THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1886.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7648, 27 May 1886, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, MAY 27, 1886.

Reverting to the Colonial Treasurer's Budget, it will be found instructive to aotice the allocations of the proposed Dne and a-half million loan, and how ance more it is intended to give the South Island the lion's share, faking these allocations as they stand, it appears that, while the North Island *ets £525,000, there is allocated to the South Island £709,000, which shows a balance in favour of the latter of £181,000. This in one sense, might tio-' appear to be a large disparity ; and, viewing the question of public works from a national standpoint, we should not feel disposed to quarrel with it, were other considerations not imperatively forced upon us. But, looking at the vast expenditure out of previous loans which has taken place in the South Island, and which has secured for it a continuous Trunk Railway from the Hurunui, in North Canterbury to a considerable distance beyond Invercargill in the south of Otago, with quite a network of inland and branch lines besides, it is impossible to refrain from condemning the above apportionment of the present loan as grossly unjust. The positions of the two Islands in respect of this allocation ought at the very least to have been reversed, and even then the allocation not have been entitled to be regarded as generous to the North. We utterly fail to discover on what grounds this everlasting preference accorded to the South Island in the disbursing of public money, is based. Leaving out of view the past disproportion in the amounts expended in the two Islands, and abandoning for the moment the claim which the North Island has on thit account to the larger division of the present loan as well as of future loans, it is impossible to divine any just reason why this unfair treatment should be continued. It cannot be justified by any decided advantage which the South Island enjoys on the score of population. Whatever might have been made of this plea in the past years, its force cannot now be said to exist. For, as the census returns will show, the population of the two Islands is now nearly equal; and, if the natives were taken into calculation, as for this matter they are entitled to be, the probabilities are that the balance in numbers would be in favour of the North. Neither is it justified on the ground of a larger contribution to the revenue being derived from the South Island than from the North ; because, if the average amount sent to the Treasury from the two Islands from the founding of the colony till now were struck, it would be seen that the title to consideration on this head, claimed by the South Island, is purely mythical. In fact, the only way of accounting for the unvarying partiality shown to the South in the disbursement of public money is to attribute it to the circumstance of the South having managed to got the numerical voting power in the House of Representatives, and to the political necessity thus imposed on each successive Administration to catch the breez? of Southern favour. This gave the South the pull on the public purse, and it certainly has not failed to take to the utmost the advantage offered. It might have been expected, however, that by this time it had been satisfied. But such, it seems, is not the case; and, if anything were required to demonstrate the urgency of a new Representation Bill, it is certainly supplied by the insatiable tenacity with which the South Island members and the Ministry, who in this matter are in their have-persisted up to the present moment in depriving the North Island of its fair share in the appropriation of the public funds. If again the allocations to the several provincial districts, are considered the same disproportion is noticable. Canterbury may, for our present comparison, be put to the one side because, while receiving only £14,000 of the proposed loan, the advantage of the disbursements in connection with the Midland Railway, as it is now called, and which will amount to not less than three millions, will chiefly fall to her share. To the three small districts of Nelson, Westland, and Marlborough are allotted £325,000, while to the extensive and populous districts of Wellington and Hawke's Bay conjointly, only £225,000 are apportioned. Auckland district gets £303,000, while Otago obtains £370,000. The difference between these two last is not apparently great; but, bearing in mind that present disbursements must be compared with those which have preceded, the conclusion we are compelled to come to is that the allocations in this case ought exactly to have been transposed, It may be contended that the expenditure in connection with the North Island

Trunk Railway enters into the calcula- ! tion here, and that, a3 a considerable portion of this will be made within the Auckland district, Auckland may be held to be on an equal footing with Otago. But we object in toio to this reasoning. Ou* contention is that the allocations of the proposed loan of one million and a half ought to be quite independent of the one million Trunk loan, as it has all along been understood that this loan was considered a sort of equivalent to the North for the large expenditure which had previously occurred in connection with tho Trunk line of the Middle Island.

And, speaking of the expenditure on the North Island Trunk line, it is impossible to gather from the Budget where that is to come from. There is certainly no appropriation made for it. This might be understood if the Trunk loan were already considered to be appropriated by the Act which authorised it, and if it were intended to float it in conjunction with the proposed new loan of a million and a half. But the Budget is, to say the least, hazy on both these points. Perceiving this obscurity, the Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce telegraphed yesterday to Sir Julius Vogel, as appears elsewhere, asking if the Trunk loan w«s to be floated this year as well as the proposed new, loan and received as a reply that probably a part of each loan would be raised, but so as not to exceed a million and a half altogether. But, according to the Budget, one million and a half has already been appropriated, and where a vote for carrying on the North Island Tiunk Railway is to come from does not appear. This obscurity is unsatisfactory, and all the more so that it seems to be intentional. The truth is, that this Trunk loan has been and is meant to be made a mere convenience of ; and the time has now come to have this game put an end to. What the Northern representatives ought to do is to insist on this Trunk loan being floated without any further delay, and on having it secured by Act for its specific purpose. And what the Auckland and Taranaki members should further combine to accomplish is the allocation of a sum from the general loan for constructing a line to connect Taranaki with the Main Trunk Railway. Let them demand in equity that Taranaki shall not be the only province left out in the cold; and, if it cannot be got otherwise, let them require that there shall be set apart for the furtherance of this branch line, the sum of £67,000 which Otago is to receive in excess of the amount allotted to Auckland.