THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1871.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 68, 27 December 1871, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1871.

The session of the Provincial Council was brought to a close on Friday, when his Honour the Superintendent read the following speech :

Mu Speaker and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council. — l am glad to find that the assiduous attention you have given to the public business brought before you enables me at so early a date to release you from further attendance. The measures adopted by you for placing the Auckland Harbour Board on a sound financial basis will, I trust, result in important improvements to the harbour, and tend towards the general progress of the province. The various addresses you have presented to me, on other than money matters, will have the best attention of myself and my Executive during the recess, with the desire, so far as we consider them to he in accordance with the public good, to giveeifect to your wishes. The very numerous money addresses presented I shall be unable to give effect to further than your appropriations authorise me. I deeply regret that you have declined to aid in the institution of a Free Library and Museum for the province. The public support accorded to such institutions in other portions of the colony indicates a higher appreciation of their educational value. On behalf of his Excellency the Governor, 1 have assented to the following Acts passed by you, namely : The Licensing Act, 1871, Amendment Act, 1871 ; the Highways Act, 1871, Amendment Act, 1871 ; the Education Reserves Management Act. 1871, Amendment Act, 1871: the Registration of Brands Act, 1871, Amendment

Act, 1871 ; the Kau-kapakapa Road Act, 1871 : the Opahcke Road Act, 1871 : the Papakura Road Act, 1871 : the Waitakere Road Act, 1871 : the Harbour Loan Acts Repeal Act, 1871: the Municipal Police Act, 180 b, Amendment Act, 1871 ; the Appropriation Act, 1872 ; and the Common Schools Act, 1809, Amendment Act, 1871. 1 have reserved for the signification of his Excellency’s pleasure thereon, the Hospital Reserve Road Act, 1871, and the -.ospital Reserve Sale Act, 1871; and I have withheld the Governor’s assent from the Albert Barracks Military Reserve Act, 1871. The supplies you have voted for the public service will be expended with care and economy, and I luyve now the pleasure of declaring that this Council stands prorogued, and it is accordingly prorogued.— Thomas 13. Gii.gies, Superintendent. Superintendent’s office, Auckland, 22nd December, 1871.

Nothing could well he simpler or more to the point than this speech. It contains one paragraph, however, which might quite as well have been omitted. We mean the expression of his Honor’s “deep regret” at the action of the Council in declining to aid the Auckland Institute. That action was, we maintain, under existing circumstances, the correct one to take. So far as the foundation of a free public library is concerned, wo cannot conceive how such an idea became associated with the proposal, inasmuch as from all we know of the New Zealand Institute and its affiliated societies, wc have no reason to expect it to take steps in that direction. Moreover, the site of the old post-office at the top of Shortland-street, Auckland, is not a convenient one fer a public library; and £I,OOO spent on building there at present, until the levels have been fixed, would be money thrown away. We are quite satisfied that the majority on this vote are as solicitous for the spread of education as his Honour and his Executive can he : but they are not led astray by something like a scientific craze to spend public money in a building which could not he completed for many years, on an inconvenient site, and thus postpone, for an indefinite period, the formation of a free public library, about which all are agreed. With regard to the general business of the session, we have to congratulate the public on the total result. There were no new laws of a pretentious character passed. The amendment of

the Licensing Act was rendered necessary ; and as the Permissive principle and the female franchise clause were retained, the latter having been reaffirmed, we trust the measure may receive a fair trial at the hands of the public.

The amendment of the Highways Act was likewise a necesssarv proceeding. The legislation of the General Assembly last session, and the objections of the Attorney-General to the Provincial Act of 1871, compelled the Executive to introduce this Bill, which was improved in committee. Heretofore we have governed our townships under the local Highway law, and with a fair measure of success ; but we have grown too large for such machinery of local Government, and do well to ask to be constituted a municipality, under the general law of the colony. Meanwhile, as we are still under the- Highway Act. the legislation of the Provincial Council in this matter is of consequence to us.

Wc are satisfied at the failure of the Government to carry their new Education Bill. It was an attempt, by a side wind, to endow denominational schools, and to direct the education vote from being spent solely in aid of local educational effort in the country districts, to the city schools. The result would have been fatal to education in the thinly peopled districts, which would have been neglected for the more populous, where political and social influences could be brought to bear upon the Central Board of Education. This was the cause of the failure of the Education Act of 1857. Its operations were confined to the populous districts. The religious bodies in the centres of population absorbed the grant, and education generally in the province was neglected. Under the Common Schools Act the education vote is spent in the country districts, and the number of now schools that have been founded since it came into operation prove its usefulness. Wo trust we shall never again sec the denominational blight on the educational system of this pro:mice.' At .ill events, the country settlers should know when they arc well off, and insist on retaining the present Act, with all its faults. We congratulate the friends of education on the election, by the Council, of Messrs Swanson and Isaacs, M. Clark, and l)r. Nicholson, to the Central Board. The short Act, separating tlig office of secretary and inspector may have been necessary. It is, however, simply a matter of detail, and does not affect the principle of the law.

The financial concessions to the Auckland Harbour Board display the liberality of the Provincial Council. It is to be hoped that the Harbour Board will conduct its business with becoming wisdom, and that the great expectations that have been raised, and the great works spoken of, will in turn be realised and executed. At the same time wc trust progress will be made in the direction of having harbour works constructed at the Thames during the ensuing year. Although we may participate, in degree, by the prosperity of the port of Auckland, wc should derive much greater advantages from having a safe and commodious harbour for shipping at our own port of Hnuraki.

The appropriation for the Goldfield has been, on the whole, liberal. So long as the goldfield is financially and politically part of the province of Auckland, we need not expect to have full consideration of our requirements. The necessities of other parts of the province will compel the authorities to divert part of the goldfield revenue to aid the poorer districts. It should be our aim, therefore, to secure the right to administer our own local revenue, without reference to Auckland or the Government. This end may be attained, if only the goldfield population arc iu earnest in the matter.