TOWN EDITION. PUBLISHED AT 4.30. The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News, and The Echo. FRIDAY. AUGUST 22, 1870.

Auckland Star, Volume X, Issue 2919, 22 August 1879, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. PUBLISHED AT 4.30. The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, The Morning News, and The Echo.

FRIDAY. AUGUST 22, 1870.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong tha needs resistance, For the future in the distance,

And the eood that we con do.

We are glad to see that the gross injustice done to tho North Island, and especially to Auckland; in the public works expenditure is at last attracting attention. We have shewn on many occasions how the South has been forced ahead by the lavish outlay of public money on works to open up the country for settlement. By the aid of the map which is attached to the Public Works Statement the full force of the com. plaint may be gathered at a glance. In the South Island there is not merely the main trunk from Christchurch southwards through Canterbury and Otago to the Bluff, but this is intersected at intervals by branch lines running inland as far as the inaccessible Southern Alps, which form the backbone of tho South Island. Canterbury is a perfect network of these branched. In Otago the line from Waitaki to luvetcargill, following the coast for the greater part of its length, traverses the province from end to end. Having reached the extreme Southern point of the island, the Wiutou-Kingston line stretches northwards into the heart of the country, a branch sweeps round on Riverton, branches of the main lino run up to Lawrence and Tapanui, and further branches are in progress| which will tap the province in every direction. Against these we have our poor disjointed lines northwards to Kaipara and south to Ohaupo. The immigrants introduced numbered 10,170 in Auckland, U,GO4_ in Wellington, 21,793J:n Canterbury, and 22,881 in Otago. Is it a wonder that under such a shameless misapplication of moneys borrowed on the security of the whole country, Auckland has sunk from the first to the third place, and is being pressed hard for that by Wellington, a province with not one-half its area or resources ? But, while these are facts, plain and undeniable, we must in fairncsssee that the blame is not fastened upon the wrong shoulders. The mischief was done when the present Government came into office. The Grey Ministry attained power on the 18th of October, 1877 ; what was the state of the Public Works account then ? Total expenditure to the 30th June, 1877, in the North Island, £2,736,917; in the South Island, £4,417,697. _ The total milage of railways authorised in the North Island, 412; in the South Island, 815 ; open for traffic in the North, 212 ;in the South, 647. The expenditure shown by Mr Macandrew's last Public Works Statement, £343,861 for the North and £462,812 for the South, and liabilities, £537,951 for the North and £539 580 for the South, would have been fairly proportionate to population

distributed ; Wellington has carried away the lion's share iv the North Island, and the arrears due to Auckland are increased rather than diminished. It is idle now to cuter upon recrimination concerning the causes of those arrears, which, as we have shewn, had accumulated into a gigantic bill by the middle of 1877. It was the misfortune of Auckland to have leaders who looked unfavourably upon the public works scheme ; it was our fate to have a spirit of obstruction pervading the local department entrusted with the carrying of it out J and it was the fault of the people that they had no real faith in the land they were living in. Look at that magnificent country extendiugnorthwards for nearly two hundred miles, every mile of it equal or superior on the average to the bulk of the lauds of Otago through which railways have been pushed. A large proportion of this country has been settled for years in small holdings, the Bettlers struggling against bad communication and consequent isolation. In these districts (including those in the country surrounding Auckland) there is a population of 14,735, aud live stock to the number of 154,314; there are 414,626 acres of freehold land and some hundreds of thousauds of acres of Government land—a laud unrivalled in tho world for fruit-growing; yet next to nothing has been done to open it up. Tons of fruit rot every year in many of the districts, simply because it will not pay to send to market. Until recently the idea ofj developing this part of the province with railways was hardly thought of. The people of Auckland have been callous, ignorant of the country, aud have too often joined Southerners in decrying it; while iv the North there is no centre to give the people that cohesion which means strength. Those who undervalue the lands of the North have never been South, The Crown Lands of Otago were thus described by the Secretary of Crown Lauds in a report dated 16th August, IS7B : " The geueral character of this country is mountainous, intersected by numerous long, narrow valleys aud a few considerable pains. The elevation of the valleys and plains is from 300 to 2,000 feet above sea-level, and from these the mountain slopes run up to elevations of from 3000 to SOOOjfcet." The most broken of our Northern lands is level in comparison. We have too long under-estimated our own advantages. It is a standing joke against Auckland that when Mr Reynolds was in Auckland as a member of the Vogel Ministry au influential meeting of citizens, after cudgelling their brains to discover something to ask of him, at last hit upon the erection of a tower upon the Supreme Court with a clock iv it. Even the settlers in tho North hardly dreamed of a railway until it was suggested to them by Mr Sheehan aud approved by Sir George Grey during his visit to the North. They are now, however, more wide awake, and have begun what wo trust will be a ceaseless agitation until their demand is complied with and a measure of justice done to the North. We believe our claims are so unimpeachable that tho uuited representation of our members will secure their sanction by Parliament; the openly avowed approval and sympathy of all the principal members of the Cabinet they have already. And with the appointment of a Minister of Public Works for the North Island, as suggested by Mr Macandrcw, we might hopo that the works which are justly duo and authorised would be promptly carried out.