28

SPEECH

OF

HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT,

ON THE

PROROGATION OF THE THIRD SESSION

OF THE

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF WELLINGTON,

ON WEDNESDAY, THE 6TH DAY OF FEBRUARY, 1856.

MR. SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

I have assented on behalf of the Governor of New Zealand to the following Acts :—

"An Act intituled an Act to vest in the Superintendent the control of Main Roads."

"An Act to amend the Loan Act, Session 1, No. 6."

"An Act to make further provision for regulating Summary Proceedings before Justices of the Peace."

"An Act to amend the Scab and Catarrh Act, session 1, No. 20."

"An Act to extend the period after which the Slaughtering of Cattle within certain limits of the Town of Wellington is prohibited."

"An Act to authorise the Executive Government to make roads in the districts of Ohariu and Makara."

"An Act to amend and consolidate the laws relating to Cattle Trespass and Impounding."

"An Act to appropriate the Revenue of the Province of Wellington for the year commencing the 1st day of January, 1856, and ending the 30th December, 1856."

"An Act to provide for the Management of Savings Banks within the Province of Wellington."

"An Act to enable the Superintendent to manage and administer certain public Reserves."

"An Act to amend the Thistle Act of Session 1."

"An Act to authorize the establishment of Boards of Wardens for the management of Public Works, and other matters."

"An Act to consolidate the law relating to highways."

and in compliance with the 27th clause of the Constitution Act I have reserved the Bill to enlarge the Provincial Council for the signification of his Excellency's pleasure thereon.

The gratification I feel, at the several measures referred to in my opening address, having thus passed through the searching but fair and impartial ordeal to which they have been subjected, is not a little enhanced by the warm approval, with which they have been received by the whole community ;—an approval which I cannot forbear attributing in some degree to the alteration in your time of meeting ; for by holding your sittings at an hour when all classes can attend, you have enlarged the Tribunal before which your discussions have taken place—have given increased publicity to all your proceedings, and have enabled the public to make themselves fully acquainted with the principles and details of every Bill that has been brought under your consideration.

Another advantage of that change—and one the importance of which can scarcely be over estimated—is, that the business has been gone through, and your labours brought to a close, within a third of the time which previous sessions have occupied. And when it is borne in mind, that nothing has hitherto tended more to deter men eminently qualified to take part in legislation, from accepting seats in the Council, than the prospect of a long and indefinite detention from their homes and avocations, I sincerely trust that in future no session may last longer than three or four weeks. For without some such arrangement or understanding, I fear that the Representation of the whole Province will inevitably fall into the hands of the inhabitants of this town, and that enlargement of the Council may prove a curse rather than a benefit.

As the addition of twelve members will to a considerable extent constitute this Council a new body, I cannot close this session without recording my own conviction that no Council will ever more faithfully represent the opinions of the inhabitants of this Province, or more ably discharge their duties to their constituents, than you have done. Looking indeed at the Acts you have passed during the three sessions you have held, it must, I think, be admitted that you have so fully occupied the field of legislation that it would be difficult to point out a single want—a single requirement of this Province for which you have not provided.

I must be permitted further again to tender my acknowledgments for the assistance you have ever been ready to afford me in overcoming the difficulties necessarily attendant upon the inauguration of a new order of things ; and especially to thank you, for the high compliment you have recently paid me in requesting that my name may be given to the proposed township in the Wairarapa—a settlement which from its great natural capabilities must speedily become the most important inland town of this Province.

Assuring you in conclusion that no efforts shall be wanting on the part of the Executive to push forward the various public works for which you have made provision, and that my own absence from the Province shall not be unnecessarily prolonged ; I now declare that this Council do stand prorogued.

I. E. FEATHERSTON,

Superintendent.

Provincial Secretary's Office,

Wellington, 5th February, 1856.

HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT has been pleased to appoint

MR. WILLIAM ABERNETHY,

to be Pilot and Keeper of the Signal Station at the port of Wanganui. The appointment to bear date from the 1st instant.

By His Honor's command,

WILLIAM FITZHERBERT,

Provincial Secretary.

NOTICE is hereby given that a Special Meeting of the Justices of the Peace for the District of Wellington, will be holden at the Resident Magistrate's Court at Wellington, on TUESDAY, the 4th day of March next, at one o'clock, for the purpose of receiving applications for the transfer of Publicans' Licenses.

ROBERT S. CHEESMAN,

Clerk to the Bench.

Resident Magistrate's Court,

Wellington, 5th February, 1856.