THE "HIGHWAYS ACT" AND DIRECT PURCHASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 187, 18 June 1864, Page 5

THE "HIGHWAYS ACT" AND DIRECT PURCHASE.

To Hit , Editor of the .\tw ZKALiMi Hkkai.d. Mil,—On the Both tfep'.o.nber Inst, ISOIS, in the ; IVovincial Council, '-.Mr. Buckland moved for certain correspondence between bis Honor tho Superintendent and certain of the inhabitant:- tvsidiii" in ibe ; neighbourhood ol I'anniui-e, relative to the working j ~1-iiic • Ili-hwavs Act ' m ihai district.' - Ihe doeui incuts ret'erred to two petitions or memorials. The j one pr-uiim that the township bo excluded, and the I ollu-r (hut the Aft be altered so as to take mvuv the j power to levy the latci according to acreage, hoib of •iliein were signed by the niH|oi'ity of landowners 1 outside of the township. To neither of tliese pen- ' I uons did ills Honor nuike an o'liciid reply. I Air. Kcrr, in replying to the inoiiou said, "ihiit the l'anmure piople. he felt sure, would unlv ilo what Ha.- riiiht, that not one of llie pensioners'had voteu one of the member* into the Hoard, and, he believed, the grievance was only a fanciful one." Col. llutiiiiiin and Mr. Ken-were the chief, if not the only, movers in the matter, with the assistance of the pe'ni sioners of I'anmure. wiihoui whom Col. lluultain j said he eouUi nol have brought tlie Act into operation in the district, mid which any one may easily ■ believe. This is only one of the many instances of ihe successive governments using the pensioner force I for the purpose of over-rilling the political irauchises of the colonist.-,. The pensioner.- say that they were sent ottl here lor a special purpose, and 1 have good ren.-oii to believe thai they think this is the mission thev an , to lullil. When 1 complained to .Mr. Kerr of the malignant ellects of this Act. lie said that Col. llaultain was going to the front and lliat lie himself was going to iNclsou, so that it would be left all in our hands lo do as we pleased. 1 asked, as who pleased 'i The j pensioners:- Von have put us eniirelv into tlie.r power. Von have inserted the poison and kave us to die <d - the wound. This is rich ! j Well, have llie pensioners availed themselves of the I benilils ui lliis Art ': ll is by far too good a thing for them to neglect. 'J licv l.ave to tlie best of their ul.ilitv, under" tlie guidance of .Messrs. Wvlie I and it.N burn, "one llirougli the forms in a most I blundering luauuer. Tliese two gentlemen, when j they decmetl they had set the machinery in motion j for another year, have, according to the example of j their predecessors, retired, leaving the rest in the j hands of llie pensioners. 1 mil informed 1 hat their trustees for the current year ale — Mr. .ios. liivnnitn, pensioner, whose i rate amounts to .. ... ... £0 IS I I Mr. .lames l'.rown, ditto ditto 1 '_! 4 \ Air. JienjiUninCoudroii. ditto (Into 1) y 0 .Mr. Juiii.-s C'leary, ditlo ditto 0 I- i) ; Mr. Koberl Long, UUio ditto I) 11 1 'J'otal amount of rates paid by the j members of the iioard of Trustees i'o 7 (> The v< bole town and suburbs, about i 100 acics, rales only £20 0 0 j Air. Kerr will not again be enabled to say that the ; I pensioners took no part in the business. Vet. 1 do i not I,lame them, even although they all admit I ! that f;ioss injustice is done to owners ol scoria land, j ! hi lavinc the rales on ihe acre, because it is not in human nature for a hungry man to reject bread when j ihrust into his moiuli. li' .-an only 'be looked upon j ! as a most piiiabU- attempt at legisliition. The fruits ! of iasl uur s rales was the repairing ami making good about one and a quai'ler mile, commencing at Col. llaiiliain .- gale, thence towaru Clahuhii, over winch load ihe Loloucl v.as ocia.-ionaily in the habit of the mam road l°oiii Mount Wellington ' as far as llie Harp ot krin, which was made chielly I I v jirtvate contributions, bas within the last lew j I weeiis been iv»nl:irlv smiishcd up by the govefmneiit j I ear:.- .a.-.ui.u «ra, .■l'fro.u the mouiuain to repair ihe I I i real Boulli Koiiil till both sides of the Harp of Knu. .\o\v I would ask if it is r. iisomible that llii.- road, eiiiTMiiii all the Hade ol' ihe Jlowick, l'auir.nre, and a port.on ol' ihe W'esl '1 ainaki districts, should be maintained from the pockets of a tew landowners, who luiH' the misfortune lo own land on each side of it .- who ihcm.-clvcs have to pay toll when using the siioi-i piece of road from lhellar|i of ICrin to .\'ewiii.ii'Kcl. and which ruins, bv Us repairs, the road of liic disin.-l. J his roiiLl has now lo carry tin-stone and oiber uc.itei-ii.l. I havccomciscd wilh several lion. Al.l'.C.'soii this subject, whoall agrec aslo the nijuslieeand incijualiiy ol rutins laud aceording to acreage lor any pur[iose wh!ll.->.eier. And aiso tiiat the evil is greatiy led b\ including a town and Miburbs, therebycreating a kind ol hcnuapiirodilc. unualurai district. Townships should form separale associations for their peculiar purpose.-, or bo rated on a wry ddlerent scale Iron, count! v lauds. Ihe members oY icovemiiient who diiler (chielly on the score of incon\enience) lrom the above are, lirst. Mr. Kcrr, who has been already noticed, his llmor the Miipcrinlcudrnt. Air. Dal'dv, late I'rovineial T.va-uivr, and his successor, Air. New man, who, in addition to the ample folds of Ins own peculiar uarinciils, it appear.- the mantle of his predecessor ha- fallen on him. ICver sin.-e these genllemen (le(•lined I'iviiii; an ollicinl answer to llie memorials just mentioned and called ior bv Mr. Diiekland, and : which were preserved by myself, 1 have had no otlii eial communication with them upon the subject, but '• having seen Captain Ualdy when out of. olhce, and just before his departure'for Kngland, he pa.-sed a , 'few remarks, lie said "it was strange he could not Mieeeed in gellintj the people of Alahurangi to accept the Act. i then loid Jiiui (hat he only renuircd to make a township and include il in the district and his object would he attained. 1 believe my advice is now j be',..' lai-elv acted upon fro... the yivat number of mu-hroou. "lowiishipsiiow being laid oil - and sold m all dircetious. The town of Warkworth, to be sold I on .Monday next tlie Oth inst., will accomplish -Mr. I Daldv's purposes. 1 have no doubt that in time our ' le.'i-lative members will be like the member for Old i 0.0-uui, the representative of a few pig slyus. j 11-ivin.' accideniallv met with Ins Honor the onier cliiv at" a sale held within this district, ami 'he being a rate payer, I took 1 the liberty of speaking to Air. Graham ot the. mequa- : lit v of the ruling, of the evils of the overpowering ! ini'lueueeofthetow.i, and of the irregularity oi the ' proceeding* of the Trustees, as reported in my lelter i published hi Maieb, a copy of which 1 gtnu him. ile --ml "that there was considerable diliieiilly in valui'ii" the properties, and that the evil would cure Hself." 0 (1 see bv the report of the Trustees ot the uis.rie, of Alangane. that tlu-y iii.tl no dilli.-ully hi rai-in- a rale on ihe value to sell.) 1 asked him ll Im li weiv found able and willing to exist upon the noor 1-uids which formed bv far the greatest portion J,!' ,he province, would you depopulate then,, because Ihev could nol bea: ihe same amount of toxauon as ,|,e'rich and otherwise vabiaUe hind. This is only one of tb.' main taxes with which we are threatened. ■Mr ilnilnui said - shorllv »l will cure it,elt. you \.oii"hl \ourseo.ia cheap.' He then ebangid ihe Mibjeii 'of discourse bv informing me that he mtendeil to drain his s'wamp, by lowering llie lake H-vcral feet, mid asked me if I would have any ob- . jeettous to his so doing. Now, tins was a regular -lii-.ovr to me. because the doing so would deprive : about ilOO) tour hundred and lilty acres of my i scoria land of tlie only surface water if has through- ; j out the cirv SfHjs.iii, oiie hull' of the year.

this district- grievance line been at his door, like a dead carcase, for over'a year, nn ollence alike to i-iglit and smell. And it- seeine to me wondrous strange to bo reading every now and then of tours in eenreh of grievances in dill'erent distant parts of the province. Why not allow the distant as well as llio.se home evils, to cure themselves. Truly, as New Zealand is an experimental and a. mo.i.'i colony, so is .t'wimuve, her experimental undj modi .ii.-: ;.■-.. and v.-,n worthy of flie serious study ■-.iincin! ■~■-" tin- I'rovincal Council. On looking. minify j.oeket dictionary for the word highway, it is> ONplanuci as a " pubfie path," a " great road." And in Great Britain, in order to distinguish it from" nil other private i*6ads or property, and by nay of pre-eminence, and to denote the'property "and interest ot the whole, and every individual member of Ihe foeiety thereiu, it it- styled The King's or Queen's 11 iehwiiv. Xoiv. I cannot for the life of me, forget that J wLt boru in .Britain, pnd lived under' her and just laws. !n r carefully formed and well h:ii:'.'V"(! political itumiutions, so fa- as to tamely submit to the antipodean notions of our legialalors. Kvcrv now :i:id asuiu we hear of one' or another of th.-ni taking a trip to .Englandwith the atlix of J1.1'.L , .. or something else; whence' they shortly return with n cargo of all the lowest fashions of'thc day, and their heads stull'ed with allthe new liseal laws of their countrv, superinduced' by the universal substitution of railways for high-ways in a densely populated country, having all the material on the spot, at the same time quite forgetting that durinu the voyage out their heads have been gradually and imperceptibly turning upside down. The consequence is. that on resuming their legislative I'unc-lions. they at i.nce i-oine out with a flourish, hoi-t the banner of progress, and declare that Auckland under their rule, is, and shall he, the Britain of the .South. Our l'rovinc.al Councillor of the, Exchequer announced in the lust session of the Provincial Council •■ l'hui it shall be made conipulsorv on owners of land to make and maintain the highways. Keally ! Dear me '■ If we are to have a dictator, 1 trust that he will nut he of Ihe Kobusperiau genius, it might create a demand for guillotines instead of stonecriishcrs. JJy all menus let us have one in whom we can have some coniiiienee, one who cau hold the rems u< - the factious wiih a linn hand, say of the Uuke o ' Wellington, or tli.; piescnt .Napoleon type, rcceivii g his inarching orders from the Imperial Goveri ineiit, such a aoveriiiuent would have suited us children best, from'the beginning, and our mother could have doled out her presents to us as we deserved then, and not have crushed and smothered . u< under the fsill Hood and weight of Britain's blessiiins, as it is this day. As land-owner and. farmer, and I think I may answer for tho claas, may he exceptions) that such a measure will be of little eonseijuenee to us, as our incomes are on the wrong side of the prolit and loss account, unless, perhaps, the Provincial Council might take ourcaee mio consideration, and give us an extent in aid, by way of compensation. Tho merchants are importing beef and brcadstulls, and all sorts of dairy produce, cheaper than it can be raised in the- country under present circumstances. We, farmers, live principally by horse ana cattle dealing amongst ourselves, selling the same animals over and over again, five or six I lines in u year, paying the auctioneer's commission and charges. ;yid our own, each time. Yet, although we are invulnerable to the touch of the income tax, 1 fear, from the many- cunning plana which the < lianeellor appears to have no end of, lie may tax either our hides or our polls. It is pretty clear to me. that our progress government are hurrying us rauidiy on to a state of intolerable Ui\ni ion*, ihetid Jof emigration need not be turned from the United States to-Xew Zealand, with. the iileu that here ilicy shall escape taxation. from what 1 gather from the newspapers about the Drury Kuihvay about beginning on tins mid that portion of the line, and not knowing what to do, I believe that the railway board will be the most expensive portion ol the line ; and 1 am not quite certain that the Council took this ium into consideration, when they voted the £100,000. Indeed they appear to begin everything at the wrong end—they spend monev before they i;et it, they speak of taxing the land 'before it is" inhabited, 'commence a railway without the navvies. iXc. Whenever I hear their progress mentioned, the idea of the Kake's or Harlot's progress on the mad to ruin, inevitably rises in my uu'.kl. - Let Auckland llourish" as well as " Glasgow." The merchants of Auckland must, change their tactics: it will not he by burdening and restricting aL'nculiural and other landed interests. Let their profits be iarge and themselves liberal, extending their trade and facilitating the transit of their goods by largely contributins; to the construction of wharves-, iailw.ivs, and ro ids, without drawing on the provincial revenue, and prosecute immigration and tin'settlement of the country; by all means, foster !i"i'ieultiiriil and landed interests, and become gomevvi.ul less selfish. David AVhite. .Mount Wellington, June lGth.