LAST SESSION OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 787, 28 December 1866, Page 1

LAST SESSION OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

(From the Daily Times, December 22.) The Council just managed to finish the business before the Christmas holidays. Up to the hst moment there seemed every likelihood of en adjournment, which would nrobably have been follower"!, when the Council resumed, by a month's additional sitting. Whatever advantages might have been secured by the prolonged deliberations of the Council would have been counterbalanced by the diffi culties which would have attended the elections had they been postponed. The course has usually been pursued in Ofcago, of first electing the Superintendent and then the Council. It is not necessary this should be done, as in the case of Canterbury lately, the elections were concurrent. But electing the Superintendent first seems the better plan. His election takes six weeks. Add this to the time required for obtaining the writs from Wellington and for the Council elections, and we have a period of three months before the Council can be got together. This brings the time up to the end of the Appropriations, the 31st March; and under the new Audit Act, there is no power to spend money without appropriations It is true a clause has been introduced into the Appropriation Ordinance, conditionally extending the money votes for two months ; but it is not desirable, unless in case of urgent necessity, such a power ' should be acted on. The chief me of I such a clause should be to allow the ordi nary expenditure to go on whilst the

Council is sitting, and thus dispense with the necessity for an interim Appropriation Ordinance, pending the passing of a final one at the end of the session. Supposinz the Council to meet in April, the clanse will enable tho expenditure to con tinue until the end of May, by which time it is to be supposed the Appropriation Ordinance for the ensuing year will be disposed of. Had there been an adjournment until after the holidays, it would have been necessary, taking into consideration the probable extension of the session, and the time the elections would occupy, to have passed twelve months' estimates, and the Council would then have had to meet durins the session of the General Assembly — a hichly inconvenient course. On the whole, therefore, even at the expense of somewhat hurryinjj on the business it is vrAl that the session has been brought to a close.

The business of the session has been quite as important as is usual, when the dissolution of the Council, byefftuxion of time, r* so close at hand. Legislative bodies have jreneral'y a delicicy in trenching upon the functions of their successors. Rarely in Otago does a session pa«s without a Ministerial change. There has been one this time, though the reasons for the retirement of the late Executive were not very clear, nor based upon any very distinctive ground of difference of policy. Indeed, it may be said, that amsngst the members generally, there was not a very wide difference of opinion. The difficulty seemed to be, in most cases, wherever there aopeared to be a difference, to reduce to forms of expression the amount of concurrence which really existed. Notably during the late Session, the business appeared to be more regularly conducted, and there was a closer adherence to Parliamentary forms than formerly. The resolutions concerning the General Government deserve special mention. Though they parsed without amendment or division, it would not be fair to say they received unanimous support. In one shape or another there were many who objected to them ; but the objections seemed to consist of doubts as to its being possible to give practical effect to them. There were few members indeed, if any, who did not recognise the importance of localising the Erovernment of the Natives ; of relieving the Middle Island, on terms satisfactory to both island^, of further liabilities for Native purposes ; of adjusting the past finance, and of placing upon a defined basis the future pecuniary relations of the General and Provincial Governments. The opposition was not tn the principles of the proposals, but was directed rather against the wisdom of bringing them on in the face of the difficulty of giving them effect. If the resolutions aid in realising: the objects they propose, there are few of the members who will regret them.

The Council expressed a very decided opinion in favor of resuming assisted immigration on a large and regular scale. The failure of the Immigration Ordinance, left for its completion to the la?t minute, is not likely, we presume, to do more than temporarily interfere with giving effect to an object, about the necessity of which there is a. wide- spread agreement throughout the Province. Amongst the Ordinances passed, there was one making important amendments in the Licensing system. The Southern Trunk Eailway Guaranteed Interest Amendment Ordinance offers a greater probability of obtaining the money for the railway than previously existed. The Dunedin "Water Works Company Ordinance opens the way to the completion of tho«e much-needed works The Turnpikes Ordinance does away with unfair inequalities in the rates of toll, and re duces an undoubtedly too restrictive tariff. The Appropriation Ordinance, No. 1, affords the means of balancing several of the unsettled accounts, and so of bringing the general accounts in future more nearly within the comprehension of persons who desire to understand them. The Amended Municipal Ordinance contains more than one important provision. By it the annual subsidies to Municipalities are limited to a proportion of a rate not exceeding one shilling, excepting only any rate already ntruck for the present year. It is also provided that the money paid as annnal subsidies, must be expended on public works, and not on official salaries. Although no Ordinancs was introduced, a system of local government was encouraged by a vote on the Estimates, for supplementing at the rate of two pounds

to one, moneys collected for local works and the rates of District Road Boards. It was announced that this was the forerunner of a distinct system of local government, to be introduced by Ordinance next session, and that in the meanwhile precaution would be taken to secure the expenditure of the money upon u c eful works only. Other items upon the Estimates, such as those for Dredging, for the Bridge over the Waitaki, for the Volunteers, for a Loan to the Dock Trust, and several for private compensations, deserve special reference : but our present space will not admit of it.