PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 123, 28 May 1869, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Thursday, May 27. The Speaker took the chair at 11 o'clock. LUNATIC ASYLTTM.. Mr. Donate moved, That the Report of the Select Committee appointed to consider the two Reports of Dr. Kemp, referring to the Lunatic Asylum and the Taranaki Buildings be adopted. Motion agreed to. KEPORTEES' GALLERY. Mr. Donne moved, That in order to enable the Speaker of this Conncil in its future Sessions to give effect to the wish of the Council as expressed in the resolution of May 25th, with respect to the accommodation of the Press, it is desirable that the Reporters' Gallery behind tlie Speaker's cbair, should be extended so as to project into the Hall, thereby rendering that Gallery suitable in every respect to the purpose for which it was originally intended. Motion agreed to. * UNITY OF THB PROVINCE. Mr. Wastney moved, That this Council would be wanting in its duty towards the people whose interests it represents, if it failed before the close of the present session to enter its most earnest and emphatic protest against any further division of the Province, being convinced that such division could only lead, among many other evils, to the costly and needless multiplication of offices, and consequent addition to the burdens of the people generally, without confessing any special benefit on any portion of the Province. In moving this resolution he would take the Opportunity of explaining his vote on the question of separation, as referred to in the Superintendent's speech. That vote had been made much of by the press, and by the public out of doors. Many members besides himself had regarded the Superintendent's address as a threat to the West Coast, and they were of opinion that that portion of the reply had better be omitted, and for this ihey had been represented as separationists. They ought not however to he so regarded, as they had acted from a desire to conciliate the inhabitants of the Gold Fields, whereas the remarks of the Superintendent were calculated to irritate. Those who had voted together on that occasion had been denounced by the press as opposed to the Government. The conduct of the press had been of a very rancorous character, and he would read what had been said of them in the Evening Mail of sth. inst. " No doubt, explanations will be offered by all these gentlemen, but they must be very lucid and very ingenious if they can impart confidence to the minds of the electors of those districts represented hy Messrs Wastney, Baigent, Macmahon, Simmonds, Thompson, Gibbs, and Dr. Irvine, when it becomes known to them that their representatives have recorded their disapprobation of the determination of the Superintendent to oppose in the General Assembly, any dismemberment of the Province." The members who had voted in the minority had not the slightest intention to favor the dismemberment of the Province, nor was their vote calculated to have that effect. In order to show the feeling of the same journal he would read an extract from a letter which appeared in the issue of 20th inst. (Extract read). He did not know the writer hut if he was informed rightly he had himself been largely indebted to the New Zealand Company for an assisted passage, without which he would never have been here. Mr. Macmahon seconded the resolution. Mr. Donne stated that it was evident the resolution had been brought forward with a view to the elections, with the object of allowing the hon. member for Wakapuaka to explain his own vote and those of the members who went with him. He was sorry to see allusion made to' a small evening paper, and. considered that reference to its editor was undignified. Motion agreed to. coal MINES. Dr. Ie vine to move the following Resolutions: 1. That this Council request his Honor the Superintendent to ascertain the cost of a detailed Survey for a line of Railway from the Brunner Coal Mine to Cobden, and if the cost of such will not exceed the sum alluded to in the Report of the Select Committee on the Coal-fields, that such survey should be executed. 2. That as additional inducement to any Company to construct a line of Railway from the Brunner Coal Mine to Cobden, the Council authorises the Superintendent to issue to such Company, by way of bonus and upon completion of the Railway, Scrip available for the purchase of the Waste Lands of the Province, to the amount of £3,500, or at the rate £500 worth for each mile of Railway. 3. That for the purpose of offering encouragement to persons proposing to work the coal seams in the neighbourhood of the Buller, the Superintendent be authorised to pay a bonus, at the rate of five shillings per ton on good steam coal raised and brought into the market from any proper mine, and one calculated to be of a permanent character; provided always that no such bonus shall exceed the sum of £500 in any one year. 4. That his Honor the Superintendent be respectfully requested to amend the " Appropriation Act," by the addition of the sum of £200, for the purpose of repairing and completing the Road between the roadstead at Pakawau and West Wanganui. ..'.-•,- --5. That the time for claiming the bonus recommended in the Report of the Select Committee on the Buller and other coalfields, adopted by the Council on the 25th of July, 1867, authorising the Surerintendent to pay a bonus of five shillings per ton on good steam coal raised, from any. proper mine on this side of Cape Farewell,'be extented to the ist of January, 1871 ; and that, to encourage the efforts of the Co-operative Coal Company, established in Golden Baly for the purpose of constructing a tramway and opening up the coal seams at the Aorere, the Superintendent be authorised to advance, in anticipation of the bonus, the sum of £250 when the Company are able to show an expenditure in works of a substantial character

r*tT?''''''r_BMCEM'JLS:il''^lHlll»M_^ »»«^ .^f^^-^f^fm-m- '|H^fff|_HlPß***TT of not less than one thousand pounds; the repayment of the £250, or any portion of it which the Company may be unable to claim as bonus from not having raised the necessary quantity of coal, to be secured on such works in any way the Superintendent and his Executive may deem necessary. Agreed to.