PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 25, 24 June 1867, Page 3

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

His Honor read the following speech:—

Mr Speaker and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council, — Having already assented to “ An Act to appropriate the Revenue of the Province of Wellington for a term commencing the Ist day of April, and ending the 30th day of Juno, 1867.”

I beg now to intimate that I have, on behalf o e the Governor, assented to the following Acts; viz:—

“An Act to provide for the protection of certain birds and other animals in the Province of Wellington.” “ An Act to enable the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington to issue to Volunteers and Militiamen remission certificates for the purchase of land.” “An Act to indemnify the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington for the expenditure of certain monies for the civil government, and public works and undertakings of the said province.” “ An Act to consolidate and amend the laws relating to the sale of spirituous and fermented liquors.” “An Act to amend an Act to authorise the construction of a bridge over the Wanganui river, and levying of tolls on traffic over the same.”

“An Act to enable the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington to sell certain reclaimed laud for the purpose of a Tele;) raph Office.” “ An Act to appropriate (be revenue of the Province of Wellington for the year commencing the Ist day of April, 1567, and ending the d Ist day of March, 1868.” “ An Act to amend an Act to promote the establishment of Common Schools in the Province of ’Wellington, Session 2, No. (!.”

“ An Act to consolidate and amend the laws relating to Fencing within the Province.” “ An Act to amend and consolidate the laws relating to District Highways.” Of these Acts there are none which appear to me to require any special comment. Most of them are purely formal—Acts which must of necessity he passed each session 1 have, however, to congratulate you upon your having steadily persevered in the work of consolidating the the laws of the Province. By the three Acts consolidating the laws relating to District Highways—the laws relating to the sale of spirituous and fermented liguors—the laws relating to fencing —you have not merely swept away some seventeen enactments, but by the few and very immaterial alterations you have introduced into these consolidating Acts, yon have furnished ample evidence that your past legislating has been wise and judicious, and has been admirably adapted to the circumstances of the province.

By the paucity of yonr legislation, both in this ami previous sessions, yon have shown not only that you cannot fairly he charged with ovcrlcgislaiing, but that you are fully alive to its evils.

Cany out. this principle of consolidation for one or two more sessions, anti the {Statute Book of the province will he reduced to dimensions of which no one will bo entitled to complain and its laws will be so few in number and so intelligible that its inhabitants will have no right to plead ignorance’of them. Although the Council, when the question of giving effect to the previously recorded resolution in favor of rising the price of land was mooted, avoided giving any positive decision, the Government recognise the withdrawal of the motion to give effect fo its previously recorded dicision as an expression of oppinion on the part of the Council that no alteration in the existing Land Regulations is at present , deemed bv it desirable.

Hut oven were such not the just construed' n put upon the attitude taken by the Council it. is clear from the Honorable the Colonial Secretary's letter of’the 4th ultimo, that the alteration suggested by the Council could not be carried out by the (.inventor in Council, and it is well known that fbe members of the House of Hepreseniatives for the province are so divided in opinion on this question, that no law {jiving effect to (be Council's resolution of 186(i, could possibly he carried in the General Assembly.

I venture here to express a hope tCit no furtherattemptat altering our Land lityulatiotis will lie made ; for the credit of the Province depends essentially upon the stability of its land laws.

And it ought to he home in mind that the stability of these laws has already hum sufficiently shaken, and the territoral revenue imperilled, by the operation of the Native Lands Act of 3 861- an Act which to all intents and purposes abrogated the so-called financial compact entered into in 1 Nod, between the Northern and Middle Islands.

It is a gratifying faetthatin the appropriation of the revenue for the current financial year, you have been able to devote the whole of the revenue (after defraying the ordinary expenses of Government and the permanent charges) and the whole of the territorial revenue (after deducting the cost of the Survey and Laud Departments) to the country districts.

I am anxious to draw your attention to this fact in order to prove the injustice of the charge so often made against the Government, that they feed the City of Wellington at the expense of the Country Districts—that they starve the outlying settlements for the purpose of carrying out expensive works in the capital of the Province.

You will find on referring to the rccc'p's and expenditure of the last year, that the ordinary revenue amounted in round numbers, to £(>6,853, and the ordinary expenditure to £37,900, leaving a surplus available lor public works of £22,452, and that the territorial revenue after deducting the expenses of the Land and Survey Departments amounted to £•28,159, thus making the total suiphis available for public works £50,01] —the amount expended on public works at 'Wanganui and in the country during the year was £54.424. If again you refer to the estimates of revenue and expenditure for the present year you v ill find that while tbe surplus (of ordinary and territorial revenue) is £44,228, the appropriations for public works for Wanganui and the country amount to £49,081.

It is true (hat the expenditure on works in the City of AVclllngtoh during (In; past year amounted to £28.779, —but nearly tbe v.hole of this was defrayed out of the proceeds of the sale of the reclaimed land, and ofthe loan raised onsecurity of the land in process ofreclamation. The appropriations made for the town during the current year amounted to (222.000, to meet which you have the balance of tbe loan of £10,500, and the proceeds of tbe sale of the reclaimed land estimated at £IO.OOO. It is thus clear that instead ofthe works in the city absorbing the revenue of the Province, they increase it by a very considerable amount, for tlie reclaimed land already sold realised a prolif of from 100 to 125 per cent., and die value of, the fourteen acres at present in pmee-s of reedamatiou at a cost of £25,000, cannot be estimated at less than £70,000. I regret to say that 1 see little prospect of your Supplementary Estimates, amounting to £11,570 being carried out, unless, indie:l. flic ordinary rev< nue of the colony should 1 e 'bund to have so far exceeded the Estimates of the Colonial Treasurer, as to justify the General Assembly in making a more equitable apportionment of it between tbe General and Provincial Governments than lias vet been made.

It only remains for me. for the liftanth time, to tnmkr, on behalf of the province, my tlianks for the time you have devoted (o im service, and for the full and patient consDoration you have given to the various mutters brought before you I now declare that tills Council do stand prorogued. The Council then l ose.