OTAGO
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
GAZETTE.

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any official signature thereto annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those persons to whom they may relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

JOHN L. C. RICHARDSON, SUPERINTENDENT.

Vol. IV.] MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1862. [No. 158.

ADDRESS OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT,

ON OPENING THE THIRTEENTH SESSION OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF THE PROVINCE OF OTAGO, 5th October, 1861.

To the Speaker and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council,

WHEN I last had the pleasure of addressing you, scarcely four months since, I communicated the intelligence, which had reached me from sources on which I could rely, that we were on the eve of important gold discoveries. The dim foreshadowing of that hour has changed into the well-established reality of the present. Whatever may be the character, extent, richness, and remunerative nature of our gold field, I have no doubt that for many a day to come it will yield to industry a fair return for labour, and to capital a fair return of profit. Within the short period which has elapsed since the discovery of gold in this Province, there is reason to believe that not less than 70,000 ounces have been extracted from the earth, and as yet the operations of the miner have been confined to shallow sinking in alluvial deposits, were these all we had to depend upon, I should have fears for the future, but the introduction of science, capital, machinery, and skilled labour, will open out fresh sources of wealth of various kinds, of the exigence of which there is little reason to doubt.

To Him to whom, under Providence, we owe the discovery and development of this gold...

regions, I will not now more than cursorily allude, as I intend to address you on that subject in a special message; but, I cannot refrain, on this occasion, from expressing to you my admiration of the conduct of Mr. Gabriel Read, both in the immediate and unreserved communication of his discovery, and in his subsequent connection with the Government, which has been marked by a noble and generous disinterestedness, which entitles him to the gratitude of the Government whom he served, and the people, in the promotion of whose welfare, he was ever actively engaged.

It was expedient that I should remind you of our new and actual position, in order that we should advance in the appropriation of the Revenue with due circumspection. Seasons of excitement, anxiety, and change are not favourable to that calmness and caution which should characterise legislation; we have, on the one hand, to avoid the visionary theories of those who, revelling in the present excitement and keenly alive to the increasing value of property, would urge the Government to the lavish expenditure of the funds raised on the credit of the Province, the payment of which will fall on others; and, on the other hand, to pass by the timid counsels of those whose habitual apprehensions cause them to sweep by without substantial results. Our object should be so to select our operations that even should our sanguine hopes be not fully realised, the work performed would be reproductive in its character, and suited to our future progress.

You will be prepared, by your knowledge