ordinary revenue. The public expect, and have a right to be most fully informed on these matters, and we should have thought the Provincial Secretary would have shewn an anxiety to be most explicit on them, that he would have been eager to put the Council in possession of the plans and intentions r{ the Government with reference to the disposal of the public money in their minutest detail, instead of ihe -course he has adopted, which has very much the appearance of arbitrary dictation. The best way to obtain confidence is to deserve it by an open, straighforward course, free from any attempt or appearance of reservation or concealment, and equally removed from even the suspicion of dictation! After the estimates for the ordinary expenditure have been submitted to the Council, they will then — but not till then — be in a position to determine whether any extraordinary sums should be raised to carry out extraordinary improvements; whether the estimates afford such a guarantee for the judicious expenditure of the funds already in the control of the Government that they should plunge the colony into debt, and sanction the raising of a loan. We can hardly conceive the Council would be such faithless guardians of the public purse as — in the absence of all information, without any data to guide them — to .consent to borrow money, before they know whether it' is wanted, or without having the slightest notion how it is to be expended. ?

The Provincial Council at Canterbury, have concluded their first session, having • disposed of all and all the money before them. The revenue for the Province ;for/the current y,ear, r being estimated at £3900, to Jeko'OO,' .they have voted in\ salaries' £3906 Is. -8d. — we like to be precise,- and, the ls.'Bd: nag-quite a business air about it. « In vain onemembqr deplores that /'the highly .raised expectations are! destroyed of what -they* were ; led to, hope -would be ,. the result of *local r self- ! gj)vernmen,t," i that.if they want, their roads re.- ] paired,- their postal , arrangements between Lyttleton } and Christchurch carried out, .the ] colonists, must put their hands, in. their pockets and, tax themselves ; in- vain another member discovers — too late— r that " the plain English of the matter was they required a Local Government, but as yet had not sufficient funds "to pay for it;" — Mr. Hamilton .who appears, to be the Caleb Quotem of the. Superintendent, in Council — " P.P. -of; this -Parish" | — is I / perfectly satisfied of the t future," and is astonished the Province is. let off so cheaply. "He ; undertook, to say that the .Settlement was; more cheaply governed, than any other hact been." .His Honor opens ; the oyster, swallows the .contents and presents the shell to tfre free, and. enlightened constituency, and if any among them are so unreasonable as to grumble they are to, remember, — amostim portant fact and a great satisfaction to them-t-that all^this .is done in the name, and by the representatives , of the people. Voila tout} Subjoined ''arejthe Estimates Voted at Canterbury -lay which,the Lyttlelon Times says, '* a machinery.is" established sufl&cient for all pui?r-'

poses of Gov.e^ament, and capable oCdisposing^ of £50,000, without'costing the* Province an' additional infinitesimal portion of a farthing." We very much question if, we at Wellington, shall he let off so ':—: —

At the meeting of the Council yesterday, the chief part of the time was occupied by a discussion raised by Mr. Fitzherbert on a question of privilege, as to some observations alleged -by him to have been used, by- .Mr. Wakefield at the Hutt meeting in "November j and -which as it, appeared he had not used! Both the responsible advisers of the Superin tendent made a lamentable exhibition of themselves in the course they, pursued, and the pointed reference made by Mr. Fitzherbert to the pains and penalties of "breach of privilege " shewed a strong tendency on his part to arbitrary rule, which was properly rebuked by Mr. Wakefield. The loud applause from a crowded gallery which followed Mr. Wakfield's speech, and which the Speaker of the Council endeavoured to repress, clearly proved pn which side the popular sympathies were enlisted, ,and the opinion entertained by those present of the merits of the' case, in the getting up of which Mr. Fitzherbert had bestowed so much pains. ' \

It is reported that' his Excellency the Governor and Lady Grey will proceed, in company with the Bishop of New Zealand, to England direct, from Auckland in the Commodore. The vessel is expected to sail the day after Christmas Day. • ' '

Programme of .the performance by the Band of the 65th Regt, at Thorndon, on Friday, December 9th : — 1 . Overture— Le Solitaire Carafa 2. Selection — Lucia de Lammermoor .... Donizetti 3. Sur la Xacarilla Quadrille Bousquet 4. La mia Letizia — I Lombardi 1 '. Verdi 5. La Prima Donna yalse Jullien • 6. The Hungarian Schottisch Jullien 7. The CMngton Polka Tate

*„ n. v. Superintendent's Department .600 0 0 • Supplementary grant for expenses prior to Ist October 83 6 8 - Provincial Treasurer's Department.. 540 0 0 Provincial Auditor's do 160 0 0 Resident Magistrate's Office 30 0 0 Police Department 406 0 0 Sheriff's do 216 5 0 Harbour Master's do 327 10 0 ■Resident Magistrate's do., Akaroa. . 293 0 0 Provincial Council 235 0 0 Legal Adviser and Crown Prosecutor 300 0 0 Printing Gazettes, Ordinances. Sec... 20» 0 0 ■ Colonial Surgeon, Coroner, and Hospital 440 0 0 Inspector of Sheep 75 0 0 j£39OG 1 8