nearly nine months after the election. By that time, Sir George Grey, who must be held responsible for the delay, had left New Zealand.
The Canterbury Provincial Council was called together more promptly, and met for the first time on September 27, 1853. The session was opened by His Honor Superintendent FitzGerald, with an address fitted to the importance of the occasion—one which could “occur but once in the life of an individual, or the history of a people.” He briefly surveyed the history of the settlement. “Three years have not yet elapsed since the first body of settlers landed on these shores, and I think it may be asserted that rarely, if ever, has so much real work been done by so small a body in so short a time; that never has any settlement been founded with so much success and so little disaster to those who formed the forlorn hope of the enterprise.” After paying a glowing tribute to Mr. Godley, the Superintendent outlined the functions and powers of the Provincial Government, expressed his intention of governing with the aid of an Executive Council, and explained the financial relations between the General and Provincial Governments, as arranged by His Excellency the Governor, “pending any law which may be made upon the subject by the General Assembly.” He referred briefly to the affairs of the Canterbury Association, but postponed discussion until the arrival of the accounts from London should enable Mr. Sewell, the Agent of the Association, to make some definite proposal.
The remarks of the Superintendent on religion are interesting as illustrating how far the settlement had already departed from the original intention of its founders. Mr. FitzGerald held that while maintaining an “attitude of absolute indifference to all religious communities,” the State might, and should, grant legislation to enable any such community to manage its own affairs, and that, therefore, the Church of England was
