PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF NELSON

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4435, 7 June 1875, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF NELSON

The Superintendent opened the Council on May 11. In his address he stated that the views he should express would be his own and not necessarily those of the. Executive, as he considered that the Superintendents, in confining their addresses to expressions of opinion dictated by the Executive, were .accepting a position wholly inconsistent with the existence of independent relations between the elected head of the province and the Council. He said that with one or two exceptions he had worked in satisfactory accord with the Executive in regard to the ordinary routine of administrative action, such as the appointments and dismissals, &0., of officers—had been content to record his protest ; but in one matter largely affecting the interests of the province he had told the Executive that he would either require their resignations or call a special meeting of Council, and the Executive had given way. The revenue for the year showed a slight decline owing to the difficulty felt in executing surveys, and consequently of bringing land into the market. Referring to the proposed provincial changes, he said that if the Government’s proposals included abolition of provincialism throughout the colony, and did not insist upon maintaining intact the land compact of 1856, and made a fair provision for local government, he would not oppose them. The Superintendent caused considerable excitement by referring to the Brunner railway in the following terms “The Brunner line, that remarkable specimen of political railway making, after a struggle of four or five years, affords some promise of being open for traffic before the end of the year. The first estimate of its cost, for which a vote was taken in 1871, was £26,250. In 1872 the estimate was raised to £51,400, or more than double, and a vote was taken for a difference of £28,150. In 1873 the estimate was raised to £74,000, and a vote was taken for the excess of £20,000. In 1874 the estimate was raised to £84,000, and a vote taken for the additional £10,000; and this year, I believe, a further sum of at least £15,000 will be required. Whether the line can be maintained at all in the present position of things without an enormous cost, or whether it will tumble into the river, are questions which time alone can decide. I believe it will be found necessary to abandon it, and to reconstruct it on the north bank of the river, with the terminus at Cobden.”