of its several departments, and is invested with sufficient authority to deal with all cases requiring prompt action on the part of the Government. This arrangement has been found to work very beneficially.

With a view of remedying the difficulty of communicating by land between the eastern and western parts of the province, I took immediate steps for ascertaining the route best adapted for the formation of a road. The result of these enquiries is embodied in various papers which will be laid before you. Among them is a comprehensive and valuable report from Mr. Dobson, the engineer to the Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway, which leaves, I think, no room for doubt as to the route on which it is most desirable that any considerable expenditure should take place. As soon as this question was determined strong road parties were engaged to improve the existing road by way of Porter’s Pass to the Upper Waimakariri, and to open the communication between that locality and the West Coast itself. A good dray road now exists for two-thirds of the distance between Christchurch and the goldfields, and along the remainder of the line a bridle-road is in process of formation, which, although delayed considerably by unfavorable weather, will be completed in a few weeks, and may, if it be deemed expedient, be converted into a dray-road at a moderate cost.

Information very recently received leads me to hope that it may be found practicable to open by way of the Rakaia a second line of communication with Hokitika, which during the greater part of the year will be available as a horse-track, and for the driving of stock. Further explorations are now being made with a view of determining this question.

In the meantime the road by the Waimakariri is so far advanced that I have taken steps for obtaining the immediate establishment of an overland mail, and I have pressed on the General Government the necessity which appears to me to exist for the extension of telegraphic communication to the West Coast at the earliest possible period.

The expenditure necessary for the objects above alluded to cannot fail under existing circumstances to be felt as a heavy charge on the revenues of the province, but they are objects calculated to exercise so important an influence on its prosperity and trade, and are so necessary for the efficient administration of its government, that I have no doubt you will approve the steps which in the emergency I have thought it advisable to take.

The subjects to which your attention will thus be called, though few in number, are of more than usual importance, and will, I doubt not, receive at your hands the grave consideration which their character demands.

I now declare this Council opened for the despatch of business.

S. BEALEY, Superintendent.

Provincial Secretary’s Office,
Christchurch, May 25, 1865

HIS Honor the Superintendent directs it to be notified that, in pursuance of the powers vested in him, he has been pleased to appoint

PETER PENDER, Inspector of Police,
and
CHARLES DAVIES, Mounted Constable,
to be Inspectors of Slaughter Houses for the Christchurch District.

W. ROLLESTON,
Provincial Secretary.

Provincial Secretary’s Office,
Christchurch, May 26, 1865

HIS Honor the Superintendent directs it to be notified that he has appointed

HENRY JOHN LE CREN, Esq.,
to preside as Chairman at any Meeting convened under the provisions of “The Municipal Council Ordinance, Session XIV, No. 2,” for the purpose of the election of Members of the first Municipal Council of Timaru.

W. ROLLESTON,
Provincial Secretary.

MUNICIPAL DISTRICT OF TIMARU.

NOTICE.

WE, the undersigned, who have signed the Petition for the Constitution of the Town of Timaru as a Municipality, hereby convene a Public Meeting of the Householders, to be held at the Mechanics’ Institute, on Wednesday, the 21st June, at 12 o’clock, noon.

H. J. Le Cren.
A. Bainbridge.
R. Turnbull.
F. W. Stubbs.
John King.
J. H. Sutter.
R. A. Chisholm.
C. Jacobs.
Fred. Le Cren.
Geo. Henley.
T. W. Fyfe.
F. F. Wilson.
John Tucker.
Duncan McLean.
David Salomon.
Henry Salomon.
William Butterworth.
R. Simpson.
William Nelson.

CHRISTCHURCH:

Printed, under the authority of the Provincial Government of the Province of Canterbury, at the ‘Press’ Office, Cashel-street, by JAMES EDWARD FITZGERALD, Official Printer for the time being to the said Government.