The Press. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1896.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9515, 7 September 1896, Page 4

The Press. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1896.

" GENEROUS CANTEBBURYI"

According to the Wellington Post the Canterbury members who voted for the Loan Bill are perturbed at our remarks under this heading on Wednesday last. It is well that their consciences should prick them, although such pangs o.f remorse come now a little late in the day. The facts we mentioned were by no means new. They were extracted from Mr. Seddon's own Public Work 3 Statement of last year, and ought to have been quite fajniliar to the Canterbury members, who in this matter are playing the part of traitors to their constituencies. It is notorious that Canterbury, ever since the Abolition of the Provinces, has been the milch cow for the colouy. What we cited was merely one illustration of a iaet known and admitted by everybody. We showed that out of a total of £2,401,074, the amount of expenditure and liabilities on miscellaneous roads and bridges, up

to SlsfcMarch, 1895, Canterbury, which contributes one-fifth of the revenue of the colony, received the beggarly sum of £5-i,429. This is far below the amount received by any other provincial district, even the most insignificant on the list. Westland has very little land capable of being opened up for settlement. It is so far to be pitied. It is happy, however, in having had members who always looked after its interests, and thrice happy in having the Premier among their number. As against Canterbury's poor £54,129, Westland has scooped in~£189,603. Even this is insignificant beside the £578,367 expended in Otago and the £720,833 in Auckland. It is only fair to Otago and Auckland to say that those provinces—Otago especially—contribute a respectable sum towards the revenue. But Westland has always been in the position of giving very little and getting a great deal. Canterbury j enjoys the privilege of paying for everybody else and getting next to nothing in return. It contributes onefifth of the entire revenue of the colony, and it has received as nearly as possible one forty-fourthpart of the amount spent on these roads and bridges. It has received a little more than one-fourth the amount expended in Westland and less than one - thirteenth of the Auckland allocation. Of the new loan of one million, as far as we can see, Canterbury is to get absolutely nothing, although she will havo to pay about one-fifth of the annual interest, and make herself liable with the rest of colony for the repaymeut of the loan. It is well-known that the bulk of this money is not required for any useful purpose, but is mainly to be used for electioneering jobbery. X et eight out of our fifteen members placidly voted for the second reading of this iniquitous measure simply bscause Mr. Seddon ordered them to do so ! There is a limit to the most openhanded generosity if it is too much imposed upon. There is a merit in giving when it is done voluntarily, with one's eyes open, and for a good object, but a man who tamely allows himself to be fleeced for a bad one is looked upon as a fool. That is pretty much the position in which Canterbury stands to-day—a mark for the good-natured contempt of the rest of the colony. Even Mr. Seddon can hardly be blamed for taking advantage of our imbecility. So far we have behaved as if we rather enjoyed being plundered than otherwise. No other town in the colony but Christcliurch would submit to the extortionate railway rtites on the Lyfctelton line which are handicapping our merchants out of every trade in which they come in competition with their Wellington rivals. Our motto in the past has been "pay up and look pleasant," and we have acted up to it. At the last general election we returned every member pledged to support Mr. Seddon, and in every way we have proved ourselves so subservient that the Premier no doubt thinks he is quite safe in the future so far as Canterbury is concerned. There is no need, he holds, to trouble about us. There are other districts, however, where his influence is rapidly reaching the vanishing point. Hence the loan. A lavish expenditure of borrowed money may perhaps bring some of the more venal iof these constituencies into line again. Canterbury is to have the privilege of paying for these works. Ministers seem to look upon Canterbury much as sharpers regard a stupid, goodnatured gaping country fellow with his pockets fall of money at a fair. They dip into our pockets with just as little ceremony, only they expect us to bo grateful to them into the bargain. The sharpers do not go so far as that— they are quite satisfied if they escape chastisement from their victim if he should happen to find them out