New Zealand Gazette – 1878 – No. 73

Page 1069

✨ Governor's Opening Speech

Numb. 73.

1069

THE
NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE
EXTRAORDINARY.

Published by Authority.

WELLINGTON, FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1878.

THE Third Session of the Sixth Parliament of New Zealand was this day
opened by the Governor, when His Excellency was pleased to make the
following

SPEECH.

HONORABLE LEGISLATIVE COUNCILLORS, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES, —

It affords me much pleasure again to have recourse to your advice and
assistance; and I confidently anticipate that your deliberations will tend to promote
the prosperity and good government of the colony.

Since the last Session, I have been uniformly received by the colonists with the
utmost loyalty and cordiality, as the Queen's Representative, wherever I have been
able to visit; and it has been with the greatest gratification that I have observed
the marked progress in material prosperity which is everywhere taking place, and
which testifies so manifestly to the industry of the people of this country.

I congratulate you on the fact that peaceful relations have at last been estab-
lished with the Waikato and Ngatimaniapoto tribes. Complying with the pressing
and frequently-received invitations of the leading Chiefs of those tribes, the Premier
and the Native Minister visited them on several occasions in their own districts, and
met them also at the Waitara. Papers on this subject will be laid before you. They
will show that the long period of serious difficulties with the Native race may
reasonably be considered to be approaching a termination. There is now a fair prospect
that, before long, European enterprize and settlement will be welcomed by those great
tribes; and that they will gladly avail themselves of the advantages which roads,
railways, and telegraphs will bring to their magnificent territory, by which its value,
and consequently the wealth and happiness of that portion of the Native race so
long estranged from us, must be largely increased.

In consequence of the disposition thus recently manifested on the part of these
Natives, you will be asked to consider the question of extending the North Island
Trunk Railway from Auckland to Taranaki. It is probable that blocks of land
of great value will be acquired upon reasonable terms along the line. While negotia-
tions with these tribes have been progressing, the interests of those that have long
been loyal to us have not been neglected, and many of the principal Native settle-
ments have, during the recess, been visited by the Premier or the Native Minister.
Several long-pending questions, out of which more or less ill-feeling has arisen,
have been finally and satisfactorily settled. The question of the survey and settle-

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