The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 170, 8 April 1854, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

t, , „ Aprils, 1854. Besides the Ordinances which have been passed by the Provincial Council during the present Session, one of an important nature was thrown out undor circumstances which we think can hardly he said to have bated the real opinion of lhat body on its merits We allude to the District Commissioners' Ordinance, which after hayino- passed through all the sta-es up to the third read ing, was unexpectedly negatived after some oi its supporters, considering it safe, had

left the House. Its fate is so far instructive that it shews the difficulty of conducting public business in a legislative body so scanty in numbers as the present Council, of whom if a few are detained by business from attending a sitting, the success of an imf ortant measure may be perilled. In reviewing the arguments adduced against the Ordinance, it appears that its opponents acted under the idea that the revenues of the Province were sufficient? for the purposes contemplated by the Ordinance without resorting to local taxatiou.: We should allow the validity of this argument did the present flourishing state of theProvincial Exchequer arise from regular and ordinary- sources of income, like the: Customs. When, however, as we shewed, last week in analysing the budget, the great proportion of the excess of revenue over expenditure arises from land sales, the case is very different. The surplus we have at present to deal with is not one of ordinaryrevenue, and therefore, could not, on any correct principle, be applied to the ordinary purposes of repairing roads, &c. It is properly applicable only to expenses in r curred once for all, such as to Immigration, or to the opening out of new lines of communication, and to the execution of works, the maintaining of which will thenceforth be thrown upon the rates, or other sources of ordinary taxation. It would not be fair in us to consume a portion of the land-fund, as long as it lasts, in lightening the ordinary burden, which, when it is exhausted, must be borne by posterity. Another exception was also urged against the ordinance, that it involved a principle of confiscation in giving power to the Commissioners to enforce a rate by selling tbe land of a defaulter (Section 19). This' certainly is a provision only suitable to a new country, where much land is in the possession of absentees, or for other reasons is left uncultivated. An ordinary distress, enabling the crops to be seized for the rate, is evidently useless in such a case ; and the consequence might be that a few residents would have to bear the whole burden of a long line of road passing through uncultivated sections, the owners of which wo Id be practically exempt from rates. It was said that the expences <. f collection would, in some districts, consume nearly all the rate levied ; but it should be observed that (by sections 13 and 23,) it was to have been at the discretion of the Superintendent to bring the Ordinance into opeI'ation in any district, and that it is to be presumed that he will be guided in doing or not doing so by the wish of the inhabitants in such district. We will only add that this defunct Ordinance would have, in the case of towns, conferred on them almost all the benefits of a corporation, the functions of which body would have been exercised by the board of Commissioners, as will appear from considering the large powers vested in them by the ]4th Section. We have ventured these remarks on the rejected Or-, di; ance in the hope that some such measure may be revived in a future session, and that it may meet with fair play and a full discussion.

The "Nelson."— The screw steamer "Nelson" arrived in this harbour last eveningl between 5 and 6 o'clock, just as we were going to press. According- to report the " Nelson" appears well adapted /'or the inter-colonial trade, and we would hope the negociations now in progress to secure her for such a purpose will be satisfactorily arranged. The '" Kiigle," from England, is reported at Nelson on Thursday week last. The "Nelson" brings a Wellington mail only, the English mail by the " Eagle" not arriving at Wellington till after the Nelson left.

We understand that applications have already been made for " assisted passages" by many of the working classes in this Settlement to enable their relatives and friends in England to "join them on the terms proposed in the Immigration Regulations we published last week from the Provincial Gazette. There appears, therefore, every probability that the first ships chartered by Mr. Harman when he arrives in England will bring over emigrants, part of whose passage money will be paid by the very labourers who themselves were assisted out, at the very furthest, three years back. Nothing, we should imagine, can be more demonstrative of the real progress of this colon y, either socially or morally, than this fact-.

A; severe hail storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning, passed over this port on Monday last from the south-west, doing considerable damage. The glass in most of the windows facing the wind, particularly along the beach, was nearly all shattered, while but few lights in any part of the town entirely escaped. The size of the hail stones is variously estimated, but it is undeniable that they were unusually large, and the storm altogether of ■an extraordinary severitj' ; fortunately it was but of short continuance. Harvest Home, -r- On Wednesday evening last, Mr. John Stace, of Berwick Farm near Christchurch, commemorated the good old English custom of entertaining a number of friends, neighbours, and workmen on the joyful occasion of a prosperous " Harvest Home." After an excellent dinner of roast beef and "plum-pudding with a profusion of the accompaniments which constitute " good cheer," the chaiy was worthily occupied by Joseph Brittan, Esq. who, in appropriate speeches, gave the following toasts which were duly honoured and severally responded to ; "The Queen;" —" The Queen's Representative in Canterbury, His Honor the Superintendent;"— " Host John Stace, as a good colonist, an obliging neighbour, and a model farmer, whose farm and stackyard gave evidence that within less than three years he had converted a considerable extent, of the primeval waste into a substantially fenced, highly cultivated, and most productive farm, with an extensive and perfectly English-like farm-steading, at once reflecting unqualified credit on his agricultural skill, his Energy, and his Perseverance." A number of other toasts followed with intermediate songs illustrative of the occasion, finishing with the National Anthem, after which the company separated delighted with the generous hospitality experienced during an evening happily spent in the revival of an ancient English custom. .Christehurch. March 32th.