West Coast Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22,1866.

West Coast Times, Issue 364, 22 November 1866, Page 2

West Coast Times. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1866.

The Provincial Council is understood! to be drawing rapidly to a close. If.] indeed, we are correctly informed, it was the wish of the Government to terminate tho " labors" of the session during tlie curreut week. Yet at the date of our last advices from Christchurch, the West Coast estimates had not beea laid on the table, and on those for the East Coast only one formal item had been taken. The adjournment of the House from Wett'iehday of last week to Tuesday, necessitated the postponement of the introduction of the Hokitika Incorporation Bill, whilst other measures directly affecting the interests of the distric: are held in suspense ; and another series of not less importance, which the government were pledged to introduce, have not received their initiation. Amongst the latter we may specially mention the promised Bill to hand over Gibson's Quay to the Corporation ; the Bill to regulate the sale of the remaining town lands of Hokitika ; the Bill to authorisp the guarantee of interest upon capital invested in tramway enterprise, and several others. Why measures of this character should have been left to the very fag-end of the session is incomprehensible on a-iy hypothesis. Equally iiicoinpivhensible, however, i< it that the Estimates themselves should be postponed nutil this hour. The course taken by the Government appears to us to leave it equally without excuse for having deferre-l the meeting of the Council so long, and for having proposed to it v mere formal session wheu it did meet. If the Government had no more business to bring down than it has thus far submitted to the House, we can conceive no reason why the Superintendent may not have run down from Wellington to open the session months ago, and returned without any practical interruption to the discharge of his legislative duties there. If his prolonged presence in Christchurch in connection with the sitting of the Council were necessary at all, it could only be necessary as helping in the construction of a policy of government, which task has not been ever attempted. We are thus brought to this point. The meeting of the Provincial Council was adjourned from month to month, because the Superintendent's absence rendered it impracticable to prepare the necessary measures to he .submitted to it, and now that it has waitfd for his Honor's presence it is to be adjourned without results, because his Honor has no measures to prepare and none to submit. Of a verity the political situation is a strange one. It i« to be hoped the members for Westland will bp able to make something out of it. Hitherto they seem indeed to have been active enough, but their activity has been barren of fruits. Why it has beeu so it will be for them to explain wiien they come back.