NEW ZEALAND

OTAGO

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT

GAZETTE.

Published by Authority.

Vol. IX. DUNEDIN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26, 1865. No. 301.

ADDRESS OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT

ON OPENING THE TWENTIETH SESSION OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL, OF THE PROVINCE OF OTAGO, WEDNESDAY, 12TH APRIL, 1865.

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council,—

At the close of another financial year, I have summoned you to the resumption of your duties in Session, glad in the opportunity of again availing myself of your valuable aid and counsel.

The period that has elapsed since your last Session has been marked by a severe monetary pressure, which has lain heavily upon many classes in the community, and which, while it has been mainly attributable to the natural reaction from the undue speculation and consequent inflation following upon the large and sudden influx of population induced by the discoveries of gold in the Province, was, there is reason to fear, greatly aggravated, if not brought to the verge of an overwhelming crisis, by the embarrassed position of the Provincial Government and the sudden withdrawal of a large expenditure on public works, upon which a considerable number of persons had been for a time dependent.

This diminution of public expenditure was not carried into effect at the mere discretion of the Government, but was in fact an imperative necessity forced by a state of the public finances, which, disregarded, could have had issue only in utter disaster. These may seem strong expressions for me to use in my address to you, but that they are not stronger than the occasion warrants, will, I think, be sufficiently demonstrated by a reference to the memorandum of the Treasurer, of date 20th December, 1864, wherein it is shown that at that time the Government was committed to payment of contracts then current, amounting to upwards of £30,000, to a departmental expenditure at the rate of £18,500 against a current income of £12,000 per month, exclusive of land fund; while at the same time the state of the Government bank account was such as not only to prevent any expectation of further assistance from the bankers, but to occasion pressing demand for a reduction of the advances.

I need not here dwell upon the several causes which conspired to bring the finances of the Government into a position so embarrassing. The most prominent was the failure in negotiation of the Provincial Loans, which were, in fact, driven out of the market by the Colonial Loans offered on the superior security of the General Government, and the failure in land sales, caused by the coming into operation of the new Land Regulations.

It was hoped that, with the promised aid of the General Government, a measure would have been introduced and passed at the last session of Assembly, to give the colonial guarantee to our Provincial Loans. That promised aid failed, and the session of Assembly passed without the introduction of such a measure. On the 7th October, it was intimated to me that the credit of £40,000 on the General Treasury, which I had induced the Government on the occasion of my visit to Auckland in July, 1864, to place at the disposal of the Province to meet any case of necessity, was withdrawn. I do not venture to trace what might have been the immediate consequence of a suspension of cash payments by the Provincial Treasury, but I feel assured that the imminence of so grave a catastrophe as the destruction of the public credit of the Province was a sufficient warrant to the Government, not only to adopt the most unsparing retrenchment of expenditure, but to hazard the employment of such extraordinary means as were best cal-