NEW PLYMOUTH.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2591, 27 April 1877, Page 2

NEW PLYMOUTH.

Thursday.

A banquet was given here this evening to Major Atkinson; his Worship the Major in the chair. '

Major Atkinson, in responding to the toast of the evening, after thanking them for the cordial reception given him, said he should briefly foreshadow what was the Ministerial policy and intentions of the Government. The policy of the Government was to complete the establishment of local self-government already established; to establish an efficient form of primary; education; to promote the settlement of the waste lands j to cultivate a good understanding with the native race ; to reduce the annual expenditure of the public works, but to continue to construct the main lines of rail-* way till they were completed; to reduce the ordinary expenditure within the narrow limits necessary for efficiency; to simplify the finance of the colony, and place it on a sound basis for the future. He said the Municipal Corporations Act worked successfully, and the Counties Act, with the experience gained, would be amended next session, so as to make it effective and useful. He thanked the late Superintendents and Executive officers 'for the assistance given. He stated that education would have to be secular, and would be continued to be conducted by boards and committees ; that a Waste Lands Act would be introduced to enable small capitalists to occupy land, and give facilities to persons to secure land by deferred payments, and also to assist in opening up new bush country. The Government would also introduce an Act to confer greater facilities -for acquiring native lands. Referring to finance, he said he regretted that the Customs revenue did not come up to the amount estimated. He spoke of the difficulties the Government had experienced, and of the reductions made in the Civil Service. He spoke of the loans negociated with the Bank of New South Wales and Bank of New Zealand, which would render it unnecessary for the Government to go homefor further loans for at least twelve months', and intimated that further arrangements had been made for another half million, if Parliament approved of it. He believed that the railways in three or four years would give some return for the expenditure on them. He then referred to a matter of local interest—the harbour which was about to be commenced, the railway to Ingleweod, which was to be opened by the Ist of July, the new public buildings to be erected—and concluded by thanking them again for the honour done him. —Major Atkinson spoke only for twenty-five minutes. ;