PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 553, 11 September 1869, Page 2

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.

THE GOVERNOR'S ADDRESS. The following is the address read by His Excellency the Governor at the closing of the session of the Geueral Assembly: — Honokable Legislative Councillors, and Gentlemen op the House of Representatives. The time for closing the present session of the General Assembly having arrived, I thank you for the earnest consideration which you have given to the mauy important topics to which your atleution has been directed. The safety of the B country will, I hope, be etfectudly provided for by the measures you have taken. You have acted wisely iu making Parliamentary provision for the cost of an Imperial regiment, in taking steps to remove the grounds of the misunderstanding which has arisen on this subject, and to restore those friendly relations which should ever subsist between the colony and the Imperial Government. I cannot avoid expressing my satisfaction that Geuend Sir Trevor Chute has been able, in the meantime, to detain the 18th Regiment. The presence of part of that regiment, aud of part of a squadron of Her Majesty's navy, at once affords protection and exhibits to the insurgent natives symbols of the Queen's authority and of the power of the great British empire of which thoColony is an integral part. Your efforts to organiso and to render more efficient a constabulary force for the permanent protection of the Colony, cannot but contribute greatly to its future tranquillity, and will, it is hoped, reduce the heavy cost hitherto incurred on account of active military operations. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives. I thank you for the supplies you have granted for the public service of the year ; they shall be administered with all due care and circumspection. While you have wisely refrained at present from making auy changes of a fundamental character iu your financial system, the amendments affected by several measures which you have passed will tend to promote the better administration of finance, and to secure greater economy in the public expenditure. Honorable Gentlemen and Gentlemen.

I heartily congratulate you on the wonderful progress of the Auckland Goldfields, and entirely concur in the sense which you have shown of their importance. lam confident that national tranquillity and increased population are all that are requisite to secure a great and general extension of the goldfield in that and other parts of this auriferous country. Nothing will secure peace and immigration more than the development of goldfields. The yield of the precious metal and the growth and the prosperity of the Colony are reciprocal powers which act and re-act on each other with the most beneficial effect. While, however, you have shown yourselves sensible of tho importance of developing the resources hidden within the earth, I am glad that you have not neglected another obvious source of wealth which is to be found on its surface in the native flax, and that you have directed inquiries to be made during the recess, which may lead to the further advancement of tho growing trade in thig valuable material. The absence during this session of any considerable number of petitions from inhabitants of outlying districts, suggesting changes in the constitutional machinery of Government, leads me to believe that the excitement on the subject during last year was only of a superficial and ephemeral character, and that the dissatisfaction with existing institutions, which at one time appeared to be widespread, is no longer felt.

I have already transmitted to her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies the resolutions of both Houses, and Acts affirming the expediency of maintaining an Imperial regiment in the colony, and making provisions for its cost; and I will do all that is in my power to assist the Commissioners whom you have determined to send to England to communicate with the Imperial Government on this subject, by accrediting them to her Majesty's Ministers, and impressing on the attention of the latter the views of the Assembly. I have every hope that, strengthened by the countenance and aid of the Imperial Government, the Colony will, under the blessing of Divine Providence, be restored to a condition of peace and prosperity; that the settlers who have been molested by rebela will regaiu possession of their homesteads, and successfully resume their industrial pursuits; and that insurrection will be finally suppressed. I cannot conclude without recording my satisfaction at the cordial welcome which was awarded by the whole Colony to his Royal Highness the Dukeof Edinburgh, whose visit, though occurring at a period of great depression, and when the minds of the colonists were engrossed with events of most serious import, evoked all those feelings of loyalty towards the person and family of her Most Gracious Majesty which are everywiiere entertained and expressed in the British Dominions.