The Star. (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1652, 16 June 1887, Page 2

The Star. (PUBLISHED DAILY.)

THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1887.

MR. McGUIRE'S SCHEME.

It will be remembered that in his speech at New Plymouth, Mr. McGuire urged that 213,000 acres of the Crown lands within the Provincial District of Taranaki had been withdrawn from sale, either as Native Reserves, deferred payment holdings, or as perpetual leasehold, and that the Harbor Board had lost .£186,000 by tLat withdrawal. So far as the 40,000 acres of deferred payment land is concerned, one-fourth of the instalments has been regularly paid to the harbor fund. One-fourth of the interest paid by selectors who have capitalised has also been paid to the Harbor Board. Although there has been and will be some delay in respect to the final payments, and some of the deferred paymentland will certainly become perpetual lease, it is incorrect to assume, as Mr. McGuire contended, that the whole of the 'deferred payment moneys have been withheld from the Harbor Board. i We do not know the total sum paid as deferred payment money, but in one year the Waimate Road Board spent nearly ,£IO,OOO, most of which was thirds of deferred payment instalments, thus representing ,£30,000 paid to the Government in one year. Of this sum, £7,500 would be paid to the Harbor Board ; for none of which was credit given by Mr. McGuire in his speech at New Plymouth. A very considerable area of high-priced ! deferred payment land has been paid for in full and converted into freehold since the Plains were sold in 1880. Neither was this taken into account by Mr. McGuire ; consequently it is necessary to make a very large d scount from Mr. McGuire's 40,000 acres of deferred payment land in order to ascertain the real loss to the harbor board from that cause. The day aftev Mr. McGuire's speech, we wrote on the subject as follows :—: — " We are, however, somewhat doubtful about Mr. McGuire's claim for a return of one-fourtb of the value of 145,000 acres handed back to natives. Writing only from memory we should be inclined to assert that the resident loyal Maoris bad from the sinae of the confiscation been promised that large reserves should be set a=ide for them on the Plains ; and tbat consequently neither the settlers nor the bondholders could justly say that any land revenue or harbor revenue

could ever have been counted upon from that source. That is, however, a question of dates, and is one which the committee at New Plymouth would do well to investigate." We have recently made some further enquiry into the subject, and have consulted the first and second reports of the West Coast Commission. From those reports we gather that 130,000 acres of land between Waitotara and the White Cliffs had been reserved for or returned to the natives prior to 1880. In round numbers 15,800 acres were north of the Waingongoro, and 44,000 south of the Waingongoro. Sixty-six thousand acres are entered as " restored to natives. The awards prior of land to 1874 by the Compensation Court covered 79,800 acres, Government awai'ds 12,700 acres of confiscated land. It is almost impossible for anyone not thoroughly conversant with all the facts, to say how much of this could ever have been regarded as Crown lands, onefourth of the revenue from which might fairly hare been claimed for harbor purposes. If we say that we have been unable to discover any large block of land out of the whole of the 220,000 acres enumerated, onefourth of the revenue from which could certainly be claimed as harbor endowment, we understate the facts. Very many of the reserves and compensation awards date from a period long antecedent to the passing of the New Plymouth Harbor Ordinance 1875 or the Act under which the loan »vas raised in 1877. Within the confiscated area, at least 5 per cent of all blocks of land were ceded to or bought by the Government, was ordered to be reserved for the use of natives as early as 1867. We anticipated that the result of the labors of the committee, appointed at Mr. McGuire's New Plymouth meeting to enquire into the accuracy of the figures cited by him, would have been published ere now. Their report was expected fully a week ago. We have satisfied ourselves that his claim for one-fourth of the value of 145,000 acres of lands returned to natives cannot possibly be sustained. It has been suggested tbat the New Plymouth Committee may have refrained from publishing their report, because it appeared likely to damage Mr. McGuire's political prospects. It is our duty to point out that it is important that the truth in such matters of public interest should promptly be made known. The claim of the district for assistance from the Consolidated Fund to help settlers to pay £12.000 a y^ar of interest to the harbor debenture holders is in itself a sound one, because, owing to the change in the method of dealing with the land since the harbor loan was raised, the immediate harbor rates will be much heavier, and will be payable many years sooner, than they would otherwise have been. If Mr. McG-uire's claim on account of 145,000 acres returned to natives were sound, it would greatly strengthen the claim ot the district. But, if, as we feel assured, it is altogether unsound, it would greatly weaken the case to allow any such false pleas to be urged iv its favor. If a mistake has been made the sooner it is acknowledged and set right the better. The mayor of New Plymouth, was one of those appointed to enquire iuto Mr. McGuire's public statements. It is the Mayor's duty, as a public servant, to let the public know the result of that enquiry. Had such a committee of enquiry not been specially appointed, we should ere now have endeavored to go much more exhaustively into the matter, than we have hitherto done. The correction of any unintentional statistical error, is more readily and generally accepted and comes with better grace, if volunteered by friends, than if it is forced from those whose aim when dealing with public affairs should be to expose and lay bare any such error, in order that the public may know the facts of the case and judge accordingly.