✨ Provincial Council Address
New Zealand
GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
(PROVINCE OF TARANAKI.)
Published by Authority.
Vol. XIV.] NEW PLYMOUTH, MONDAY, JULY 23, 1866. [No. 11.
PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
Tuesday, July 17, 1866.
THE Superintendent prorogued the Provincial Council at 3:30 p.m., having delivered the following
ADDRESS.
GENTLEMEN OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL,—
As the results of the present Session of the General Assembly must in many ways seriously affect, and may entirely change, the conditions under which the government of this Province is to be carried on henceforward, I have thought it best to prorogue this Council for a short time; but as the funds necessary for carrying on the Government have not been formally appropriated, and no estimate of revenue has been given, I shall feel it my duty to call you together as soon as it is possible to furnish any reliable statement of the probable revenue and liabilities of the Province for the current financial year.
I am happy to be able to inform you that the actual expenditure and receipts for the past six months balance each other within a trifling amount; but I should point out that in this statement no allowance is made for the interest of the debt allocated to this Province.
With reference to that liability I shall do my utmost to make some arrangement by which it shall not be for the present a charge upon the ordinary revenue of the Province; but if this should prove impossible, it will have to be considered in what manner the revenue can be made capable of bearing so great an additional burden.
Whilst preparing you for a contingency which I may not find it possible to avoid, I would observe that, although it is evidently right that the interest of debts contracted by the Government of any Province should, if necessary, be met by special taxation, I cannot think it just that this community should be burthened at the present time with the interest on expenditure for works undertaken against the expressed desire of the Provincial Government, and which do not as yet in any manner however indirect materially increase the revenue of the Province.
During the Session which has now come to a close, not very much has been done in the way of improving our local Ordinances. This, for the most part, will be better effected when the rural population is fairly re-established in the country, as the modifications and additions rendered necessary by altered circumstances in the Ordinances affecting farming interests will then be more clearly seen.
But although there has not been much actual legislation, I have had to bring before you various questions of great importance to the Province, such as those relating to the confiscated lands, to the development of our mineral resources, etc., and I am happy to find that my own views have been generally in accordance with those of the majority of the members of the Provincial Council. In the one case of any importance in which this has not been the case, I mean that of the proposed lease to Messrs. Bates and Co., I was supported by the members of the Executive Council, but the opinion of the Provincial Council proving after a full discussion to be opposed to ours, I endeavoured
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Taranaki Provincial Gazette 1866, No 11
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🏛️ Superintendent's Address to Provincial Council
🏛️ Governance & Central Administration17 July 1866
Provincial Council, Address, Financial Statement, Debt, Legislation, Mineral Resources
- Superintendent