✨ Provincial Council Address
No. 11.
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,
PROVINCE OF TARANAKI,
NEW ZEALAND.
Published by Authority.
NEW PLYMOUTH, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1860.
PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
THE Superintendent opened the 9th Session of the Provincial Council at the Survey Office, Devon street, on Friday, the 16th instant, at 2 o’clock p.m., and delivered the following
ADDRESS.
Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen of the Provincial Council,—
You will easily conceive the reasons which have induced me to defer calling you together till this late period in the year. The complete derangement of ordinary business which the state of war has brought with it has made it useless and impossible to enter on legislative work, and would have rendered any estimates of the probable Revenue, and any plan for its employment, quite vague and valueless. It was evident, on the other hand, that in the first confusion of the crisis the duty of the Provincial Executive was to see that no inhabitant of the district suffered needless hardships, and I had no hesitation, pending the adjustment of the secondary burdens of the war by His Excellency’s Executive and the General Assembly, in devoting the funds and engaging the responsibility of the Province for the support of those who would otherwise have been houseless and destitute. The General Assembly has adopted all the expenses and responsibilities I am referring to as Colonial charges. The duration of the war is still uncertain, but the receipts of the year, and its necessities are now ascertained, and the Provincial Revenue is, at the present moment, free for appropriation.
I have continued the issue of salaries to the officers of the Province, and other necessary current payments, on the same scale as heretofore, with some small exceptions, which the statement of the Provincial Treasurer will make known to you. The Revenue for the current year has received, as might be expected, a large increase from the presence of a considerable military force. There remains, therefore, a balance in the Provincial Chest subject to your disposal. My estimates and my propositions respecting this balance will be laid on the table at once.
You will also be asked by the Provincial Treasurer to legalise some payments made in excess of votes during the year 1859. These payments, you will observe, have not encroached on the Revenue of the current year, as the savings of the year 1859 more than covered the unauthorised expenditure.
It will be desirable, in order to prevent doubts, and to relieve the Government and private persons from needless liabilities, that several of the local Ordinances which cannot be enforced during the present disorganisation should be temporarily suspended; and I have prepared a Bill to enable me to suspend such of them as it may be desirable, to which I request your attention.
I have also to ask you to prolong the existence of an Ordinance for consolidating
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Taranaki Provincial Gazette 1860, No 11
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏘️ Superintendent's Address to the Provincial Council
🏘️ Provincial & Local Government29 November 1860
Provincial Council, Address, Revenue, War, Legislation
- Superintendent of Taranaki