NEW ZEALAND

GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,

(PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.)

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

WILLIAM HICKSON,
PROVINCIAL SECRETARY.

VOL. XV. THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1868. No. 18.

Speech of His Honor the Superintendent on opening the Sixteenth Session of the Provincial Council.

Mr SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL,

My desire to arrange sundry matters left in abeyance when I last prorogued the Council, and which threatened to involve the province in protracted and most costly litigation, coupled with my repeated absences from Wellington in attendance on the Native Lands Court at Otaki, must be my excuse for having postponed the present session to a later period than usual.

Although this delay has not been unattended with some inconveniences to the public service, still it enables me to lay before you a far more complete and I trust satisfactory statement of the affairs of the Province than I otherwise could have done, and will also enable you to judge more correctly of its present position and future prospects.

It is gratifying to me to announce that all matters of dispute between the Provincial Government and Messrs Kennards in respect of the Wharf, the Patent Slip and the Wanganui Bridge have within the last few weeks been finally adjusted—all causes of action removed on terms which I venture to think will not be deemed by you either disadvantageous or unsatisfactory.

Knowing as I do that differences of opinion existed in the Council in regard to those matters, and to the course pursued by the Government in their transactions with Messrs Kennards, and recognising that it could serve no useful purpose to rake up those differences, I believe I shall best discharge my duty and most fully meet your wishes by simply stating in a few words the conditions upon which each one of the questions to which I refer has been settled:

After the trial of the action brought by Messrs Kennards in the Supreme Court for the recovery of the balance of the Contract price (£8288) of the wharf, and of a large amount for damages and extras, had lasted five days, and just before the Attorney General was about to address the Court, sundry compromises were proposed by the Counsel for the Plaintiffs, but rejected by the Government. Ultimately, the Plaintiffs, rather than allow the case to go to the jury, so completely had they failed to establish their claims, agreed to accept the offer made by me, viz., that the Government should pay Messrs Kennards the balance of the Contract, less £2000 for non-completion of the work, each party paying their own costs—being almost precisely the very terms which you will see by a reference to the correspondence in your last Sessional papers were proposed by the Government as far back as the 27th March, 1867. His Honor the Judge expressed his gratification that the case had been withdrawn, and at the same time his opinion that the arrangement was a fair and equitable compromise.

Shortly after this settlement of the Wharf question, overtures were made to the Government to arrange the Patent Slip dispute, and after some negotiations conducted in a most amicable spirit, and with an earnest desire on both sides to bring them to a successful issue, it was agreed that in consideration of the Government entering into a contract with another firm for the erection of the Slip on the basis of their proposed agreement with Messrs Kennards, the latter should give a release in full of all claims against the Government in respect of either the Slip or the Wanganui Bridge. A contract accordingly has been entered into with Mr Owen for the erection of the Slip within a period of twelve months from the date of their being put in possession of the site, on conditions not very materially different from those embodied in the memorandum of agreement between Messrs Kennards and Mr John Morrison of the 25th January, 1865. The principal differences are that 7 per cent interest is to be guaranteed