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I think it right to call your attention to the circumstance that a number of individuals located in the Southern parts of the Province have forwarded memorials to the Governor and the General Assembly of New Zealand, praying for a disjunction of those parts from the remainder of the Province, and their erection into a separate Province. The professed grounds of this movement are in my opinion exceedingly unreasonable; its success could not fail to prove more disastrous to the memorialists themselves than to the other inhabitants of the Province. I have no apprehension of a measure so unwise and calamitous being successful; but it is my earnest desire to remove as far as possible all cause of discontent or misunderstanding entertained by any of the settlers in the South, and some of the measures to be submitted to you have been prepared for that purpose.

The advancement and happiness of the whole inhabitants of the Province being the object of my deepest solicitude, it is my fervent prayer that Almighty God may prosper your deliberations for the attainment of these ends.

Dunedin, 28th October, 1857.

ADDRESS

OF His HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT AT

PROROGUING THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL,

16TH NOVEMBER, 1857.

Mr. Speaker, and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council,—

I HAVE to thank you for the zeal and assiduity with which you have discharged the duties of the present Session, and for the supplies which you have voted for the public service.

The Ordinances which you have passed, entitled

• Appropriation Ordinance, 1856-7,
• Appropriation Ordinance, 1857-8;
• Sheep Ordinance Amendment Ordinance, 1857,

I have assented to on behalf of the Governor.

The Bills entitled

• Local Waste Land Office Bill,
• Local Municipal Estate Bill,
• Provincial Council Enlargement Bill,
• Church of England Cemetery Bill,
• Town Land Sales Bill,

passed by your House, being necessarily reserved for the signification of the Governor’s pleasure thereon, I hope will be approved by his Excellency.

I have especially to thank you that, with regard to the misconstruction of the Executive Council Ordinance, and the consequent confusion in practice that had ensued from that misconstruction, I have pleasure in hoping that the wisdom and firmness of your counsels on this subject will issue in a full and satisfactory adjustment of the whole matter.

I severely regret the impossibility of getting forward a measure for amending some details in the Education Ordinance, but in such wise as in no degree to abandon or fritter away its principles. Those principles were the product of this House, adopted by unanimous resolution. It will be my duty in the first instance to communicate with gentlemen of enlarged views – men uncommitted to the hasty views of mere local excitement, or by avowal of opinions subversive of main principles of the scheme, and of actual engagements with certain teachers, and to be enabled, with the consent of the Executive Council, to lay a well-devised and greatly needed remedial measure before you at the earliest possible date.

The final settlement of the Provincial Land Question, and the possible progress under the Land Sales Ordinance, 1856, are also causes which, on the whole, may necessitate a special Session of your House about six months hence. But as nothing short of necessity could induce me to make this call, I feel assured that the sacrifice on your part would, in such event, be willingly made.

The Report you have adopted on the Treasury of the Land Office shall be vigorously followed out, and I am happy to believe there will be no ultimate loss. It presents the third case that has occurred in our boundaries of a tampering with the public property, and I trust it will be the last. The best safeguard in such matters is a sound public opinion, and that opinion decidedly expressed as now done by the Provincial Council, and for which I most sincerely thank you.

I have now the pleasure to relieve you from further attendance, and declare the Provincial Council to stand prorogued till Wednesday, the 3rd day of November, 1858, at 12 o’clock noon, unless specially called for an earlier date.

Dunedin, 16th November, 1857.

NOTICE

All Letters for the Executive Government should be addressed to His Honor the Superintendent.

Communications for the Waste Land Board should be made to the Chief Commissioner of that Board.

By His Honor’s command,

JOHN LOGAN,
Clerk to Superintendent.

Superintendent’s Office,
Dunedin, 17th November, 1857.