111

A.—3a

subjects of a general nature and affecting the colony as a whole being reserved for the General Legislature. The employment of steam vessels upon the coast would remove all the obstacles which at present exist to this form of Government, and entirely supersede the necessity of Provincial Councils." These sentiments I believe to be fully shared in by the settlers of Otago and Canterbury, and to the general principles enunciated I cannot but cordially assent. I should have been glad, therefore, if any measure could have been brought forward during the present session for creating such municipal institutions, and for placing at their disposal a certain proportion of the revenue of each settlement for local purposes. For the reasons then which 1 have mentioned I believe that the state of feeling in this province has so far changed from what it was in 1«48 on the subject of Provincial Councils, that the Bill now under discussion will not, I fear, be so favourably received (if passed) as it would have been in that year. I fear, too, that this will be still more the case than I had even previously supposed, since I learnt from your Excellency's opening Address that it was the intention of Her Majesty's Government to pass an Act during the present session of Parliament creating a General Legislative Council for the whole of New Zealand, but, as I gathered inferentially, not regulating or defining the nature or character of the Provincial Councils, but giving full powers to the General Legislature to modify or alter the subordinate Legislatures to any form they may think fit. It is therefore possible that, as the new Act of Parliament may be received by the end of the present year, any General Legislature which may be called together under it might alter or modify the form of Provincial Councils which this Bill would create even before any one Provincial Council should have been assembled under it. On the grounds then which I have stated, I cannot but express my regret that the present measure was not enacted in 1848, or that it is not now postponed for the consideration and decision of the General Legislative Council which may be called together under the new Act of Parliament which it is understood will be passed during the present session. I regret it also because, when I remember the feeling which exists in the province in reference to what is called nomineeism, or the nomination of members of the Legislature by the Crown, and that this feeling has been so general and so strong as latterly altogether to prevent the local Government from getting together a Provincial Council under Ordinance No. 1, Session IX., I am unable to satisfy myself that there may not be some room to doubt whether the same occurrence may not take place in reference to the measure before the Council, and thus the object of that measure be defeated though the Bill itself be passed and become law. With these general observations, and expressing my cordial concurrence in the liberal provisions contained in the Bill before the Council on the subject of the franchise, the system of direct representation, and the duration of the Council, I beg to second the motion that the Provincial Councils Bill be now read a second time.

No. 42. Copy of a Despatch from Governor Grey to the Right Hon. Earl Grey. (No. 145.) My Lord, — Government House, Wellington, Bth November, 1851. I have the honour to transmit a petition to Her Most Gracious Majesty, signed by Mr. W. G. Brittan, one of the officers of the Canterbury Association, at Port Victoria, which is stated to have been adopted at a general meeting of a society called "The Society of Land Purchasers in the Canterbury Settlement." It does not appear necessary for me, in transmitting this memorial, to do more than to enclose for your Lordship's information a copy of the report of some remarks which I made in the General Legislative Council of this colony upon the subject of a recommendation for a very considerable extension of the Canterbury block which was made by their agent to the Association in England, and I only trouble your Lordship with a copy of these remarks upon account of the allusion which is made to them in the enclosed memorial. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Earl Grey, &c. G. Grey.

Enclosure 1 in No. 42. Petition from Purchasers from the Canterbury Association. To Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria, by the grace of God Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, &c. We, your Majesty's most dutiful and most faithful subjects, the purchasers of land from the Canterbury Association, in public meeting assembled, in venturing to address your Majesty upon a subject of deep importance to the well-being of our community, desire to assure your Majesty of our loyalty and devotion to your Majesty's throne and person. The Canterbury Association was formed in the year 1848 for the purpose of founding a settlement in New Zealand upon the plan of selling land at the rate of £3 an acre, and of devoting the proceeds to the purposes of immigration, to useful public works in the settlement, and to make provision for the education and spiritual instruction of the people according to the tenets of the Church of England. To this plan your Majesty's Government and the Imperial Parliament were pleased to give their deliberate sanction by the incorporation of the Association under Royal Charter, and by the passing of an Act of Parliament to enable them to carry their plans into execution. Your Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies was further pleased to instruct His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief of this colony that he should give every assistance in his powder to the operations of the Association within the limits of his Government. In obedience to these instructions His Excellency was pleased to sanction the selection of this district as the site of the settlement about to be formed. Encouraged by these solemn and repeated public guarantees of the sanction and approval of the Government of their own country and of the colony in the foundation of the settlement upon the principle set forth in the Royal Charter, we, together with the numerous body on whose behalf we address your Majesty, purchased land from the Canterbury Association, and we embarked ourselves, our families, and our fortunes in the foundation of this settlement. We desire respectfully to represent to your Majesty that great success has