OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

Patea Mail, Volume IV, Issue 343, 31 July 1878, Page 2

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

THE GOVERNOR’S SPEECH. Honorable Legislative Councillors and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives. It affords me much pleasure again to have recourse to your advice and assistance, and I canfidently anticipate that

your deliberations will tend to promote the prosperity and good government of the colony. Since the last session I have been cordially received by the colonists with the utmost loyalty and cordiality as the Queen’s representative, wherever I have been able to visit, and it has been with the greatest satisfaction that I have observed the marked progress and material prosperity which is everywhere taking place, and which tends so manifestly to the industry-of the people of this country. I congratulate you on the fact that peaceful relations have at last been established with the Waikato and NgatiTnaniapoto Gibes. Complying with the' pressing and frequently received invitations of those tribes, the Premier and the Native Minister visited them on several occasions, in their own district, and met them also at the Waitara. Papers on this subject will be laid before you. They will show that the long period of serious difficulties with the Native race may reasonably be considered to be approaching a termination. There is now a fair prospect that before long European enterprise and settlement will bo welcomed by those groat tribes, and that they will gladly avail themselves of the advantages which roads, railways, and the telegraph will bring to their magniScent property, by which its value—and consequently the wealth and happiness of that portion of the native race so long estranged from us—must be largely increased. In consequence of the disposition thus recently manifested on the part of these Natives you will be asked to consider the of extending the North Island trunk way, from Auckland to Taranaki. It is probable that blocks of land of great value will be acquired on reasonable terms along the line, for which negotiations with these tribes have been progressing. The interests of those that have long been loyal to us have not been neglected, and many of the principal Native settlements have, during the recess, been visited by the Premier and the Native Minister. Several long pending questions, out of which more or less ill-feeling has arisen, have been finally and satisfactorily settled. Tbe question of the survey and settlement of tbe West Coast of Ibis island, has been firmly taken in hand. One large block has been surveyed, and will shortly be opened for sale, and the immediate survey of the Waimate Plains lias been ordered. Whilst the utmost consideration for the former native owners will be shown in dealing with those lands, a large extent of valuable country will be available for sale and settlement. My advisers have found the position of the Government Native Land purchases to be very unsatisfactory, and but for the legislation of last session, which enabled the Government temporarily to protect lands under negotiation by the Crown, many blocks upon which large sums of money have been spent would have passed into the hands ot private speculators. This is a question with which yon will bo called upon to deal, and information sufficient to enable you to conserve the interests of the colony in this respect will be afforded you. Measures for simplicity in the procedure of investigations of title to Native lands, as well their alienation, will bo submitted to you. The principles of those measures have been discussed with many sections of the Native people, and it is believed that the effect of them will be to place upon an equal footing all the Queen’s subjects who may desire to purchase Native lands.

The threatening aspect of European affairs caused the Imperial Government to assemble in London a committee of scientific officers, to consider the question of colonial harbor defence. Those officers made recommendations for the defence of the chief harbors of New Zealand, and the substance of those recommendations were telegraphed to me bj the Secretary of State, for the purpose, of ascertaining whether the colony would carry them out. On the advice of my Ministers, I have replied that New Zealand accepts the duty, and the necessary armament will shortly arrive in the colony, Papers on this subject will be submitted to you. Measures have been prepared, will be brought before you, dealing with electoral reform, which it is hoped will tend to place the franchise and the method of electing members of the House of Representatives upon a satisfactory basis. (Continued in fourth page.')

ness, numbness, and mental apathy yield to them. They dispatch in a summary manner, those dyspeptic symptoms, stomachic pains, fullness at the pit of the stomach, abdominal distention, and overcome loathings, capricious appetite, and Confined bowels, the commonly accompanying signs of defective or deranged nervous power. Holloway’s Pills are particularly recommended to persons of studious and sedentary habits, who gradually sink into a nervous and debilitated state, unless some restorative, such as his Pills, be occasionally taken.