The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 162, 13 July 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1867.

The speech of his Excellency the Governor delivered at the opening of the present session of the General Assembly is, as we have already stated, a document of such length as to preclude the possibility of its publication, at all eveiits in its entirety, in our columns. We therefore propose to offer our readers a brief epitome of its contents, with such remarks as may suggest themselves upon the various topics to which it refers. Like its prototypes, the speeches which the Sovereign delivers from the throne on the opening of the Imperial Parliament, his Excellency informs the Assembly, not that our relations with foreign powers are perfectly- satisfactory, but that, in his recent tour through the southern portion of the colony, he has been received, as the Queen's representative, with every demonstration of loyalty and respect, and that, as regards the West Coast settlements especially, their extent and importance, as well as the general love of law and order which prevails throughout the population in those districts, had produced a very favorable impression upon the viceregal mind. The Governor alludes, with pardonable self-gratulation, to the somewhat perilous journey which he had made, on foot, during the recess, through some of the native districts of the North Island, which it had, for sometime past, been deemed unsafe to traverse, and states that he had everywhere found the embers of dissatisfaction dying out, and every symptom of confidence exhibited by the Maori population in the future peace of the country. It will probably occur to our readers that this assertion reads rather q.uaintly in juxtaposition with the atrocious outrages which have lately been perpetrated in the Tauranga and Opotiki districts. His Excellency thea refers to" the late Postal Conference at Melbourne, and characterises the result as satisfactory, though it is a matter of notoriety that through the anxiety of the Victorian delegates to obtain the lion's share in the arrangement, by obtaining a fortnightly mail via Suez, and thus making Melbourne the headquarters of the line, the deliberations of the Conference have in all probability, been rendered nugatory. It is true that the result of the Conference has been sent home to the Imperial authorities, by whom, no doubt, it will receive that attention to which it is entitled, but u cannot be binding on the colonies, until sanctioned by their respective parliaments, and the opposition of Victoria may yet prove fatal to the whole scheme. The Viceregal speech adverts with satisfaction to the successful and beneficial operation of the Act for the establishment of Post-office Savings Banks, and also to the result of the careful investigation which is stated to have taken place into the accounts betweeen the Imperial and Colonial Governments. The subject to which the public mind lias probably been most largely directed during the recess, and to which the most ample and explicit reference was antic

pated iii this speech, is dismissed in the followiug- brief sentence: — "Papers concerning the administration 'of the Otago goldfields will be laid before you." We think our readers will agree with us that a bolder appeal to the support of the representatives of the people as regards the course which the Government has adopted iu reference to the non-delegation of powers to the Superintendent of Otago, and a frank explanation of their motives from the head of t.he Executive himself, would have been very favorably received, and would in all probability have teuded to place the mutter before the colony in its true light. It is plain that in ihe upcountry districts ol Otago a strung resictiou has set. in, which the visit of the Commissioner of Customs, Mr J. C. Richmond, to that province has gone far to produce, and the fact is acknowledged that the great plebiscite was not altogether a legitimate transaction. Such an explanation might therefore have been of essential service in restoring tranquillity amongst the troubled Otagan ooimnuuity. Although Ills Excellency recommends the necessity of strict economy in the public expenditure, he makes no allusion. to any proposed'revisiou of the tariff or of the present system of Uxatiou, though it was clearly understood last session that the obnoxious and most unpopular stamp-tax would only be endured in order that it might lead to a reduction of the tariff. The anomalous and unjust operation of the tariff is displayed so glaringly every day, that it is : plain that some revision must take place in that direction, and especially in reference to the necessaries of life. The mission is rendered all the more strange because an indirect promise to ■ this effect was given by the Colonial Treasurer last year, which he has never yet redeemed. The speech warmly commends the attention of Parliament to the new Municipal Bill for the establishment of local selfgovernment generally throughout the country. This will most certainly provoke a trial of strength between the Provincialists and Centralists, and though the measure will probably only be presented in a modified and tentative form, it may reasonably be anticipated that expressions of opinion will be elicited on its discussion which may encourage the Government to future and more decided action in this direction. The confidence which the Governor expresses in ..the anxiety of all her Majesty's subjects in New Zealand to show honor to the Duke of Edinbugh on his approaching visit to these shores, will meet with a response in every heart, and there can be no doubt that the colonists will prove themselves " equal to the occasion, " whenever it may occur. The last paragraph in the Viceregal speech demands a more than cursory recognition, and refers to a measure upon the necessity of which our local Press has frequently enlarged, and of which the* inhabitants of this city are peculiarly sensible. We allude to the appointment of a Royal Commission to enquire and report on the best mode of instituting a General Penal Establishment for the colony, in obedience to the repeated recommendations of the Judges, and the acknowledged propriety of providing more effectively than at present for the custody of persons convicted of serious crimes, and sentenced to long period of imprisonment. We have now exhausted the most noteworthy topics in the speech, which indeed seems to differ little in its characteristics from any of its fellows which have been delivered on similar occasions, its leading feature being reticence, and a marked observance of the Talleyrandian maxim that language was given to men to conceal their thoughts, for those topics on which the most bitter opposition to the Grovern-

, „ .. »l 1 .1, ...lA—^ meut might be anticipated during the session, aud on which the colony generally had a right to look forward to explicit axplanation, and in one instance at least to some practical redress of acknowledged grievances, are precisely those which appear to be most studiously kept out of sight.