Hawke's Bay Herald. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1861. THE WELLINGTON DEBT.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 4, Issue 191, 18 May 1861, Page 3

Hawke's Bay Herald. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1861. THE WELLINGTON DEBT.

The public of this provinces . are not generally well acquainted with the particulars of the Wellington Debt, and the grounds upon which the "Wellington Government seek to lay this burden upon us. ; *They are aware that there is a larger debt from which this province derived little or no benefit; but very vague notions, are entertained by many electors as to its origin," and some few even seem to suppose that we cannot disclaim our liability in, eqnitv without incurring a charge of 'rep udaation in the sense in which that term is commonly used. It is not surprising, that; so many of the electors are iapejcfecil^-ia* ;

'formed, seeing that this town may he said to have grown up since separation was^accomplished, and. that the country popiila-' tion has also vastly increased, whilst the debt, and all the transactions connected with it, date from a period antecedent to .separation. A hrief summary of those transactions, with a short account of the . Wellington Debt, and the claims made on this province on account of it, will doubtless be read with interest by many of the more recent settlers here; for it must be observed that the settler of to-day or yesterday has as much interest in defending Hawke's Bay from the demands of Wellington "as the pioneers of the settlement, "because the debt, if fixed upon our revenues, will be a heavy burden on them for many years to come. Mr. FitzGerald, the late member for Hawke's Bay in the General Assembly, republished in Auckland, in the form of a pamphlet, the proceedings of the Ahuriri Settlers' Association, which ended in separation ; but this pamphlet, • which was intended principally for the members of the General Assembly, has probably been read by few of the settlers of this province ; and the object of .the present paper is to give an historical j summary, in a more condensed form, adapted to the columns of a newspaper. The settlement of the Ahuriri district commenced as far back -as 1852. Previous to that date there were a few white traders and missionaries , settled in the present province, and there were several whaling stations. With these exceptions, the pioneers of the settlement were the sheep farmers, whose stations gradually extended from the Wairarapa upwards, until they reached Hawke's Bay. The first sale of town land in Napier took place in April, 1855, at which date the town did not contain above half a: dozen houses. The greater part of Seinde Island was not opened for sale until February of the succeeding year. Until 1856 Ahuriri had no j separate representation, either in the Provincial Council of Wellington or in the General Assembly. It formed a sort of out station of an electoral district, some two hundred miles long, known as " Wai- ~ rarapa and Hawke's Bay," which returned two members to the Wellington Provincial Council, and one to the House of Repre- . sentatives. The elections took place at Castle Point, about one hundred miles from Napier, and the election business was generally over before the Hawke's Bay electors heard anything about it, who were ■ thus saved all trouble in the management of their political affairs". ' In the first settlement of the district, the population being almost exclusively sheep farmers and those in their employ, it is not surprising that political questions did not excite much - interest at this distant out-post. The pi- . bne'ers had no slight task in forming their home-steads, and overcoming all the diffi- : culties incident to the first settlement of a " •wilderness ; and those who happen to have travelled about amongst them in the early ...days, will not wonder that politics found -no place in a community who had to build ' their own houses, fence their lands, grind their wheat, bake their bread, and in fact to do every thing for themselves. It wasnot, therefore, until some .of the first difficulties were surmounted, and the evils of neglect and mis-government began to be experienced, that the inhabitants of Hawke's Bay first claimed a right to a political existence. Even when it was partially recognized that we were not receiving from the Wellington Government that amount of consideration which the importance of this young settlement entitled it to, the scattered nature of the population, and the want of a newspaper were practical difficulties to be overcome before our, claims could be urged with any pros- : pect of success. The latter. want was partially supplied in 1855 by one of the settlers establishing a regular correspon- . dence with the Wellington Spectator, in •which t;he rights and the wrongs of Ahuriri were. periodically ventilated ; and this correspondence was superseded by the establishment of the Hawke's Bay Herald in •September^ 1857. ~ The formation, in January, 1857, of the Ahuriri Settlers' Association, with a working committee, was intended to watch the interests? of the Ahuriri settlers,, and to urge their claims upon "the! -Wellington Government. This association continued in active operation until, by th« finals separation in October, 1858, , it ;gave place to a Provincial Government ;pf -'Hawk's ßay. ;3Prp.^6us to the formation of the Settlers' 1 Asso<s^|ioni ihe electoral district of Wajra'rapa ancl?Bawke's BaSrhad been divided 'fqr -provincial elections, atfd each diVisio|n "became entitled to* return ' two 'members "id

the Wellington Provincial Council. At the first election, only one suitable local representative could be found, and he failed to attend the sitting. The other seat was filled by the election of a Wellington resident. It would occupy too much space to enter into any account of the early proceedings of the Provincial Government of Wellington. Scarcely was that government launched into existence, when it began to borrow money ; the first loan of £50,000 was sanctioned by the 6th Act of its first session. The interest was to be 6 per cent, per annum, but as the money did not come in freely at that rate, a subsequent Act raised the maximum rate to 8 percent. A small portion only was raised in 1854-5, the balance being taken by Messrs. Gladstone & Co., of London, in 1856. This loan was to be a first charge on the ordinary and territorial revenue of the then Province of Wellington, and no period was fixed for its re-payment. . The plan of raising money by loans was found so agreeable, that very soon- (1856) a second £50,000, redeemable in ten years, was authorised by the Provincial Council, and this was followed in the very same session by a third Loan Act for £25,000. What Provincial Government would not be popular at head-quarters which had a round sum of £125,000 to expend amongst its supporters. It was not so, however, at a distance, and the settlers of Hawke's Bay became thoroughly alarmed at these large Loan Acts, which were intended to forestal the land revenue of this and other out-settlements, for the benefit of Wellington and Wanganui. Moreover, this district was then yielding to the Wellington Treasury a very considerable sum from the sales of land, only a small portion of which was expended within the district. Petition after petition was sent to Wellington (addressed to' the Superintendent, or the Provincial Council), praying that this district might not be saddled with the debt, except so far as the money should be expended tor its benefit. The Settlers' Association was an active body ; its committee meetings were regularly held, and well attended. But all petitions and remonstrances were treated with contempt by the Wellington Government — then in the pride of .its borrowed wealth — and the settlers of Hawkes' Bdy were thus driven, by neglect and injustice, to seek for total separation from Wellington, as the only means of averting the financial embarrassments which they foresaw must result from the -wasteful extravagance with which both the revenue and the credit of the district were being sv.aliowed up by the Provincial Government. The Settlers' Association was suggested at a large public meeting of settlers held at Napier, on the 31st December, 1856. At this meeting a number of resolutions were passed, for the purpose of bringing before both the General and Provincial Governments various grievances of which the settlers complained. One of them, Resolution 8, had reference to the first loan of £50,000 then raised, and was as follows : — Mr. Q-ollan proposed, and Mr. Alexander seconded, — 8. That in reference to the expenditure of the loan of £50,000 lately obtained by the Provincial Government, our representatives in council be requested to obtain from the government a guarantee that the future land revenue and resources of these districts should be chargeable oniy with so much of the above sum as may be actually expended within the district in immigration, or useful public works, amongst which should not be included at present a dray road to Wairarapa. The 9th resolution suggested that a Board of Works should be appointed to manage the Public works in this district, (as separation w^l at that time only vaguely hinted at as a last resource.) The Bth resolution was forwarded to Mr. Duncan of Wellington, who was our only representative then in his place in the council ; it was presented by him to the council, but was treated with contemptuous neglect, which was scarcely to be wondered at when Wellington town alone had twelve members in the council, whilst Hawke's Bay. had but two. The Ahuriri Settlers' Association then forwarded a formal petition, which was received and presented only four days before the close of the fourth session. The members of the Wellington Orovernment ridiculed the petition, and tried to prevent its being printed, but in this they were outvoted. At the time of its presentation the first loan, although raised, was not spent. The petition is too long to reprint in full ; it will be sufficient to extract those parts which bear on the loan and expenditure of the revenue. The third clause as follows:— • ■„ ■ We would also in reference to the 7th and Bth resolutions passed at the public meeting,' and

copies of which hare been laid on the Council table, earnestly petition your honourable Council to affirm by a vote the positions laid down in these resolutions, and to declare that the revenue to be derived in future from the sales of land, within the limits of the Ahwriri districts s7wuld be spent wholly within the said districts, and be devoted to purchasing land from tlie natives, surveys, , roads, or other works giving an increased value to the land, and in direct immigration, to Napier — and " that the future land revenue and resources of fliese districts should be chargeable only with so much of any loans as may be actually expended within them, in immigration or useful public works, amongst which, should not be included at present a dray road to the Wairarapa." The petition then pointed out that the district of Ahuriri was naturally adapted to be independent of Wellington, and was only prevented from being made an original province by Sir G. Grey, by the accident of its being at that time unsettled by an European population. It also pointed out that of about £50,000 spent on p~ublic works in the whole province only £242 (!) had been spent in Ahuriri, and that of £150,000 (revenue and loans) then stated by the Superintendent of Wellington to be available for public works and immigration, only £5000 was appropriated to this place, although the produce of the land sales for the-same period was estimated at £20,000. The petition then remonstrated against a proposed dray road through the 70 mile bush as a great waste of money, a bridle path only being required. After estimating the customs revenue-derived from Hawke's Bay, it continued, — We believe that we already bear a fair share in the expenses of Government without touching the land fund directly or indirectly ; and as we are not anxious to dissolve at present our existing connexion with Wellington, if the guarantee petitioned for is granted, but are only desirous to secure the due expenditure within the district on useful objects of money derived from the land of the district, and to guard against our being burthened in future with either principal or interest of loans from which we should receive no benefit, we would again earnestly entreat your honourable Council to grant the prayer of our petition. The petition was signed on behalf of the committee by our present Superintendent Capt. Carter, as Chairman of the Settlers' .Association. The settlers, nothing daunted by the neglect of their remonstrances and the contemptuous treatment of their petition, (which Mr. Fox styled " the petition of a Capt. Carter who happened to be a J.P.") at the next meeting resolved, — . That as the Petition dated 2nd February, from the Committee to the Speaker and Members of the Provincial Council, arrived too late for any action to be taken by R. J. Duncan, Esq., M. P.C., on it before the Council broke up, the following memorial from the Committee be transmitted to his Honor the Superintendent on the subjects of 7th and Sbh resolutions referred to in it, in the hope of receiving a specific reply, on the important subjects involved in them, at his earliest convenience. This petition was of similar purport to the former ; it stated that the memorialists, — Are particularly anxious on these points, from observing that in the late session of Council, to the former loan of £50,000 has been added other loans of £50,000 and £25,000 respectively, making in all £125,000 as a debt on the Province, involving the payment of £10,000 per annum for interest alone. They notice also that with the additional loan of £25,000, the sum of 150,000 stated by your Honor at the opening of the last Session of the Council to be available for public works and. undertakings, will now be increased to £175,000, and that of this immense sum but £5300 is proposed to be expended in useful works for the benefit of the Ahuriri 3ettlera, which they submit is another reason for seeking without delay the guarantees asked for. The memorial from which this is extracted was presented to the Superintendent on his visiting Napier on the 22nd April, 1857, with an address. His Honor gave a verbal reply, which he promised to commit to writing and forward on InVreturn to Wellington, but he delayed doing so for nearly two months. In the interim a short session of the Provincial Council took place in consequence of the disallowance of some of their acts by the Governor. The Settlers' Association, ever alive to the interests of this district, again petitioned against our lands being burdened with the Wellington debt, unless a proportionate expenditure was made within the district. The council only sat for two days, and owing to the infrequency of communication at that time between Wellington and Napier, the petition reached Wellington after its close. The Association at the same meeting Cist June, 1857) also forwarded a petition to the -Governor, in which the memorialists after expressing their satisfaction at the disallowance of one of the Wellington Loan Acts, and afcer alluding to the petitions which had been sent to Wellington, and their treatment, continued thus : — That your memorialists 'have viewed with great alarm the late Actß of the Provincial Council of this Province in the Loan Acts successively passed for raising an aggregate sum of £125,0*00, but

which Bum, in the opinion of your memorialists, is not proposed to be expended in a fair manner, nor in any way calculated to promote the interests of the entire Province ; only a very small proportion (about four per cent.) of the entire sum is proposed to be expended in useful works within this district, which contains the most valuable part of the waste lands of the present province of. Wellington, on the security of which the said loans are to be raised. That the district of Ahuriri has but two representatives in the present Provincial Council, whilst the town of Wellington alone supplies twelve members ; and your memorialists therefore are justly alarmed lest the entire revenue of thi3 dis « trict should be forestalled and expended in other parts of the province, whereby this district, if it should hereafter be erected into a separate province, will be deprived of that most important branch of revenue. The petitioners then prayed that His Excellency would disallow any future Wellington Aots for any loan, — Unless the same shall be expended within this district to the full amount for which the lands in this district may be pledged as security. On the 16th June, 1857, the association received Dr. Featherston's long promised written reply to the deputation of 22nd of April. This document was printed and extensively circulated in the Province of Wellington, before a single copy reached Hawke's Bay. It was cleverly drawn up, and was well calculated to delude a casual reader, and to mystify him in a labyrinth of figures ; but it would not bear the critical dissection of the settlers' committee. The great length of the document will preclude even an abstract of it in this place. The Superintendent admitted the fundamental claim of the settlers, " that each district was entitled to its fair proportion of the public expenditure, and to 'have ex-' pended within it, after deducting its contribution to the expenses of the government, the whole of its own revenue" ; and he then quoted figures for the purpose of shewing that the district was actually in debt to the rest of the province, and, on that assumption, argued that he had cut away the foundation of all our petitions and remonstrances. He stated that, in his opinion, " for years to come, the territorial revenue of the province would be mainly derived from lands in Wanganui, Rangitikei, Wairarapa, and districts immediately adjacent to Wellington." Again — " He regarded the whole loan as such a mere bagatelle, that he would undertake, on six months' notice, to pay off the whole amount, and leave a large balance in the Treasury, by putting some of the runs up to auction, at five shillings an acre," — a - threat intended to frighten the holders of the said runs into submission to his poliqy. So plausible did the Superintendent's statement appear, and so well was it backed up with figures, that some of the settlers were almost led to imagine that they had been deluded, and that we were really a most ungrateful community, who did not deserve to have a paternal government in Wellington to take care of our spare cash. The committee of the association were, however, too old birds to be caught by such chaff. The Spectator correspondent immediately forwarded a refutation of some of the most easily detected errors and misstatements, and the association, at its next meeting, appointed "a sub-committee to examine and report upon the, Superintendent's document. This report was embodied in a reply forwarded by the committee to the Superintendent, August 3rd, 1857. The Superintendent had debited Hawke's Bay with upwards of £19,000 in excess of the revenue derived from it ; but on examination, his figures proved to be so totally erroneous, that the credit side was found to be about £25,700 instead of £9305, and the debit side only £23,712, (including purchase of native land) instead of £28,682, thus leaving a balance of some £2000 in favour of Hawke's Bay. In addition to this, it was discovered that His Honor had taken credit on behalf of Wellington for upwards of £18,000 paid for native lands, which was really paid by the General Government (before the waste lands were handed over to the province) out of the General Revenue of the colony, and of which sum, as the committee pointed out, there was reason to believe Nelson; and Canterbury each contributed more than Wellington. It appeared, therefore, at that date, that Hawke's Bay had contributed about £20,000lhore than it had received from the province. This refutation by the association of the Superintendent's statements was printed in Auckland, and extensively circulated through the colony. It was never answered by the Wellington Government, who probably thought the less publicity given to it the better. Towards the end of 1857, Messrs. Gollan and Fitz Gerald, the association candidates, were returned, by a large majority, as members for Hawke's Bay in the Wei-

lington Council. Two members to a council of thirty. On the arrival of these gentlemen* at Wellington, they found two parties contending for provincial power — the Featherston party and the Radical Reformers, who seemed, however, united. on one point, to get all the revenue they could from Hawke's Bay for the benefit of Wellington ; and an outcry was raised by the Reformers against the run-holders, which had th"c effect of alienating nearly all the small party in Ahuriri who had hitherto submitted quietly to the exactions of the Provincial Government, and refused to join the Settlers' Association. These internal feuds were the cause of most of the Wellington members absenting themselves from the House of Representatives in 1858, when the " New Provinces Act " was passed. A petition to each House of Assembly had been sent by the Settlers' Association, praying for separation from Wellington, as the only means of preventing further injustice to Hawke's Bay ; and on*the passing of the Act, no time was lost by the settlers in availing themselves of its provisions, and accordingly Hawke's Bay became" a New Province on the first day of November, 1858. The 15th Clause of the New Provinces Act enacts as follows-: — 15. Every Province established under this Act shall contribute from its Revenues to the payment of the Interest and Sinking Fund, on such part of the Loan raised under the Act of Assembly intituled "The Now Zealand Loan Act, 1856," as shall be a special charge upon the Revenues of the Province of which such District shall have formed a part, and also to the payment of the interest on the amount, at the time of the establishment of such new Province, of the Permanent Debt of such original Province, rateably, according to the proportion which the annual aggregate of the ■sums payable to the Treasurer of such new Province under the Acts of Assembly, respectively intituled "The Surplus Revenues Act, 1858," and *' The Land Revenue Appropriation Act, 1558," shall bear to the annual aggregate of the sums payable under the same Acts to the Treasurer of such original Province, the year being reckoned as commencing on the first day of July. " The first loan referred to in this clause, was a. General Government Loan of .£500,000, raised for extinguishing the native title, paying off the New Zealand Company's claims, and other purposes. Of £180,000 devoted to the former purpose, £54,000 was allotted to Wellington, and oi this sum Hawke's Bay received a liberal share from the General Government ; therefore, as far as this loan is concerned, it would not be reasonable to deny the liability of this province. The part of the loan devoted to payment of the New Zealand Company was, by arrangement, made chargeable upon the provinces in the -.Middle Island, and, therefore, does not come into the present calculation. The real question at issue, is in reference to the Wellington Provincial Debt. Now, the 15th clause of the New Provinces Act, already quoted, makes this province liable for a proportion of ,the interest of the permanent debt of the Province of Wellington, at the date of the separation of Hawke's Bay. This seems, at first sight, simple enough, and a casual observer would be likely to agree with Mr. Stark, the member who was elected for Napier District, that the question was finally settled, and that there was no means of reopening the subject to urge an equitable claim on the part of Hawke's Bay. Several questions have, however, been raised, and we find Lord Carnarvon (acting as Secretary for the Colonies) suggesting points lor future consideration of the Colonial Legislature, on a proposed re-adjust-ment of the debt question ; '%id his lord - ship points out the very distinction upon which the Hawke's Bay settlers rest their claim. That *« whatever may be the equitable rights inter se of the old and new provinces (a quesHon which appears to depend greatly on the.mode in which the loan was expended), it is clear that the creditor who lent his money on security which the borrower had at the time of the contract a right to pledge, ought not to be deprived of any part of that security by any subsequent Act of the General or Provincial Legislature." Messrs. Gladstone, who lent part of the money, petitioned against the Act on the ground that their security was lessened by it. Now, the settlers of Hawke's Bay do not wish to " repudiate " Messrs. Gladstone's claim, but they say, let it first be shewn that Wellington is unable to satisfy its 'creditors. In 1857 Dr. Featherston regarded the whole debt as 'mere bagatelle.' Will he now plead that Wellington is unable to pay this "mere bagatelle" which was appropriated to its exclusive use? Will he appear in ', the ~ Assembly and plead m forma pauperis 1 If not, then we dispose of, the repudiation argument, and the question

becomes one for consideration of *l the equitable rights inter se of the old and new province." According to the New Provinces Act the interest of the permanent debt of .the old province at the time of separation is all that is chargeable proportionally on the new province. Now the permanent debt was a loan of £50,000, and the total sum raised at that date amounted to £75,000, but the Superintendent of Wellington not only claims for the whole of the two loans of £50,000 each, allowed, but also for the £25,000 disallowed, on the ground that contracts had been entered into, which had to be met from other sources ; and he also adds a temporary debt to the savings' bank of £3,600, redeemable at seven days notice. It will be the duty of the members for this province to criticise, most carefully, the claims made on behalf of Wellington, for whenever the question is brought forward, it is probable that Dr. Featherston will repeat the old ruse of presenting a formidable array of figures and plausible statements, which it will be necessary promptly to sift and refute ; because if our claim for total exemption should be disallowed, there will still be a battle before a settlement can be arranged as to the amount which Wellington shall be allowed to filch from Hawke's Bay. Those settlers who treat this question as of secondary importance, should learn that the sum claimed as interest by the Wellington Government exceeds the amount of Customs revenue payable into our Provincial coffers ; and even after reducing the claim within the limits apparently intended by the New Provinces Act, it would amount to a sum not very far short of the whole Provincial share of the Customs revenue collected in this Province. Already a considerable part of the Custom's duties are- paid in Wellington or Auckland — a dead loss to the Province. Shall we submit without a murmur to the absorbtion of a sum nearly equal to the remainder? Shall every article consumed in Hawke's Bay pay a tax, only to minister to the wasteful extravagance of another Province — which we of Hawke's Bay so loudly protested against — whilst that other Province is still able to bear the penalty of its own folly ?