The New Zealand Herald SPECTEMUR AGENDO. "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all,—To thine ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1865.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 540, 5 August 1865, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald SPECTEMUR AGENDO. "Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice: Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all,—To thine ownself be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, AUGUST 5, 1865.

Tiie transfer of the Government House at Auckland, and the disposal of the proceeds thereof, has afforded the Weld Ministry the first opportunity of attack on the Province of Auckland. As will be seen by our Parliamentary report of the proceedings of the 2Sth ultimo, Mr. Sewell moved for a select Committee to take the matter into reconsideration. Of the sis names placed upon the Committee, one only is that of an Auckland member. Nelson, Wellington, and Canterbury, furnish the remaining five, one of these being Auckland's bitterest enemy, the member for Ellesmere. So glaring was this injustice that Mr. Domett, one of the Committee, felt ashamed of the selection, and pointed out the preponderance of the Southern element contained in it.

From the correspondence published by authority relative to the erection of public buildings in the Province of Auckland, there can be no doubt as to the real merits of the case. The first step in the transaction was the request made by the Superintendent of Auckland, in a letter dated the 12th September, ISG3 and addressed to the then Colonial Secretary, Mr. Domett, that the present Government House and grounds should be valued and handed the Province, and that the sum fixed by such valuation be expended by him (the Superintendent) in the erection of a Government House iu the Domain, after a plan approved by the General Government. On the 22nd September Mr. Domett replied to this application, saying that he had the honor " to state that the Government agree " to your proposal to the effect that the pre- " sent Government House and grounds " should be handed over to the Province, •' provided that the Provincial Government

'• expends a sum of £25,000 in the erection " of a Government House in the Domain, i: on a place to be approved of by the Gene- " ral Government."

The bargain was struck. The Auckland Reserves Act, 1S6:?, was passed, as the title of the Act states, to enable the Governor to grant to the Superintendent of Auckland the Government House grounds in Auckland ; and a Crown Grant was issued to the province for the piece of land iu question.

But when the Weld Ministry came into office there was a ravenous callow brood in the South stretching forth their necks and with open mouth continually crying ''give!" "give!" Then it was that Mr. Wold thought how convenient

would be price of the Government grounds to use for present _ purposes and to fill the mouths of Ins parasitical tormentors. Buc he found that this money, paid with the understanding that it was to be laid out for a specific purpose and by the Superintendent of Auckland, was placed with the Building Commissioners appointed to carrv out the work in question, and that the Ministry were thus prevented from using it for improper purposes. Inwarted in their design, th* Weld Ministry sought to upset the bargain, and raised t\«o objections to the sale, the one that the piece o land described as containing 8 acres contained over 1-1 -the other that the payment was informal, the £25,000 not having been paid into the Colonial Treasury. The first of these objections which has been again urged in the Assembly bv the Attorney General has beep f-irly set aside by a reference to the decision' of Chief Justice Martin in the case of the sale of the Island of Kawaii The public of Auckland have to thank the lawyer-like sagacity of Mr. Carleton for the final disposal of that objection. In the case of the Kawau it was sold as containing 2,550 acres, subsequently it was found to contain 5 000 acres but Judge Martin decided that where the boundaries were defined the extent of area whether less or more was of no consequence ; the boundary would settle the matter. The case of the Government ground at Auckland is a similar one The boundaries are so specifically desscribed that a child might point them out. The second objection will be found no moie valid than the first. The Government of the day came to a distinct bargain with the Provincial Government on this matter. They knew the circumstances of the Province, and they accepted the method of payment proposed by the Province as satisfactory, and issued the Crown grants accordingly. An honourable Ministry would have no desire to finger the price of the land. The money was paid with the intention of being expended on a specific object, and it did not become part of the ordinary revenues ot the Colony, as even now Mr. Weld wishes to make it. Auckland agreed to give £25,000 for the grounds of Government House in consideration that the £25,000 should be spent in Auckland by their own Superintendent on a particular public work. To take the money and apply it to the general purposes of the Colony would be violating a part of the agreement entered into with the Province. In private business transactions such conduct- would be called " swindling." In the case of the present- Ministry it is, as well to simply class it as a consequence of " Southern proclivities." Ihe swindler has his own peculiar proclivity. The member of the Southern faction in ~>ew Zealand has his.

The objection that the money was not paid into 'the Colonial Treasury may be similarly dismissed with the same reasons which have been held valid why the money paid for the Queen-street site of the Supreme Court-house was likewise not paid into the Treasury. Mr. Domett, the Secretary for Crown Lands in ISUo, thus alludes to the case of the Queenstreet site :—

" The Government, to meet the wishes of " the Provincial Council, as tar as it could,

:i consistently with its higher duty of getting " a Supreme Court House erected, agreed " to sell the laud in Queen-street to the " Province, for a sum equal to what it was " estimated it would fetch if cut up into sec-

" tions and sold by public auction, viz., £"23 000.

" The Provincial Government agreed to " this proposal. But as some difficulty ex- " isted as to the immediate possession of the " purchase money, the Provincial Grovern- " ment proposed to pay it out of their " authorised loan of £500,000 ; and as they " had an agreement with the Bank of New " Zealand for the advance of £100,000 each " year till the loan M as exhausted, I presume " (for the duration of these payments is not " stated in the correspondence before me), " and had appropriated the £100,000 due in " the year 1865, a special agreement was

" entered into, under which the Bank under- " took to advance a sum of £50,000 (to cover " also the cost of the new G-overnment " House, to be presently alluded to), as a " portion of the £100,000 due to the " Province in the year 1866 ; the said sum of " £50,000 to be paid to the Commissioners " for Public Buildings (recently appointed), " and by them placed on fixed deposit for 12 " months with the Bank of New Zealand — " the i ommissioners being at liberty to " transfer from said deposit account, during " the twelve months (immediately ensuing), " the sum of £15,000, in sums of not less il than £5,000 each—the bauk to allow in- " terest on the balance of the fixed deposit " account at the rate of o per cent, per " annum. Tli's was considered an advan- " tageous arrangement, because it secured to 11 the province the public reserve which they " so much coveted, while it gave the addition " to the building fund of as much interest as would have been obtained had the land " been sold by auction and the proceeds " lodged in the bank.

'• Oa this arrangement being effected, the " land was granted to the Superintendent " under the " Public Unserves Act, 1554."

" The technical irregularity that the pur- " chase money was not paid in to Government," he then goes 011 to say, " may " be explained by the i'act stated above, " that the Province had not the ready money " to pay down.

" This is all I can say for the mere mode '' of: selling and granting this land. But I '' will say that I am very decidedly of o~)i- ---" nion that the spirit of the Act and the m- " tention of the Legislature, looked at from a common sense point of view, have been "scrupulously regarded iu the transaction."

111 a memorandum written at the same time on the sale of the Government grounds lie treats the same objection with a reference to the remarks just quoted from the other memorandum " The remarks made," he says, " above on the non-payment of the " purchase money of the Supreme Court site " into the hands of Government, apply equally to the similar omission iu this " case."

Repudiation, however, has been the motto of the Weld A dministration. They did it iu the case of the AVaikato Immigrants— they seek to do it now iu the bargain ente d into and concluded by their predecessors in office. No wonder that Mr. Stafford, with the indignation otan honest statesman, when speaking to Mr. Sewell's motion, should say, as will be seeu in our

rC nort of Friday's proceedings. in the House, that "he had heard the views of the Minis-ti-v en tfie subject, wiili srivat pain and a s';onisliincni lie could not reconcile it j .. w j t i a tlie character of some of the members j •• oil the treasury benches, that they should j liave descended to the line of argument j " thai thev had taken on the subject." j Eiiuallv sliuiiiuu: is t!ie reproof adminis- ! UMV ,i le'the Ministry. when he tells them thru thev have treated Auckland like a step- j child. h'l lhat province tor grants; of public reserves, when Souihern provinces i ], a vc had such grants allowed them, when j required for local purposes, free of charge. j The position then stands thus, liis; l'\cei!encv. on the recominend.il ion of! iljo Colon i:il Secretary, on the .Ist •Vnrii. published a Proclamation usVeptiii- out ot' the Commission the buildof a Government House in the Domain. The Crown Grant for tiie site of the present Government House is in the hands of the Superintendent it is true, but the" Auckland ru-M-ru's Act, WW" provides that the land •ihtfi'i net be handed over to the Province until the new Government House is built.! The lYo'-iamat ion of the l*t April forbids j the lltf. Min~ Commissioners to buibl it ! ! :