NEW ZEALAND

OTAGO

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

Published by Authority.

Vol. XIII. DUNEDIN, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 28, 1869. No. 607.
[WITH SUPPLEMENT.]

ADDRESS OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT,

ON OPENING THE XXVTH SESSION OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF THE PROVINCE OF OTAGO, 22ND APRIL, 1869.

Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council:—

In opening your present Session, I could have wished to have been able to congratulate you upon the progress of the past year to a much larger extent than I am able to do. There are various causes to which may be attributed the non-fulfilment of the reasonable expectations which a year ago were cherished by many of us. Foremost among these causes may be ranked the financial policy of the Colony, by which the Provinces indiscriminately have been precluded from borrowing money for any purpose whatever. There are many public works required in this Province—especially on the Gold Fields—eminently reproductive in their character, and in fact, absolutely essential to the development of our resources—works which can only be accomplished by drawing upon the future. There can be no doubt the future of the Province is being anticipated to a very alarming extent; not, however, for the purpose of developing its resources, or of constructing public works of which the present and the future would reap the benefit, but for the purpose of maintaining a standing army in the Northern Island, and of upholding a policy in which, practically, the people of Otago have as little interest as have the people in any other portion of Her Majesty’s dominions.

How long the present financial policy is to remain in the ascendant it is impossible to say. It seems so manifestly absurd, however, that a Province like this, possessed of such ample resources, and the credit of which if we were permitted to operate upon it, is so far in advance of existing liabilities, should be debarred from availing itself of its legitimate borrowing power,

that I cannot think that the common sense of the people will much longer submit to a political system under which the progress of the Province is repressed, and it is so unequally yoked together with the rest of the Colony. I can only attribute the existing state of things to the utter absence of an intelligent public opinion.

Another of the causes which have largely contributed to the non-fulfilment of our expectations has been the unfortunate position of affairs in the North Island. I shall say nothing regarding the policy which has led to the existence of this state of affairs; all I would remark is, that the effects of that policy, although they have not subjected us to the personal dangers to which our fellow-subjects in the North Island have been exposed, nor to the grievous ruin and disaster—the bloodshed, loss of friends and of property, which have befallen them—yet nevertheless, by increasing our public burdens, and deterring capital from our shores. That policy has told, and is now telling most prejudicially against the interests of this Province.

Another disappointment we have had since you were last in session has been the non-success of Mr. Young’s mission to Europe in respect to the Southern Trunk Railway. Upon the reason of failure I need not expatiate, as the whole correspondence will be placed before you. I may, however, remark that the want of success is in no way attributable to Mr. Young, who, if earnestness and zeal in the object of his mission could have secured a favorable issue, would undoubtedly have succeeded. Since the return of Mr. Young, the Government has been earnestly engaged in a variety of negotiations, having for their object the carrying out of the railway; in fact I may say that no stone has been left unturned to this end. The chief difficulty with which we have had to contend has been the peculiar position in relation to the undertaking, which by the Ordinance has been assigned to the Government. Had we been empowered to borrow the money, and to