The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1867.

New Zealand Herald, Volume IV, Issue 1073, 23 April 1867, Page 3

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1867.

SPKCTKMUK AGENDO.

M Give every nmti tliiuo car, but few thy voico : Tako each man's consuro, but reservo thy Judgment 'J'hiertbore all, —To thlno own self be truo And It must follow, as tho niqht tho day, Tlion canst not tlieu te flnlso to auy man."

t-lio sums set apart out of tlic Three Million Loan by the " Loan Appropriation Act, ISG3," was one of £75,000 for tho construction, of a main lino of clcctric telegraph between liivcrcargili unci Auclcland. Tiio lino of telegraph between Invercargill ami Wellington has been now for some time opened and in full working—tlic extension of that line between "Wellington and the Wailcato has, as our readers ,irc| well aware, not yet been commenced, and this, too, in the iVice of tho fact that 0110 portion of tho loan is made a charge exclusively on the Northern island Provinces, while the Provinces of the Middle island arc charged, along with those of the Hoi-Hi, with only a proportionate share of the remainder of the loau.

A\ r c cannot at llio present moment sco what valid reason the General Government can adduce that they should not proceed with this work, one which is much needed, and which in all fairness ought to have been commenced long ago. One great excuse which the Government would urge would doubtless bo the presumed difficulty of carrying it across native territory, but it is idle to urge such excuse so long as the project has never been attempted to be carried out, stopped, and negotiations more than once been entered into with the natives, and failed. Before this presumed ditieulty can be urged as an excuse the attempt must have been made, and it lias not yet been done. So far, however, from the natives o He ring any opposition to the work we believe it would bo found that they would readily enter into the views of the Government." Pecuniarily they would benefit;, for a large portion of the expenditure must find its way amongst them for telegraph poles, labour, &c., while as far as the telegraph itself being used against them in the use of hostilities they aro quite aware, that there is already an agent of the General Government at Auckland fully empowered to act in any case of emergency, without iirst com- J municating to the Government at "Welling- , ton, and that it is to the men upon the spot that we must, now the troops are withdrawn, I look for the means of resisting attack, and not from any reserve that could be telegraphed for from "Wellington. Such a convenience as telegraphic communication between the extremes of the North Island is the more needed, as the regular postal communication between Wellington and the Northern ports is so managed, that for more than a fortnight together wc receive no Southern mail. It usually happens that two, and even three Southern steamers arrive within as many days, and then for fifteen days and more not another mail from the South is received. "We need not point out how, commercially and politically, this state of things is most injurious to the community ; nay, more, it is positively unjust, and bears upon the face of it evidence of the truth of that which Auckland has been charged with having unjustly laid to the blame of a Southern government—the wilful neglect of her interests. "We scarcely believe this to be tho motive in this instance, attributing it rather to an impression that the eariying out of such a work would bo viewed with jealousy and distrust by the owners of the native territory over which it must pass, and that it would be disallowed by them. The simplest way of settling the value of any such presumed difficulty would be at once to make the attempt; from tho furthermost point to which the telegraph lias yet been carried into the Waikato. "When the question comes to be asked in the Assembly, why this work lias not been completed, the Government then will at least be able to point to tho fact that it has, though late been at last commenced, or, that comuicnced it failed through native interference. One very injurious cfl'ecfc which tho want of telegraphic communication between Auckland and the Middle Island has commercially upon this Province, is the keeping us out of the "West-land markets. The merely partial construction of this main line of telegraph, as provided for by the Loan Appropriation Act, ISC3, gives to Nelson, Lyttlctou, and Duuedin, an undue advantage over this port, and that of Manakau. By the time that wo learn the state of tho Hokitika and other gold fields markets, the Southern ports above mentioned have not only been mado aware of their requirements, but have actually supplied them. The intelligence is flashed at once through the Middle Island, by means of the telegraph wires that such and such changes have taken place in the local markets on the gold fields, but the merchants of Auckland and the Manakau must wait tho arrival of the intelligence per next steamer or sailing vessel. Such a state of things renders it impossible lor us to carry on a trade with the "Westland gold fields. Their market quotations aro rendered useless to us. "Wc receive them too late to check an unpromising venture, too late to take advantage of their actual condition. Their actual condition, indeed, we never know, for by tho time the state of the market reaches us the Southern ports have, thanks to tho partially constructed main lino of telegraph, stcpt in and caused an entire change. "When tho Hokitika gold fields first broko out it was predicted that Auckland and Onehunga would with their large" mosquito fleet" find a wide field for commercial enterprise,- and so they would have d.one but for tho fact, that the partial complctement of this line of telegraph by tho General Government placed tho ports of the Middle' Island Provinces virtually nearer to the ports of "Westland than the Mauukau geograplii- i

J C! l ty, rca l , y waH - This is why tho trade, I wincli at first was spiritedly entered into by Auckland ineveliauts, was dropped by - nearly all, and afterwards con tinned by one or two only, at a loss. It is luird to make the general public see that even as commercial men thoy have need to give their attention to polities, but here is a notable instance in point, where, by the mere neglect of a ministry to carry out a certain work, lor the performance of which the money has already been appropriated by i lie Assembly, the leading eommcrcial community of the colony is cut oJY from a fair participation in a lucrative trade, for which she li.ts otherwise great natural and acquired facilities at her command.