AUCKLAND v. WELLINGTON.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIV, Issue 997, 16 January 1857, Page 4

AUCKLAND v. WELLINGTON.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, 15th Dec , 1856. Sir,— l read in the ' New-Zealander of the 19*h November, a letter from Mr. Walter Brodie, M.H.R. for the Suburbs of Auckland, which appears to me to require some comment. The letter is in reply to the articles recently published in the ' Independent,' which are generally attributed to Mr. Pox. Those articles contain statements unfounded on fact, and calculated to decry Auckland and Nelson unjustly, in comparison with Wellington. They have thus the effect of perpetuating those feelings ot jealousy and irritation between the three Provinces, whicli have caused the combination of Auckland and Nelson against the removal of the hpnt of Government to Wellington. So long as such a combination la^ts we have no chance oi obtaining that desiiable object. Auckland and Nelson together muster lb vo'es out of the whole 3(5 ; so that it would requhe the Ne.v Plymouth, Wellington, Canterbury, and Otago members to be unanimous, and steady at their po*ts, even to get an equal division, and thf* Speaker's casting vote. The unfounded calumnies and virulent sneers against Auckland and Nelson, which are so continually vomited out of the newspapei of" the three F 's," only confirm my long formed opinion that they dv not desirp the General Assembly or General Government to sit at Wellington. It seems as though they aimed at keeping up continual irritation, in order to prov ke unmitigated hostility on the part of Auckland and Nelson. In combination with the notorious " Otago compart," it looks as if they would prefer to keep the Seat of Government away from Wellington, provided that Mr. Fox might enjoy the chief direction of affairs dt Auckland. On the other hand, Mr Brodie appears to me to have been provoked into ret.rts upon Wellington and the Southern Provinces, which — because in many cases equally unfound"d on fact—become calumnies on the five Provinces Which are not at the northern end of the colony.

"While I wish to point out how ill the patty of the ' Independent ' serves the cause of removing t^o Seat > of Government hither by calumniating Auckland 1 ' also desire to show that Mr Brodie has calumniated the rest ot New Zealand, nnd» especially Wellington. I can understand that, while snfe in-tne possession of the Seat of Govern nent, and of the votes ot half the House in Auckland and Nelson members alone, such a course in an Auckland member may, however unset upulous. be lor ihe present successful in miiintaining possession by means of the ill-feeling engendered. But it appears to u.e to be the duty of every real friend of Wellington ' to refine the calumnies levelled at it, by temperate and 1 reasonable arguments instead of repeating falsehoods a< O'U Auckland or NeNon. Mr. Brodie begins with placing a few extracts from the writings, attributed to Mr. Fox, side by side with his own replies, as follows : — •• Had these extracts remained merely among the sis f Provinces of New Zealand, of course we would have | known the value of them ; but when I find them copied into the Sydney press, I consider it high time to make \ a few comment* upon them, co as to prove to those liv- ' ing in our neighbouring colonies what reliance they may in future place in any remarks from Mr Fox's as- ' sertions at public meetings, or even from his onw pen ; although they may ha\e been ' a specimen of forensic eloquence, winding up the whole with some admirable j remarks and cases on the subject of circumstantial evidence on poisoning.' " l In Mr. Fox's remarks, he What would Wellington states, "of all the Provinces have done had it not been in New Zealand, the two for our Auckland cash exr which are most absolutely de tracted from our Treasury i pendent on their Customs by Sir G. Grey, who did his . Revenue are Auckland and utmost to ruin this Province : Nelson. Strip them of this, in favour of Wellington ? wnat have they to fall back which moneys purchased the , upon"? Neither of them has whole bf the Ahuriri dis>dlmost an acre of Waste Land tricts, and some of their best foi sale at present, or likely to runs, which are now all taken command a market for a great up as sheep or cattle runs. , length of time." Wellington may have a tenth part of 3,000,000 of acres, a verj few acres of which have heen surveyed Their acreage, I presume, is like some of their old land claims. A man who thought he had 100,000, only had 10,000 acres. By the 'Gazette ' of this date, it appears we have now in this Province " 263,736 acres of land at present available for sale,'' and that in about five months we will have in reality another 500,000 acies of the finest lands, none of your " perpendicular frontages,' 1 the same as at Wellington, 6'oo to 800 feet straight up and down solid rotk. Mr. Foks tales that "Auck- Has not Wellington been land has been cut down to cut down m the same nian-three-eighths of her Customs, ncr? Yes, &c." " Auckland is trying to We have raised in a short raise £70,000 ; but, according time £35,000 ; and in place to our latest advices, had, of not being able to raise the after some months adveitis- remaining £35, 000, tenders ing, only succeeded in raising have been received from £15,000, &C' Sydney to take up £105,000 if required. "But how Auckland and Auckland without the asNelson arc to fight through assistance of Nelson, and their impending difficulty it vice versa, can fight through would require a head longer," these "impending diffi&c, &c, to divine. culties" without the assistance of Mr. Foy or the remaining two F.s; for I find, ' in being a 1 irge dealer in ammunition, that Double F is a most inferior description of powder. " And, therefore, we con- Sir, uught not a scaffolding gratulate them on getting out to be erected in Wellington? ofthctta) of their own «sti uc- The honourable member ture, before the scaffoWling is Mt. Fox, (I presume I mii't pulled down, and the building call him such) if 1 mistake follows, with a run." not, called the Auckland ho» members " hounds,'* one day in our "Bellamy's " If these hounds, as he termed them, are hounds. they certainly (fox hunting speaking*) have "run "him "to eaith, 1 ' where many a reynard has heen driven: and these very " hounds," as he terms them, will very soon have hisbiush; ergo the consequent-is. " Sir, I will now make a few remaiks upon that unprincipled and unmanly attack of Mr. Fox on our Province since his lecture, which was regarded as the most successful of the season, although it was upon "poisoning." After the manly, straightforward, and friendly inception which this individual (Mr Fox) received at our hands while here at the last meeting ot the Geneial Assembly, more especially after the abuse he wrote against this Piovin.e in his little pamphlet, I little thought he would again have \uitten so violently and so untruthfully against us." Mr. Brodie is right in stating that the want of sur veys, and the privileged occupation of most of the land bought fiom the natives in this Province by the runholders, leaves but a small portion of the 3,000,000 acie3 open to profitable purchase by permanent settleis. But the remedy is in the hands of the people of this Province ; and I think they will not be long in applying it. There is as much land of excellent quality available though not open, for sale in this Piovince, as in Auckland, and no more of it here than there, con • sists of "perpendicular frontages 600 or SOO ieet straight up-and-down solid rock." Mi. Brodie very correctly answers the charge against Auckland of not being able to borrow money. Both Provinces have been able to do so. Unfortunately, the public in this Province is still kept in ignorance of the terms on which, and agencies by which, laige loans have i been laistd m England and New South Wales by the treble F. Government. Mi Urodie goes on to say :—: — I " One would suppose that Mest-rs. Fox, Featherston, and Fitzherbert thought that Auckland was dependent i on its poit'on ot the Customs lievenue, and that Wellington ought to be the seat of Government, with Fox the prime minister and Attorney General, Featherston the Colonial Treasurer, and last, but not least, Fitz the Colonial Secretary. Why, Sir, a " match " would soon be found for them, and they would blow up as treble F gunpowder — which of course would end in smoke. Two of the F's are certainly clever men, but lately they have failed conscientiously to make use of their abilities \\ c will suppose (which is mere imagination) the house of the General Assembly was built in Wellington; why, Sir, at one of its meetings there might be such a motion before the House, or perhaps under it (as has untbrtunately happened more than onre and destroyed more than half that little town) which no Speaker could prevent or allay This may be severe, Mr. Editor, but when this Province is slandered and written about, with an intention to prevent Settleis fiom coming among us, it is high time that the fiaud and deceit should be made public by some of us which Mr. Fox and his party are endeavouring to complete. Where arc the merchants or capitalis,ts who would build a decent stone or brick house at Wellington, as we have here ? Why, no one possessed of common sense would erect their buildings upon a " sand " Earthquakes, I regret to state are very prevalent at Wellington and in its district; but, fortunately, heie they have worked themselves out." This attempt to depreciate "Wellington is commonly us<>d by the least reasonable of the Auckland calumniators. Wellington has suffered twice in sixteen years from severe shocks of earthquake ; but it may be doubted whether more good than harm, on the whole, has not been done thereby. Much land, formeily unavailable, has been upraised and made fit foi use, by the last one in 1855 ; including, especially, land all round the haibour front, and the beach as far as the Wairarapa, which will probably soon afford a good level road to that fine plain, and the succeeding ones towards Ahuriri. Bri<k and stone aie not the only materials of which substantial houses can be built : and Mr. Brodie would, I think, acknowledge his mistake could he «cc the numerous, laige, handsome, and commodious buildings of iron and wood w hich have been erected since the shock ot January, 1855. Nor should the Aucklandera "crow before they are out of the wood." Although such an event would be deeply to be deplored, the now closed volcanoes which are scattered in such numbers all about the immediate neighbourhood of Auckland, might yet produce a convulsion of naluie theie, sufficii ntly disastrous to excite our sjmpathy for our Auckland fellow -colonists, rather than to induce us to glory in their misfortunes. Mr Biodie continues — 'fNow, Sir, with regard to the prosperity of Auckland versus Wellington. I must make a few remarks We have had, to my knowledge, 57 works published relative to New Zealand, 41 of which have been against this Province (Auckland): and of the whole, I am in possession of 44. We have been abused in this Pro - < vince by 41 of these beautiful little works or pamphlets, either by Governor Grey, the New Zealand Land Com- i pany, or the Canterbury Association ; but sifter all this ] abuse and underhand printing, where are we I In the i

first place, we have the William Denny steamer, and the Wonga Wonga local hteamer ; as to the Zingari, I say nothing about her, us I consider her (as a boat) a displace to the Gencial Government. I believe, from I statistical returns, that the exportb from this Province in 1855 came to withm a tew thousands of all the five Southern settlements put together, although we export but little wool compared with our Southern friends, but we have an export heie which no sum of money of our Southerjifriends could manufacture— Piovidence has given it to this Province The Natives—who consist of about 70,000, and no' 100,000, as many believe—are now going into sheep farming to a great extent; and I have no doubt that in a few years our exports from wool alone will be far more than all the other five Provinces. Our revenue in this Province (Auckland) in 1855 was within a few thousands of all the other five Piovinces put together (see statistical returns) Our Native shipping is rather more than all the other five Provinces put together. Auckland's registered shipping, in 1855, was near upon 7000 tons, independent of the Native vessels. We have in this Province 7 steam mills and 53 water mills —most of which belong to the natives. Our c iltivated lands are near upon 100,000 acres, againstabout 5,000 acres in the five Southern Provinces. Our banking accounts here, I presume, are about five times those of all the five Southern settlements. Our electoral roll contains about 5,500 against less than that number among all the five Southern Provinces. In native cultivation there are about 100,000 acres of wheat alone; and there are raised by them this year about 500,000 bu&hels, besides other crops. Sir, these are the men and their families who are the back-bone of this Province, and well may we be proud of them, although the New Zealand Company and the Canterbury Association tried their utmost to prevent settlers from coming here, for fear of being 'eaten up.' '' Although I have not the statistics at hand, yet I confidently assert that this setting-up of Auckland as equal or superior to "the other five Provinces put together,'' is altogether exaggerated and ridiculous. During the great and extraordinary demand for food in Australia, occurring while a large population was. pouring into it, none of which devoted itself to cultivating the soil, no doubt the native population of the Northernmost Province contributed J extensively to the exports of Auckland, in wheat and other corn, potatoes and other vegetables, pork, butter, &c. j The Auckland people, much as they deserve credit fcr their spirit in purchasing half of the William Denny steamer, have not got the whole of her, as Mr. Brodie would lead us to beli ye. I have heard great doubts 1 .tely as to whether either the William Denny or the Wonga Wonga is paying its expenses now that the trade has ceased. Without argning over the statistics of 1855, which I have not at hand, I would lefcr Mr. Brodie to those published in the 'New Zealand Government Gazette* of the 28th November last. There he will find the following figures for the first quarter of the year : — 1

This return—why, I know not—omits to mention the exports or imports of New Plymouth, or of either of the three ports of the Province of Wellington. From the 'Wellington Provincial Gazette,' I find that the exports for the same quarter were as follows :—: —

Thus the exportb of Wellington for the first quarter of the present year were only one-fifteenth less than those of Auckland ; and the total exports of the four Southern Provinces, without New Plymouth, were £80,659 ; or, in proportion to those of Auckland, as 81 to 35. It is further worthy of remark, that of these Southern exports £75,402, or fifteen-sixteenths, consisted of wool, for which there is a steady European market, and the production of wh'ch increases in very rapid progression, while considerably more than a quarter of the Auckland exports contested of potatoes, for which there is but a fluctuating market in Australia, now affotding no remunerative price. But Mr. Brrdie sayb that the Northern natives, "consisting of about 70,000, are going into shoepfarming to a great extent; and he has no doubt th«t in a few years the exports of Auckland from, wool alone will be far more than all the othei live p\ovinces !" Is he ay. are that four of those five —that is, all but New Plymouth—already possess about 700,000 sheep as a start; and that, whether imported by the 00 000 natives, oi by one man, it will cost something hke £700,000 to get an equal number into Auckland. Even if the 60,000 natives were to shear each other, and clip the fleeces of the white men into the bargain, I have gre t doubts whethei there is yet land enough in a fit state, as to natural or artificial herbage, to produce the wool now grown in the four Southernmost Provinces. In order to equal the Southern export of wool, Auckland must get an equal number of sheep, and an equal quantity of gras.s to depasture them on. 700,000 sheep do not require 60,000 people, whether white or blown, to tend them: 700 shepherds, and perhaps as many more of owners, hutkuepeis, and bullock drivers together, would amply suffice for that work, with a few hundred extra hands at shearing time. I have examined that vaunt of Auckland by Mr. Brodie, to show what appears to me its absurdity. Without disputing his statements as to the comparative number of ships an.l mills belonging to Auckland and to the five other Piovinces, I must be allowed to doubt whether the natives have anything like 100,000 acresin wheat in the Province of Auckland. If they have, I don't know what they will do with the crop ; since I saw a calculation in the -South Australian Register' last year, showing that the whole consumption of South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and New South Wales would be about 710,000 quarteis, while the production of those four colonies would probably reach 900,000 quarters—leaving a large .surplus after providing seed for this year. Where are the natives to sell their 500,000 bushels this year, or the 300,000 quarters, which would be but a moderate New Zealand crop on the 100,000 acres said to be sown in wheat alone ? Mr. Brodie has piobably made some miscalculation, when he speaks of "the banking accounts (of Auckland) being five times as much as those of the Southern Pro vinces." It so, the Union Bank of Australia would hardly have built its largest and most expensive office iv Wellington, or ha\e established two branches in Canterbury, and one each at Nelson and Otago. Auckland, Nelson, and Wellington each possesses large natural advantages. Neither of them will advance by praising itself at the expense of the others. A noble emulation should either induce them all to strive which can, under the free institutions common to all, contribute most to the progress of the colony by the development of those advantages. In all thiee, I believe that economy and openness in the Government, and the encouragement ot steady immigration by means of " unlocking the lands," are the chief means at our command. Which of the three will most effectually bring those means into practice ? I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, E. JERNIVGHAM WAKEriELD

Auckland (all ports) . NeUon Lyttelton Otago Imports. 80.350 6 6 20,915 0 0 21,431 4 1 22,335 14 0 .bxporf 34,088 13,491 22 609 12,871 fs. 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Wellington 26,9il 5 10 Ahuriri 4,695 13 6 Wanganui 51 0 0 Total Wellington £31,687 15 4