The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY. JUNE 18. 1912. THE PREMIER IN THE NORTH

Auckland Star, Volume XLIII, Issue 145, 18 June 1912, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY. JUNE 18. 1912. THE PREMIER IN THE NORTH

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the uyfang that needs resistance, For the future, in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Whether Mr. Mackenzie holds office for a long or a short time, he is evidently determined to judge for himself the condition of every part of the country whose affairs he has undertaken to administer. It has been a reproach to many .successive governments that being chioily composed of representatives of Southern districts, Ihcy have entirely failed to realise the potentialities of the North, and that most Ministers, who have not happened to reside at this end of the Dominion, have been very largely ignorant of the character and value of the land and the needs of its people. AVhenever Mr. Mackenzie ceases to be Premier, and however his administration may be criticised, at least he will not have to answer this charge. For the Prime Minister, ever since his elevation to oflice. has devoted himself assiduously to the task of making himself familiar with those parts of the country in which hitherto he has been a comparative stranger, gaining a first-hand impression of their requirements, and forming his own opinions as to how far their claims can be justly met. And it is evident from the tone of the Premier's public utterances during his Auckland tour that he is much impressed by the natural wealth of this part of the Dominion and the great possibilities that it reveals of expansion and development iv the near future.

During his trip through the Kaipara district and up the Wairoa. at the end of last week, the Premier was able to form a personal judgment of the vast potentialities of this part of the peninsula in regard to its pastoral aud agricultural prospects. It is not to be expected that Mr. Mackenzie could commit himself off-hand to any definite promises in reply to the numerous deputations who submitted to him requests for grants and subsidies and votes for roads and railways. Nor did he hesitate to speak plainly and to say "No" frankly when the proposals made by the settlers seemed to him unreasonable. ißut all this experience is a most useful factor in successful administration, and the knowledge that the Premier has thns gained of North Auckland will bear ample fruit later on. More especially the tour of inspection that- the Premier undertook at Whangarei should open his eyes in a most convincing fashion to the true character ol our resources and capabilities, not only in the northern rural districts, but in (.he towns. Whangarei is a settlement of which the average Southerner knows absolutely nothing. Yet in its magnificent harbour, in the rich farming and fruitgrowing country that surrounds it,' anil hi the diversity and magnitude of its mineral wealth, it stands practically in a class by itself among the smaller New Zealand towns. There are great possibilities latent in this district so well endowed with natural resources and m this splendidly-situated port; and the advent of an ocean liner in the harbour, and the opening of the new freezing works, along with the prospect of securing ample motive power for industrial purposes from the 'Wairua Falls, will help this flourishing town speedily to attain the high rank that it ought to hold among the Dominion's more considerable centres of population aud commerce. That Mr. Mackenzie ifi sufficiently impressed by all these things is clear from the tone' iv which he replied to the various local -bodies and deputations that approached him during his stay. Apart from their local bearing, the speeches which he has delivered during his tour — at Dargaville on Saturday and at Whangarei last night—contain little that Ministers have not already told us about the prospect and intentions of the (rovernment. But the enthusiasm with which Mr. Mackenzie has been received at Whangarei and elsewhere aud the warm expressions of confidence in Liberalism that have marked his progress. i?bow plainly that in North Auckland as in all other parts of the Dominion the tide of pub!;-.- sympathy is flowing strongly in favour of the Liberal Government. Very few people who have followed, the course of political events

intelligently during the past six months will be inclined to contradict the Premier's prediction that, if and when there is another appeal to the country the Liberals will come back with a. substantial 'Working majority. For the people of New Zealand for the-most part realise what Liberalism has done for them; they ignore absolutely the baseless charges of corruption and -maladministration by which the Reformers have striven to create a prejudice in their own favour; and they recognise the justice of the ,pl ea for -more time and a fair opportunity for the Government to show what it is capable of doing. As to the monotonous clamour about the land which the Opposition Press so -persistently raises, the Premier is fully justified in his claim that in spite of all obstacles the Liberal Government has gone steadily on with the work of opening np and settling the backiblocks. I n this connection we may refer to the sta-tement made yesterday in Wellington by the Hon. W. D. Macdonald to the effect that all lando-wners, native as well as European, are in future to bear their fair share of local taxation. This is a policy that we have always advocated, and when carried into effect it should certainly make a great deal of difference to the prospects of successful local administration in North -Auckland. But, in any case, the people of the Northern peninsula already appreciate the value of Liberalism too highly to he misled by its detractors and enemies, and we have no doubt that if a poll could be taken now, tbe whole district would endorse heartily the enthusiastic vote of confidence offered the Premier last night at Whangarei.