Mr Macandrew in Reply to Sir Julins Vogel.

Bruce Herald, Volume IX, Issue 804, 19 May 1876, Page 6

Mr Macandrew in Reply to Sir Julins Yogel.

<s> The following is his Honor's reply to Sir Julius Vogel's last communication • — Province of Otago, N.Z. SuDerintsndent's Ofliee, i Dunedin, 13th May, 38TG. Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd inst., in reply to mine of the 22nd ult. Knowing as I do tbe vast amount of personal labor which must at present devolve upon you, and the extent to which your time necessarily must need be occupied in connection with tbe constitutional changes upon which you have se-i your mind, ifc is with some compunction that; I again address you on tbe subject. You will, however, I trust, pardon me if I should attempt in this letter to convince you, and the few people in Otago who are in accord with your views, that you both have misapprehended the nature of Abolition, and " the consequences which will flow to the people of Otago," should Centralism 1 become the policy of the Colony. I am persuaded that any one freed from party or personal feelings who compares the , position of Otago as it is with what it will become under Abolition, can have no t difficult-*, in determining his course of action and deciding on his political platform. I find on perusal of your last letter that your only answer to the grave charges I made against that political party with which you are now allied and against the action of the Colonial Government, is a brushing away of these charges by saying "that they seem to you of a tv quo que nature and out of place 1 in this correspondence." Such a remark makes me hesitate as to the object of the . various letters you have addressed to me, > and if you think that the breach of faith I ; pointed out, and the mismanagement of Colonial finance, can be set aside in the ht quoque manner you adopt, it is evident you i altogether misapprehend the sincerity and underrate the intelligence of the people of , Otago. You may rest assured that the people understand more of politics and of political history than you seem to realise. It would appear from your letters that I dare nofc even hint at the extravagance and maladministration of the Colonial Government. You, however, are entitled to criticise the action of the people and their representatives, and also, as appears from paragraph 6 of your letter, ' to bring sweeping charges against civil servants who have no opportunity of self-defence. In none of my letters have I written one single word against any General , Government officer. My allusion to the cost of the Clutha Railway went to show that all works could bo more cheaply constructed under local administration thau under a Government at a distance. You, however, bring charges of the most grave character against all the eminent engineers whom the Province of Otago has ever employed. T need scarcely remind you that many of the engineers, and I might add other professional men of ability who have been employed by tbe General Government, have been taken from Otago. Ifc appears to me ungenerous, to say the least of ifc, to allege tbat the many able and eminent engineers that the Province has employed, have wanted competent engineering skill. Passing on to the charges you bave made against the Provincial Government of sacrificing the landed estate of the Province I can only say you are entirely astray as to your facts. As to this I would refer you to my letter to the Honorable the Colonial Secretary of the 4th instant, with enclosures, from wh'ch it will be seen that the action of the Provincial Executive has nofc only been in strict accordance with law but with good policy. You are, of course, aware that the law admits of land 1200 feet above sea level being sold for 10a an acre with consent of lessee ; whereas the action of the Executiva would have secured at least 20s an acre for the same land. You seem to impute it as a great crime on Xhe part of tbe Provincial Legislature that it should dispose of mountain lands for the construe! ion of branch railways. In my opinion, if the whole of the mountain tops could be converted into branch railways to-morrow, instead of being a loss it would be a vast gain to the Province. The latter would be as productive to the State as the [former, while there would be the advantage, in as far as Otago is concerned, that its moun- [ tain tops would be disposed of for railway construction within its own territory, instead of in the North Island, which will be tho practical result of your present policy. While upon this subject, I musb say that it seems somewhat extraordinary that iv other parts of the island, under that system of free selection you liave so long warmly advocated, vast private estates are being created, and the finest agricultural land alienated from tbe Crown in large blocks, and no objection raised ; while in the only Province in New Zealand where any efforts for conserving agricultural land for settlement have been made, fault should have been found with its land administration. Because the Otago Provincial Government ghoose*) to reserve the agricultural land for

.BBttlfement on deferred paynient-, .and to sell ■-•*.! his hill tops sooner than let its best agricul-* tural -land go to auction to be purchased by the speculator, its action is condemned by the Colonial Government. If your Government proposes that no perBon shall acquire or hold more than a defined : area of land, you will be inaugurating a new policy in dealing with Crown lauds. As yet the Legislature has not fixed any limit to a man's holding ; on the contrary, it has made provision— see section 150 /Otago- "Waste Lands Act, 1872," which shows that it contemplated sales of high lands at ten shillings an acre. Were the action of Otago contrasted with that of Canterbury and,the other provinces, it would, I think, be found that the contrast would reflect , no, discredit on this Province. Of course I refrain from even' hinting as fco bow the Colonial Government has dealt with the lands under itsVcontrol. I venture to predict that when the passions created by party feeling have subsided, and the true circumstances of the case come to be understood, the action of the Provincial Government which you condemn wili stand the test of a rigid scrutiny. I cannot but regard the attempt on the parfc of the Colonial Government to coerce what is supposed to be a non-political body like the Waste Lands Board as uncalled for, if not illegal and reprehensible. It is the small cloud in the horizon which foretells ■what Centralism really means. You said that were Otago an independent colony it would mean " centralised power in Dunedin and financial difficulties of very grave character." No doubt were Otago an independent colony the central power would have to be somewhere, and it requires but little acumen to see that it would be infinitely more advantageous for the Province that thie. central power should be at Dunedin than at Wellington. Moreover, there is this marked difference between the Provincial Council at Dunedin and the General Assembly at Wellington, that whereas the whole policy of the one has been to economise, to decentralise, and to divest its Executive of power in favor of local bodies, that of the other has been exactly the reverse. As to the " financial difficulties " they are, I apprehend, as respects tho Colony sufficiently grave already, and one of the most effective ways out of this would be to make Otago a separate colony relying entirely upon its own resources. Ifc is far better able to stand alone tban were any of the neighboring colonies when they were created. And I believe that notwithstanding the millions of money of wliich ifc has already been drained by the Colonial Parliament, ifc would be willing, and it would be clearly to its interests, to pay a handsome price, if by doing so the Province Could steer clear of the Maelstrom of colonial finance. Were Otago a [separate colony New Zealand would be compelled to start afresh, and to cufc its coat according to its cloth, in which case-its present civil service and its standing army must needs be reduced and brought within the compass of its absolute requirements. Ivo doubt this end mighfc be attained in a less degree were each island to be charged with the uncontrolled management of its own affairs. A«- to the savings which you say will be incidental to doing away with the Provincial Executive — savings, by the way, which your colleague, the late Colonial Treasurer, was forced to admit, would be nil — I confess that with every desire to be enlightened, I cannot see how the creation in Otago of a number of counties, each with its staff of officials- small Provincial Councils, in fact under another name— is to be less expensive than one Provincial Council. Your saving of £10,000 a year will, I fear, result in an additional expenditure of double that amount Even assuming, however, that there would be such a saving, I am convinced that the people :Of Otago are content to pay much more towards the upholding of their local Parliament. A* to the proposals you intend to submit to the Ajwembly, ifc is unnecessary for me to allude to \ them further than to repeat my opinion that you eaunot seriously believe that a body like the General Assembly may not demaud various aad serious alterations iv any proposals your Government may submit to ife. I would now refer very briefly to your remarks on the branch railway lines, and the absorption of our land revenue. sTou express surprise that the Provincial Government should have formed branch railways. YouVseem to be unaware that those lines have all been sanctioned by the Colonial Government, and th^fc no line has been sanctioned which does not open up a settled country or a district fib for occupation, Would that the same could be said of all Colonial railways. It will be found tbat the light lines now being constructed in Otago will be quite as cheap as metalled roads, I assert further, without fear of contradiction, that every rail*' way in Otago will pay interest on the cost of its construction, were the manae-ement left in the hands of the Provincial Government. I have yet to learn, that it is right to form railway lines clo3e to the seaboard, nofc. thereby opening up much fresh land for settlement, and wrong to construct lines into tbe interior, Ahusf giving thoss districts whioh are. far removed from water communication a reliable and speedy means of bringing their produce to market, I look upon it tbat while both aro desirable, the one is of much more importance than "'the' other; aud that if the money which has been, and is being expended by the Colonial Government in Otago had been at the disposal of the Provincial Council, the results, as regards tho beneficial occupation and development of the resources of the Xgcovme, wpul4"b»w l»eei» yjfwtly different;,

Cinder the Abolition regime4lie many,dis»tricts to whioh branch railways; ought to be made are to be denied that privilege, inasmuch as Otago railway profits and land fund must be absorbed by the Cblonial Treasurer. This must be very consoling to the country districts, for whose "interests the' Colonial Government now express so much concern. : And now one word as to the astounding proposal to repeal the most important provision of the Immigration and Public Works Act. To me it-is a matter of most extreme surprise how you can possibly have arrived afc the conclusion that Buch a proposal was just. It is far from comforting to those who, like myself, supported you in the inauguration of the Public Works policy, to be told that your promises of 1870 and 1871 are to be cast to the winds in 1876. Were T, you write, to be "a member of the Colonial Government for three months, I would cease to doubt the necessity of upholding the* law which has decreed the Abolition of the Provinces." | This is an extraordinary statement. Can it be true, after all, that this policy, which in its outset promised so fairly, has so involved the Colony in financial disaster that the Constitution must be swept away, and our political action controlled by moneylenders ? Pledges the mosfc solemn, oftrepeated promises, Acts of Parliament — all to be ignored. It is anything but pleasing to me to write in this strain, but with all due deference I submit that these are thoughts that should weigh with the Colonial Government in considering well the results of any proposals they may make before attempting to force them upon an unwilling people. Nothing could act as a greater beacon of warning to the people of Otago than these proposals, proclaiming as they do that to trust to an Act of the General Assembly for localising the land fund, even should there be any residue to localise, is placing reliance upon a rope of sand. Indeed, you have now to admit that Abolition means that the people of Otago must either be deprived of their land revenue, or auhmib io sn income tax to meet the charges on unproductive railways elsewhere. My own impression is that they will have to submit to both if Abolition becomes law. I fear I have trespassed far too long on your attention. The grace position in which you find the Colony, as disclosed by your letter, must be my excuse. 1 cannot better conclude this letter than by Bincerely thanking you for the trouble you have taken in explaining your policy, although to my mind you have failed to make good your position. I believe the attention you have paid to my opinion will not be wholly thrown away. It will tend to excite an interest in the study of politics, which this Colony much requires, whilst it will also show that a sincere, an earnest, and an able man may, from force of circumstances apparently uncontrollable, be led to adopt a political creed he once denounced, and to ally himself with a political party with whom he has little in common. Again thanking you for your courtesy, I have the honor to be, Sir, Your most obedient servant, (Signed) J. Macandrew, Superintendent of Otago. The Hon. the Premier, Wellington.