A Review of the Year.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 20, 18 December 1906, Page 5

A Review of the Year.

By The Northener. “ If the Old Year were a cold year, let it go!” “ Will the New Year be a true year? rime will show !” In reviewing the work of the past year one finds the outstanding feature paucity of result, and it must be said, in so far as the Government of New Zealand is concerned, that it could hardly be otherwise, considering that the loss of New Zealand’s greatest statesman, the late R. J. Seddon, was one of the saddening events of the year. That Liberalism and the Labour party are both working to defeat their own ends is obvious to every one resident in the country districts, and that the Ward Ministry is out of touch with the people and without adequate level-headedness is easily conceded. At the least the Ward Government have not done very much damage so far, and from what can be seen of their ability and statesmanship the fewer opportunities given them for making had and breaking good laws the better. The country is to be congratulated in that that iniquitous thing, the Land Bill, has not been enacted by the Legislature, and there is every cause to be thanktul that most of the legislation of last session has been petty and in no way particularly likely to retard the North. In Administration a noticeable fact is the ever increasing strictures with which the Licensing and Gambling Acts are being enforced, and it is very evident that the “ purity party ” have, during the old year, been doing much to wash the dirt of their neighbours into their own filthy dens. We have had Gambling Prosecutions, Reforms in the Auckland Racing Club, the playing of “.Pool ” abolished and many minor iniquities, which the working classes have enjoyed, drastically suppressed; but I notice that those who were foremost in the cleansing of their fellow men are men who are notoriously willing to gamble on the Stock Exchange, swindle in business, or enjoy a flutter in Tattersall’s sweeps or on the Totalisator. The whited sepulchre of t,he “ Purity Brigade ” is likely to be the resting place of the Ward Ministry, as, apparently, the Government of the day are quite in accord and ready to foster the particular creed which has caused 1906 to be marked with vicious persecution of the smaller and more innocent of manhood’s failings.

The financial position of the Colony has been eminently satisfactory, but it has also been proved that the Country Districts are likely to have scant consideration from present New Zealand financiers. The Colonial Treasurer has shown how little he thinks of the Bay of Islands Electorate in the framing of his last “ Estimates,” and though we may have to pay our mil share of new loans and the interest thereon, yet the 1906 account cannot be said to have benefited in anyway the Far North. On the whole I must sum up the administration of 1906 as having completely severed all good feelings between the Government of the Colony and the Bay of Islands Electorate.

There has been one most iniquitous enforcement in the Bay of Islands District and that evidently through the gross ignorance of some Government official or officials, and that is in the decision to permit no spirituous or malt liquor, in either large or small quantities, to be supplied to Maoris for consumption away from Licensed Premises. This enactment is alreadyhaving a bad effect in the North and we may look for further deterioration of the behaviour of the Maoris in our hotels should the offensive prohibition continue.

The Mangonui County Council have come through a very stormy year and if the results have been fairly good it is not so much to the glorification of the Council as a whole as to credit of the three Councillors who have really done the work. The Council, which is one of the worst which has been returned for many years, is ill balanced, and of the newcomers Councillor Pearson is the only one to have shown good publje form. The internal revenue for 1906 was greater than it has ever been before, but the persistent determination of the Ratepayers has done much to assist in this direction by forcing weak Councillors to strengthen the hands of the County Clerk, who, owing to illness, has certainly been very ill placed towards the doing of his duty. With exceptions, which it would be useless to specify, County Monies have, during the past year, been exceptionally well expended, and though there may have been much to blame there is quite as much which has deserved the praise of the community. The Mangonui County Council of 1906 has not risen above mediocrity, but has, in its results, done nothing to the serious hurt of the district and much for the public good. The erection of the Mangonui Cottage Hospital has been a noticeable event of the year, and under the management of the North Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board this should in the future be a boon to the Mangonui and Whangaroa Counties. From a Commercial point of view we have air'bepn prosperous. The -

building of a large hotel in Mangonui, a new Kaitaia hotel, great extensions at “ Old Joe’s ” both at Waipapakauri and Houhora, and of private residences innumerable; these prove prosperity. The marriage rate^—how many of our old friends have been so fated ! —in Mangonui County at least, has been most satisfactory, and latterly the number whom prosperity has forced into matrimony has been almost (alarmingly ?) excessive. Gum has been marketable, timber payable, the Oruru and Kaitaia Dairy Factories have hpd ’good seasons and butter and farm produce have been at a good price and quick of sale. ’ The year 1906 has indeed been a favorable one to our Farmers and Settlers, and if we had no obnoxious Land we could easily predict similar success in the future.

Finally, in wishing the readers of the “ Age ” a Happy and Prosperous New Year, I trust that 1907 will see each and all of us as well off, as healthy and hearty and as ready for 1908 as we most ot 11s are to welcome the New Year. We may have to. make changes in the Government of the Country, in the County Council and on all governing bodies, but if the North be true to itself it will not make the mistake of “individualism” to the detriment of the rtshiio weal.