NEW ZEALAND

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,

(PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.)

Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signatures thereto annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those Persons to whom they relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

WILLIAM FITZHERBERT,
Provincial Secretary.

VOL. VIII.] THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1861. [No. 19.

SPEECH OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT OF WELLINGTON DELIVERED ON THE OPENING OF THE FIRST SESSION OF THE THIRD PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

MAY 29th 1861.

Mr. SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN OF THE Provincial Council,—I open this, the first Session of the third Provincial Council, with feelings of more than ordinary satisfaction, inasmuch as I am this day enabled to denude myself of the unconstitutional power which I have exercised for a period of more than three years.

Though I am anxious, equally, I trust, with every member of this Council, not to renew past discussions—not to utter a single word that can by any possibility tend to revive past dissensions,—still, after this plain and frank avowal, I must submit, not so much in justification of the position I have thus occupied, as in vindication of our Constitution, that the resignation of my office, as soon as it was made manifest that the principles held by the majority of the late Council were diametrically opposed to those, to carry out which I had just previously been for the second time elected Superintendent—my application to the Governor, when after my re-election I found that the antagonism existed as strongly as ever, to dissolve the Council—and finally the offer I repeatedly made, that if the whole Council resigned, I would, in the event of a majority being again returned adverse to my policy, absolutely and unconditionally retire from my office—sufficiently testify to the extreme reluctance with which I have wielded

unconstitutional power, and to my having used every effort to bring the conflict to a speedy termination.

I must further submit that the requisition calling upon me again to come forward, which was presented a few days after my resignation, my re-election for the third time by an overwhelming majority, the zeal, readiness, and enthusiasm with which my fellow-settlers availed themselves of every opportunity, whether offered by a vacancy in the Provincial Council, or in the General Assembly, to strengthen my hands—to endorse my policy, and to encourage me in the course I was pursuing—the Petition signed by a majority of the electors in each electoral district praying His Excellency the Governor to apply the remedy provided by the Constitution—these, and other facts, afford abundant proof that the electors also exhausted all the constitutional means in their power to bring the dead-lock to a close.

Upon whom then does the responsibility of this collision rest?

It cannot surely be attributed to any inherent defect in the Constitution itself, for the very instant the remedy indicated by it is applied, the Deadlock disappears, peace and harmony are restored, public confidence revives, and the whole machine of Government runs smoothly and in perfect order.

This fact is of itself sufficient to fix the responsibility.