✨ Provincial Government Address
SOUTHLAND
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT
GAZETTE.
Published by Authority.
Vol. 2.] TUESDAY, 9th AUGUST, 1864. [No. 25.]
ADDRESS
Of His Honor the Superintendent
on Opening the Seventh Session
of the Provincial Council.
Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council,—I have been advised to summon you to meet in Council at this time, in order that you might be furnished with full information upon circumstances which have occurred since your last meeting, and take into consideration the measures which should be adopted with reference to the financial affairs of this Province. At the last session of this Council, after the financial position of the Province had been fully discussed and considered by you, three Loan Bills were passed; one for forty thousand pounds (£40,000), to enable the Government to complete the Bluff Harbour and Invercargill Railway; one for one hundred and twenty thousand pounds (£120,000), to cover liabilities on account of the general expenditure of the Province; and one for twenty-five thousand pounds (£25,000), to meet liabilities incurred by the Government on account of, and advances to, the Town Board. The sum of those loans would have met all the liabilities of the Province, and completed the public works which it had undertaken. The first mentioned loan Bill alone, has received the assent of His Excellency the Governor; from both the others this assent has been withheld.
You will remember that during the last session of this Council, intelligence was received that bank rates were high, and that New Zealand Provincial securities met with a very limited sale in London. By succeeding mails we were informed that they were nearly unsaleable, unless at a discount, and that they were not allowed to be quoted on the Stock Exchange. These circumstances occurring at a period of serious commercial depression in this Province, made the banks unwilling to negotiate Provincial loans. I believe that the high rate in the money market was the primary cause of the difficulty in effecting sales, but when the difficulty had once arisen, other considerations tended to increase it. Upon the Debentures under the Loan Ordinance for £110,000, the Provincial Government
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Southland Provincial Gazette 1864, No 25
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏘️ Superintendent's Address to Provincial Council
🏘️ Provincial & Local Government9 August 1864
Address, Provincial Council, Financial Affairs, Loan Bills, Bluff Harbour, Invercargill Railway
- His Honor the Superintendent