The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XV, Issue 860, 6 February 1861, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

Wednesday, February 6, 1861. All those who in high-flown language demand the division of existing Provinces, on the plea that outlying settlers have not got the boon of local self-government, are obliged to admit, when r they come down to the level of reason and facts, that the whole object of separation is to give to certain districts a right to spend a portion of their own revenue in their own way. We are not told that it is a necessity for New Zealand to have her minor legislation—scab law, police law, cattle trespass law, public house law, and a score of other Taws—differing over every million acres of her surface. All that is wanted is that in the Provincial partnership concern each partner should have access to the accounts and his fair share of the profits. The New Provinces Act is thoroughly faulty in this respect. It does a great deal more than is required, but it is inadequate to perform what is really wanted. Some few peculiarly situated districts have the right to clothe themselves with the power of varying the minor legislation of the colony, multiplying ordinances, and maintaining for themselves separate Councils and Governments y and they are compelled to exercise all these functions before they can obtain their real object. But a number of districts, not having the situation and peculiar circumstances required by the act, are left totally unprotected. We venture to say that an arrangement by which all districts alike would be assured their share of revenue would be much more generally acceptable than the partial New TProvinces Act.

There, are certain purposes for which all the provinces, as parts, of the whole colony, contribute portions of their respective revenues. The staff of the General Government, Steam Postal Communication, Administration of Justice, and several other matters are placed in this category. Each province contributes in a fixed ratio to the common fund, and the remainder of its revenue is secured to itself. As the colony acts towards the provinces, so should each province deal with the districts •which constitute it. There need be no practical difficulty in the way, the revenue to be 'divided being of so simple a character. The purposes too, to which the revenue is applicable are well defined. >. The assumption will not be wide of the mark, L that the cost of staff of the Provincial Govern^, knent. and those departments of the public service which the province is obliged to maintain, exclusive of those connected with land sales and public works, can be brought within the sum receivable from a share of the Customs and the fees and fines which constitute what is called [ ordinary' revenue. This may be done, we believe, with economy, though it is plain that the revenue from the sources indicated is little enough to meet the constantly increasing demands of the gaol, police, registration, harbour, sheep inspection, education^ charitable, executive and legislative departments. However difficult the economy may be, it must nevertheless be practised) for it is essential that the land fund—the only other source of revenue—should be freely applicable to its own separate purposes. The revenue derivable from land, upon the system under which this Province at least was settled and has prospered, is applicable specially to the improvement of the land from which it is drawn. That is to say, the purchaser of land wants two things to make his purchase really valuable to him—roads to make the land accessible, and labour to cultivate it— neither of these requirements being provided by nature in a new country. When he buys the land he provides his proportion of the means to satisfy these wants; and in- this province such a price is fixed as is amply sufficient to satisfy them. There are besides certain expenses incidental to the sale and survey of the land which the price paid must cover, and there are other charges also of a special character which it is fair to deduct. The principle of reinvesting the proceeds of the land in its improvement, though most true and just, must not be taken in a confined sense. It would be absurd to appropriate to each fiftyacre section its own contribution to the revenue. The necessities of different cases vary. One piece of land may be perfectly accessible without the expenditure of a single pound on a road to it; while another may require double its own value to be expended before it is approachable. A fair result is attained by fixing an average sufficient price, and giving to a wide district the benefit of all land sales within it. When some part of such a district is formed into a township for the accommodation of the public of the district, the town will of course require rather more expense in the formation and maintenance of its roads than the same area of land in any other part of the district. Generally speaking, the high price obtained for the town land should first go towards opening.up the 1 district as a whole; and then the country, as [it is gradually, brought into the maket, should contribute something annually towards the maintenance of the town. This must be the case, at any rate, where reserves are not first made for the benefit of the town, As an instance, the public works in the chief towns of this province, Christchurch. and Lyttelton, ought to be maintained by the country in which they stand, not only because those works are for the use and advantage of the country, but because the towns have within themselves no resources from which the works can be provided. At the outset there were in both towns reserves which might have been applied

to town requirements; but these have long ago been appropriated to defray the necesssities of the province at large y and a fair claim exists therefore against the country for a share of the proceeds of its land sales. In the same manner all townships should, receive a special share, of the land fund arising from the district in which they stand, unless a more permanent provision has been made for them at their foundation.

Another charge upon the land fund exists in an unmistakable form. The colony and the province have raised money for general purposes upon the security of the land. In fact, beforethe land passed into the possession of the province at all there was a debt upon it; and since that time revenue has been anticipated, to provide means for immigration and for other 'public purposes. It follows that in Canterbury a; first charge of nearly £7000 per annum exists upon the; land fund, being payable as interest and sinking fund on the general and;provincial debts. We have thus enumerated the purposes of all kinds to which the land fund ought to be devoted. To carry out the principle of appropriation adopted between the General and Provincial Governments and to apply it to the districts of a province, so far as it can . be made applicable, it is only necessary to divide the province into convenient districts, to ascertain the contributions of each to the revenue, to deduct the sum payable as interest on debts, the cost; of the Waste Lands and Survey departments, the sums agreed to as necessary for immigration, and those for the; various towns and townships, and then to \ appropriate the remainder to the districts themselves in the proportion in which their respective contributions to the revenue come in. The best mode of practically adjusting the appropriation, and that of actually expending the money voted for each district under the control of its inhabitants, we leave for separate consideration.