Provincial Council Extension Bill, providing for seven electorates returning twenty-four members.
Mr. Hall only held office for about seven months. His resignation was due to the steady refusal of the Council to pass his Bills. The odd thing was that the Council did not want Mr. Hall to resign, and offered, if he would remain in office, to pass a vote of confidence in his Government. This somewhat empty compliment did not satisfy Mr. Hall, and he resigned early in May, 1855. His successor was Mr. Joseph Brittan, who, in accepting office, definitely declined to take any ministerial responsibility. The Council agreed to this arrangement, and by resolution affirmed an important principle: “That in consequence of the elective and responsible office of the Superintendent, the head of the Council, it is the opinion of this Council that the members of the Government in this Council should not be expected to resign their office except after a distinct vote of want-of-confidence by a majority of the whole Council.” This resolution was, in later years, the cause of much friction between Mr. Rolleston and his Executive.
In November of the following year, 1856, another ministerial crisis occurred, in connection with the vexed question of communication between the city and the port. Opinion was, at that time, divided between the adherents of the Sumner Road and those of the Bridle Track, and Mr. Brittan introduced a Bill setting aside 25,000 acres of Crown Land to be sold at £1 per acre, the proceeds to be used to construct a horse tramway from Christchurch to Lyttelton, via Sumner. The opponents of this measure argued, with considerable justice, that such a departure from the recently adjusted land regulations, which had fixed the price of land at £2 per acre, would destroy confidence in the permanency of land prices, and prevent purchasers coming forward. The Bill was defeated, and the Government seems to have accepted the decision of the Council in a philosophic spirit. But
