✨ Provincial Council Address
130
The principal subject for your consideration is that of the Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway. Finding from the reports of the Engineer, as well as from the statements of the Contractors, that the Tunnel Works were on the eve of completion, I thought it incumbent on me to lose no time in endeavouring to obtain a settlement of all outstanding claims, and in bringing the present complicated and indefinite arrangements to a conclusion. You will accordingly be asked to provide such a sum as will, in the judgment of the Government, enable it to satisfy the claims of Messrs. Holmes and Co. to such an extent as it considers they may fairly and reasonably be entertained. I regret to find this morning that the Contractors should, without formal or timely notice to the public or the Government, have thought fit to close the tunnel. All the papers and documents on this subject will be laid before you.
The danger which might ensue to the City of Christchurch and the adjoining country in the event of another overflow of the Waimakariri, makes it desirable that further steps should be taken before the freshes, which may be anticipated in the Spring, take place, to avert what might otherwise be attended with serious consequences. A report on the subject, by the Colonial Geologist, will be laid on the table, and you will be asked to authorise the expenditure in protective works of a further sum of money in addition to that already granted. I may state that a measure will probably be introduced into the General Assembly, giving to the localities interested the management of works which may be necessary in connection with this and other streams in the Province, and devolving upon the several districts the duty of providing funds for the purpose by a special rate in each case.
You will be asked to pass a Bill, enabling a rate to be raised upon Cattle throughout the Province, to cover expenses connected with the suppression of pleuro-pneumonia.
You will also be requested to consider the advisableness of a moderate outlay in the erection of a building for a Supreme Court House.
Your attention will be called to the advantage which would accrue from the obtaining accurate statistics, as a basis upon which calculations may be framed, in relation to the growth and export of grain during the ensuing year, and you will be asked to sanction the expenditure necessary for this object.
Correspondence will be placed before you on the subject of advances which have been made to the Province in anticipation of the realisation of Debentures; also letters shewing the agreement at present subsisting between the Bank of New Zealand and the Provincial Government.
I now declare this Council open for the dispatch of public business.
WM. ROLLESTON,
Superintendent.
CHRISTCHURCH :
Printed under the authority of the Provincial Government of the Province of Canterbury, at the Lyttelton Times Office, Gloucester Street, by CROSBIE WARD and WILLIAM REEVES, Official Printers for the time being to the said Government.
Canterbury Provincial Gazette 1868, No 31
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏘️ Opening Address by the Superintendent
🏘️ Provincial & Local GovernmentProvincial Council, Address, Canterbury, Lyttelton and Christchurch Railway, Waimakariri River, Pleuro-pneumonia, Supreme Court House, Statistics
- WM. ROLLESTON, Superintendent