obliged, by regard for public convenience, to summon the Provincial Council, July 14, 1871. Then, indeed, the Executive got its way, and the Bank of New Zealand dispute was referred ta a committee.
The Provincial Council continued in existence until the abolition of the provinces in 1876, Mr. Rolleston remaining in office till that date, and being the last Superintendent of Canterbury.
The opening session was held in a small house in Chester Street west, near the river, which had been the office of the short-lived “Guardian” newspaper. A description of this meeting-place had been left on record by Mr. Henry Sewell. “The externals are shabby in the extreme—a low, desolate looking wooden tenement, all by itself in a potato garden, a quarter of a mile at least from the inhabited part of the town, approached on an open trackless common covered with fern and tussock grass, barely passable in dry weather, and miserable in wet. The interior has been disguised neatly enough, but in a flimsy way, with canvas papered oak pattern, scarlet moreen covering the seats, which are of iron hardness. A respectable, dignified chair for the Speaker such as one sees in Masonic halls, a plain table, covered with papers, at which the clerk sits in front of the Speaker, with the English Statutes ranged imposingly in front, so as to give a Legislative look to the place. A side partition shuts off the public, and there is a small space at the end of the room for the Bar.” (Press?)
In 1857, the Council changed its quarters to a house in Oxford Terrace, previously occupied by Mr. W. G. Brittan. This house was afterwards converted into an hotel. Again, in 1858, the Council held a session in the Town Hall (on the present site of Messrs. Strange and Co.’s premises), which had been recently erected.
It was not till September 29, 1859, that the Council met in a chamber of its own—that which is now known as the Land Room in the Provincial Council Buildings—
