THE SALE OF THE PLAINS AND THE TARANAKI HARBOR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 77, 5 January 1881, Page 4

THE SALE OF THE PLAINS AND THE TARANAKI HARBOR.

The Otago Witness, in a leading article on the subject, concludes thus : .—". — " Once more we ask. the question, is the Taranaki Harbor Board to get its fourth of the price of these lands, which have cost the colony so much to acquire from the natives ? We hope the Premier or the first Minister who speaks will enlighten us on this point ; and if, as we have every reason to believe, the law as it stands does give this immense endowment to Taranaki — an endowment out of all proportion to the importance of the place — we should like further to know how long it is to go on. Otago members ought to insist on a clear understanding on this point, as it is a monstrous absurdity that Taranaki should be pampered in this way at the expense of the rest of the colony, while all the time the Colonial Treasurer, even with an obnoxious property tax, cannot make both ends meet. "We shall be extremely glad to learn that we have not drawn a correct inference from the facts before us, and that the revenue derivable from the Waimate Plains will be treated as special revenue, and be applied in liquidation of a small part of the defence expenditure, the cost of which has from year to yeai been defrayed by a long-suffering people."