66

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1867.

THE Sixteenth Session of the Provincial Council was opened this day at One o'clock, when the following Address of the Superintendent was delivered:—

MR. SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL—

1. I am glad to commence my first address to you in the position of Superintendent of this province by informing you that the Estimate of the Revenue for the year ending on the 31st of March last, has been exceeded by the sum of £3014; the estimated amount, exclusive of a sum of £5799 in the Treasury at the beginning of the year, being £71,778, while the actual receipts were £75,692. On the other hand, the expenditure has exceeded the actual receipts by the sum of £6952, which, after reduction by the Treasury balance above-named, still leaves a sum of £1153 to be provided for out of the revenue of the current year.

The provincial share of the Customs duties, estimated at £22,000, amounted to £24,261, showing an excess of £2261. The Land Revenue, estimated at £10,000, reached the sum of £13,557, exceeding the estimate by £3557. The Gold-fields revenue, estimated at £6000, amounted to £7436, or £1436 above the estimate. The Gold duty, on the contrary, proved to be £2708 below the sum calculated upon, the receipt being £17,232, while the estimate was £20,000.

As the two Appropriation Acts passed by you during the financial year provided for an expenditure of £105,500, you will see that the execution of a large number of the public works you had in contemplation has necessarily been postponed, but I hope my anticipations of an increased revenue during the present year will be so far fulfilled as to enable me to carry out the more important of them.

2. For a record of the various public works in all parts of the Province, to which the revenue has been devoted during the financial year, which expired before my election to the office I have the honor to hold, and for the reasons, apart from financial considerations, which have prevented the commencement or completion of several of those you desired to have executed, I refer you to the very full and able report of the Provincial Engineer, which will be laid before you.

3. The great increase which is taking place in our Departmental Expenditure leads me to commend the subject to your serious consideration, with a view to make provision for its speedy reduction, in the event of the revenue showing symptoms of decline. I do not see any reason to apprehend that such a decline will take place at present; on the contrary, I think there is fair ground to believe that the resources of the Province will continue to increase for some, year to come; but the rapid diminution of the revenue derived from the Gold-fields in Otago, and the symptoms which already present themselves of a corresponding falling off in that accruing to the exchequer of Canterbury, should lead us to provide for the possibility of a similar collapse in our own. I would therefore suggest to you the prudence of framing conditions upon which all Departmental Officers on the Gold-fields shall for the future be appointed; so that in the event of their services being no longer required, the Government shall be in a position to dismiss them on terms declared and agreed to on their appointment. The adoption of regulations of

this kind would not only relieve the Executive Government, should the contingency I have referred to arise, from much of the unpleasantness of their duty, but would also prevent the occurrence of individual cases of hardship and injustice which would arise from the impartial execution of it.

4. The visit with which this Province has been honoured by His Excellency the Governor took place so shortly after my accession to office that I fear the measures taken for his reception and entertainment were not so complete as might otherwise have been the case. It is with pleasure however to communicate to you, at the Governor's request, that His Excellency was highly gratified by the warm and friendly reception which he met with from the public, and amongst whom he has many esteemed friends, and in whose welfare he has always taken a strong interest.

5. The state and progress of the West Coast Gold-fields were so fully dwelt upon by the late Superintendent, in his address to you on the opening of your short session in January last, that I need only assure you that their progress and extension since that date have been in the highest degree satisfactory.

The reports which I receive convince me that the movement of a large number of miners to the neighbourhood of the Buller River will be of a permanent character, and that there is strong reason to believe that Westport will before long become one of the most important ports upon the West Coast of this island.

For this encouraging state of things we are in a great measure indebted to the liberal policy so wisely adopted by Mr Saunders, and so ably and indefatigably carried out, in the first instance by Mr Blackett, and, latterly, by Mr Commissioner Kynnersley, whose willingness of your body made enough to secure. I am confident you will agree with me in the wisdom, as well as the justice, of continuing in the course which has been marked out, and in deciding that a portion of the funds which you place at my disposal for this purpose is entrusted almost entirely to the judgment and discretion of Mr Commissioner Kynnersley, in whom I have entire confidence, and who has achieved the difficult task of giving the highest satisfaction both to the Government in whose service he is, and to the community whose special interests are in his charge.

6. When the estimates for the expenditure of the current financial year are in your hands, you will see that I have proposed to you to make a most liberal appropriation for the South West Gold-fields, both in providing for the large staff of officers which the rapidly increasing population of that district renders indispensable, and for the public works in the shape of roads, tracks, bridges, wharves, and buildings for public purposes, which the interests of the Gold-fields, the whole of the whole Province, imperatively require to be executed.

But while recognising to the fullest extent the value of the gold producing districts, not only to this Province, but also to the Colony as a whole, which I firmly believe they have rescued from impending financial difficulties of no ordinary character; I cannot concur in the view, which is commonly expressed on the part of the mining community, or indirectly, from their industrial occupation of the Waste Lands of the Crown, is necessarily and as a matter of right to be expended in the particular portion of the Province whence that revenue