AUCKLAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 431, 3 March 1860, Page 3

AUCKLAND.

"Jlie twentieth .anniversary of the Province was'cebbnited onKldnda^ the fJOth January by a Regatta; which is said' to liave been ,th*e best ever'hd'd in Aiickland.' "

The thirteenth, session of ,the Provincial Council. wfl3 opened on the 3Jst ult. His Honpr, jn a portion- of his speech, say 3:— ", Since the arrival in 1858 of the first vessel .w.ith immigrants under the nuw system, about 3860 individual holders of land orders bav^^ nded » n Auckland, I venture confiden^y jo assert tliat, as to the general suitability of the immigrants themselves, as to their superiority as $ class, and ns to the happy apportionment of Capital and Labour amongst them, no body pf persons more certain to make successful settlers h'a»e been r^eived into any Colony. " If lias been the care of the Provincial Government to provide for selection the best obtainable* laud) and to give' the" widest scope in the (choice of Districts. Through the exertions of the- Waste' Lands Department the supply of surveyed Jandslias been kept greatly' in advance of the demand, and 1 although within the past- year J more than 60,000 acres hf,d heen gold or selected, there remained on

the 31st December last more than -12,4-38 acres open for sale or selection. The land so surveyed is, I am assured, generally of fair average quality, a great proportion of it being very superior.

" Notwithstanding the extensive exercise of the Land Orders, the receipt of Land Revenue for the year shows a considerable increase — the gross receipts for 1859 having amounted to £12,000 against £4385 in 1858."