WELLINGTON.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 75, 1 June 1866, Page 3

WELLINGTON.

In his opening speech to the Provincial Council, his Honor the Superintendent — after alluding to the probable termination of the war — spoke of the purchase of the Manawatu Block from the natives, which would remove any probable cause for a resumption of war in Wellington. He then said — ■*• The purchase of this land gives the province a valuable estate of some 500,000 acres for sale, but his Honor estimated that the cost of the whole, including surveys, will be little short of £60,000. Dr. Featherston suggests that the upset price of this laud shall be raised. He says," The question is whether the province is justified iu disposing of — whether it can afford, without involving itself in financial difficulties — to sell its Manawatu lands at one-half or one-fourth of their real marketable value." After discussing a proposed " small farm settlement" scheme, Dr. Featherston goes ou to say: — "In all probability a proposal to locate a large population in the Manawatu will be submitted to you by Bishop Monrad, late Prime Minister of Denmark, for I was informed the other day that the Bishop was prepared to bring out from Denmark aud the Duchies recently wrested from it, at least eight hundred families of the agricultural class who would pay their own passages, and would be possessed of an adequate capital, provided he could be guaranteed a suitable block of land for them ou their arrival, on reasonable terms." His Honor estimates the revenue of the province for the ensuing year at £129,769, and the expenditure at £129,276. But in this estimate of expenditure the £25,000 required for purchase of the Manawatu laud is not included, nor the expenditure of £16,000 to be expended in reclaiming land in tbe harbor. His Houor proposes to raise from the banks, by way of mortgage, £15,000 to £20,000 on the security of the land now being reclaimed, and which he estimated, after incurring a cost of £26,000, will sell for £55,000.