NEW ZEALAND

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,

PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY.

Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature,
are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they may
relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

By His Honor's command,

H. G. GOULAND, Provincial Secretary.

Vol. I.] SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1854. [No. XXIII.

ADDRESS OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT

TO THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL. Oct. 31, 1854.

GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL,—

Upon the occasion of proroguing your Council at the conclusion of your last session,
instead of postponing the time of your reassembling to the period of the ordinary annual
meeting in the month of February or March, I fixed that time for the 3rd of October; because
it was to be expected that the General Assembly might during its first Session, enable you to deal
with certain subjects requiring immediate attention: and I was anxious that the Province
should benefit, at the earliest possible period,
by the result of your legislation on those subjects.

My return to the Province was unavoidably
delayed until after the day to which you had
been prorogued. Upon my arrival I should
have best consulted the convenience of the Government, by again proroguing the Council
until there had been time to prepare the measures
which I might be advised to submit to you.
Aware, however, that you had one very important matter of inquiry on hand, that relating
to the affairs of the Canterbury Association, and
that the public were anxiously anticipating the
conclusion of your investigations, prior to any
final legislation on that subject; and anxious
that no delay on my part should occur in forwarding the public business: I determined to
call you together at once; requesting you at the
same time to allow the Government a reasonable
time to prepare its policy before you proceeded
to legislate upon matters in which that policy
might be involved. In the message which I
therefore addressed to you on the 10th inst. I
intimated the wish of the Government that you
would adjourn for a short time until its measures
were matured. It was presumed that not having
availed myself of a further prorogation, and
having submitted to the manifest inconvenience
of meeting the Council at so early a period
after my return to the Province, I might not
unreasonably express such a wish, in the expectation that it would have been complied
with. The Council however, being apparently
anxious to postpone legislation on any important matters until after the enlargement of
their number, proceeded, anticipating the exposition of the policy of the Government, to pass
a Bill adding 12 members to their own body.

The proposal to enlarge the Provincial Council
having emanated from the Government, I
need not say I concur most cordially in the
principle which that Bill asserts. Its particular
provisions may require some further consideration. The manner in which it was passed
has unavoidably occasioned some embarrassment.

The members of the late Executive Council,
deeming that the House had virtually expressed
its want of confidence in themselves, or their
policy, resigned their seats, and in accordance
with the terms upon which they held their
appointments, I felt it my duty to accept their
resignations.

Upon receiving the bill on the evening of
Friday, the 13th, it became my duty to determine whether I ought, consistently with the
powers vested in me by the Constitution Act,
to return the bill for your further consideration
with such amendments as I might think fit.
That power, Gentlemen, is one which under a
system of ministerial responsibility ought never
to be exercised, indeed, can never be exercised,
in ordinary circumstances, except by the advice
of the Executive Council.

When, however, the bill came into my hands,
the members of the Executive Council had al-