ment, and will be laid before you, together
with the correspondence which has taken
place thereupon between the Government
and the Agent of the Canterbury Association. You will perceive that a proposal has
been made by Mr. Sewell, which will demand your serious consideration. It appears from the accounts that the Association have expended in the service of the
settlement a larger sum than that which
they received by the sales of land. This overexpenditure has been temporarily provided
for by loans from private individuals on the
security of the property held by the Association, and their agent now proposes to
transfer that property to the Province upon
condition of its making provision for the
outstanding debt.

I shall not anticipate your judgment
upon this matter by any observations. The
wording of the 76th clause of the Constitution Act seems to intimate that the subject
is one to be dealt with peculiarly and especially by your Council; and although
I should not shrink from stating the line
which the Provincial Government are prepared to recommend, should you desire me
to do so, or should the time have arrived
when it will be incumbent on me to do so,
in the exercise of the prerogative attached
to the office of Superintendent, still I think
it more consistent with the intention of the
Constitution Act to leave the matter in the
first instance entirely in your hands, and to
allow the responsibility of originating any
measure on the subject to emanate from
yourselves. The Government have for
these reasons determined to consider this as
an open question in your discussions.

There is one other subject, Gentlemen,
upon which I am anxious to obtain your
opinion. I mean upon the expediency of
increasing the number of members of your
Council, and of revising the electoral districts. Should you agree with the Provincial Government in deeming such a step
desirable, a bill will be prepared with that
object; but I submit to you at the same
time whether it would be wise to pass such
a measure until a fresh registration of the
electors has taken place. It is generally
supposed that the last registration was a
very partial one; and in that case, is not
fitted to be the basis of a new arrangement
of the electoral districts. The next will no
doubt be fuller; and when it becomes generally known that the re-arrangement of the
Electoral districts, and the apportioning
of the members accordingly, will be decided
by the next registration, I earnestly hope
that every possessing a qualification
will feel it his duty to take advantage of the
privileges conferred on him by the Constitution Act, and to place his name on the
Electoral Roll.

These, Gentlemen, are the principal questions to which I have to invite your attention during the present Session, in the assurance that your deliberations will tend to
the good government, welfare, and happiness of the people.

I now declare this Provincial Council to be opened for the despatch of public business.

JAMES EDWARD FITZ GERALD,
Superintendent.

Address of the Provincial Council in answer to His Honor the Superintendent’s Address. Adopted, 16th February, 1854.

SIR,

We, the Provincial Council, take the earliest opportunity of acknowledging the address with which you have opened this our second session, and beg to tender you our thanks for the information contained therein.

This Council will not fail to give its earliest attention to the various and important measures which your Honor has brought under its notice.

The very variety and importance of these questions, however, will make it unwise for the Council to give expression, on the present occasion, to any decided opinions, which more careful and deliberate examination might induce them to modify.

For the present, this Council wishes to confine itself to subjects upon which no difference of opinion is to be apprehended.

This Council wishes to express, in the first place, how fully it appreciates your Honor’s unremitting attention to the interests of the Province, as evinced by the great amount of work which has been done, and the great number of measures which you have elaborated.

The financial position of the Province appears to be upon the whole a subject of congratulation.

The Council still has to regret that the General Assembly of New Zealand has not only not yet been convened, but also that this event appears to be as distant as ever. This delay in the meeting of the General Assembly has the injurious effect of preventing the Province from dealing satisfactorily with many questions which require an early and permanent settlement.

The doubt and uncertainty arising from this state of affairs, is in its opinion a great obstruction to the harmonious working of the Constitution Act, not only in matters affecting the general welfare of the colony at large, but also, though indirectly, as regards the legislation of each particular province.

The Council considers it due to itself to put on record this expression of its opinion.