The establishment of Manufactories for the preservation of Meat has already had a marked effect on the prospects of the grazing and pastoral interests, by providing a certain market for surplus stock, and the facilities which have been afforded for the storage and prompt shipment of grain in the Port of Lyttelton, have had a most beneficial effect in bringing into favourable notice the grain-producing powers of the Province.

The Museum Building—the erection of which the Council sanctioned at my request in the year 1868—is this day open for your inspection for the first time. I trust that a further effort will now be made to build a Laboratory in connection with the Museum, and to afford encouragement by lectures of a practical character to the pursuit of science.

I here take occasion to express my high sense of the indefatigable zeal and industry of Dr. Haast, through whose exertions the Province has become possessed of collections of such high value and of an institution which will, I trust, annually possess larger attractions, and become of greater importance in relation to the education of the country and the development of its material resources.

A full report on the working of the Railways will be laid before you as soon as the year’s accounts are completed.

The manner in which the traffic and management of the Line has been conducted reflects great credit on the General Manager and those employed under him.

I may state, in anticipation of the report which will be presented to you, that the actual revenue for the year ending September 30th has amounted to about £53,000, or about £4,000 in excess of the estimated revenue for that period.

The working expenses for the year have amounted to about 58 per cent. upon the gross receipts, a result which, as compared with that on other Lines of Railway, must be deemed satisfactory. The total outlay on what may be termed the capital account of the Railways amounts to £611,360, and the nett profit on the current year’s working, after deducting working expenses and maintenance, as well as a contribution of 5 per cent. on the gross receipts to the Renewal Fund, is £19,243, or a little more than 3 per cent. on the total capital expended.

These results not only justify the anticipations of those who initiated the Railway system of the Province, but they are sufficient indications of the further advantages which may be gained by the extension of these lines.

In these Railways the people of this Province have a property of their own creation which if prudently managed would of itself be sufficient security to continue and maintain a system of Railway communication throughout the Province.

Gentlemen, in entering upon a fresh term of office, I may be permitted to express my hope and confidence that the action of the Government of this Province, guided by your counsel, may tend to the advancement of its best interests in no less a degree than has been the case under my predecessors.

Our prosperity in the future may depend largely upon the action of another Legislature, but your deliberations, though they cannot control, may materially promote and assist the welfare of the Province and the Colony.

I now declare this Council open for the dispatch of public business.

WM. ROLLESTON,
Superintendent of Canterbury.

Printed under the authority of the Provincial Government of the Province of Canterbury, at the “Lyttelton Times” Office, Gloucester street, by Wm. Reeves, Official Printer for the time being to the said Government.