MEETING TO CONSIDER PUBLIC ROADS AND WORKS ORDINANCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 186, 27 September 1845, Page 119

MEETING TO CONSIDER PUBLIC ROADS AND WORKS ORDINANCE.

A public meeting was held on Monday last, at the Literary Institution, for the purpose of considering the provisions of the above Ordinance, with a view of taking the necessary steps to get it brought into operation in this settlement. E. W. Stafford, Esq., on being called to the chair, said that doubts were entertained whether the Ordinance could be enforced in the absence of titles to the land, as one of the qualifications for becoming entitled to elect Commissioners was the possession of a freehold estate. After much discussion, in which several gentlemen took part, the following resolutions were carried nearly unanimously :—: — Proposed by Mr. Fox, and seconded by Mr. Greenwood, "That, in the opinion of this meeting, the limitation of the power of tbe Public Roads and Works Ordinance to the owners of freehold estates (and certain others), render it inoperative in the present state of titles to land ; but that it is also of opinion that the principle of the ordinance is sound, and that it is desirable that one should be passed which might be carried into operation in the present as well as probable future state of the district." Proposed by the Hon. C. A. Dillon, and seconded by Mr. Saxton, " That a committee of the following gentlemen be appointed to draw up a petition to the Colonial Legislature for an amendment of the present ordinance, and to point out to that body the reasons which render the present ordinance inoperative in this district :— Messrs. Fox, White, Dillon, Redwood, Martin, Bell, Monro."

We have received files of South Australian papers to the end of June. The state and prospects of the colony are highly spoken of. Every arrival from the adjacent colonies brings an accession to its population. One of the journals states that our fellow settler Mr. Tod is expected in Adelaide, to join his family there, but we have been requested to state that Mr. Tod has written for his family to return to Nelson.