✨ Provincial Council Address
129
the obstruction of future settlement by present purchasers. This and other matters connected with the survey and administration
of the waste lands are the subject of an important report of the Chief Surveyors of the Colony, which will be laid upon the table.
Through the courtesy of the Colonial Government, I am enabled to place before you detailed statements of what has been done to promote immigration to this Province during the past year. It is needless for me to point out how far the results have fallen short of the requirements of the Province. At a time when there is a large accumulation of capital available for investment, the extension of the ordinary industries of the country, and the development of its resources, are likely to be seriously retarded unless more active steps are taken to meet our wants. The question is one which will no doubt have your serious consideration. For my own part, I may be permitted to reiterate my opinion that the attempt to bring exclusively under the central administration those works and colonising operations which have hitherto been carried out more immediately with the sympathy and under the supervision and direction of those most closely interested, and by whose taxation the funds are supplied, will prove a costly experiment.
The resolution which was passed at a conference of the Delegates of the several Australian Colonies, as to the prohibition of the importation of stock from Great Britain for a period of two years, will be brought under your consideration. The subject will be brought before the Colonial Assembly at its next session, and it will be desirable that an expression of your opinion should be on record upon a matter so largely affecting the interests of this Province. I am in hopes that such precautionary measures can be adopted as will render the absolute prohibition of importation unnecessary.
An Ordinance will be submitted to you providing for the establishment of a College, and for bringing under one body the administration of the Trusts and the management of the several departments of Superior Education, for which you have made provision. You will be asked to sanction the acquisition of a site suitable for the erection of the buildings required for this purpose.
The establishment of a Free Public Library will be brought under your attention. Private efforts have already been invited to raise a portion of the necessary funds. The benefits of such an institution are for all time confined to no one class, to no particular locality, and to no one period in the history of a community. As supplementing the Educational Institutions which you have so liberally endowed, I trust the proposal will have your favourable consideration.
I now declare this Council open for the despatch of business.
WM. ROLLESTON,
Superintendent.
Printed under the authority of the Provincial Government of the Province of Canterbury, at the Lyttelton Times Office, Gloucester Street, by William Reeves, Official Printer for the time being to the said Government.
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Canterbury Provincial Gazette 1873, No 20
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
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Address by Superintendent to Provincial Council
(continued from previous page)
🏘️ Provincial & Local Government3 May 1873
Land sales, Railway construction, Road infrastructure, Coal exploration, Provincial development
- WM. ROLLESTON, Superintendent