THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1898.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10837, 22 August 1898, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 1898.

» In his recent speech in the House on the Financial Statement, Mr. Bollard put tho question of tlio Trunk Railway in a nutshell. "There were," he said, "a sufficiently large number of Auckland members supporting the Government, to go to Ministers and say, ' If you don't make this line wo can't see our way to support you any longer.' They would soon bring tho Premier to his knees. There were sufficient Auckland members on tho Ministerial sido of the House to turn out tho Government. Why did thoy not do it 1" Now, if there is one question that abovo nil others concerns tho people of Auckland, city and provincial district alike, it is this of.tho isolation of tho place. We believo there is not an intelligent man in Auckland that does not believe this, and that for workers dependent on the expansion of employment, and for traders and owners of property too, and for everyono whose interests are in any way bound up in the place, there is not another colonial question i of so deep and vital interest. Yet as ] we see from Mr. Bollard's statement— ■ which is fully borno out by what anyone may know of the position—if the representatives of Auckland were | unanimous on the subject, and put • joint and honest pressure on the Government, tho Ministers would be obliged to concede the terms. Of the ■ 16 members which represent the city and provincial district in the House, nine are supporters of the Government, ' and seven are in opposition. Those nine . have it in their power to put such pressure on the Government, that if they declared to Ministers the ne- ' cessity for this work of simple equity and colonial' justice being done, it must be done. When wo see, therefore, even tho Trades and Labour Council of Auckland convening a public meeting with the object of pressing this paramount duty on Ministers, we not unreasonably ask, Why. is it not done 1, The flippant and shallow answer of Mr. Holland that if he had the guarantee that the incoming Government would do the work "he might consider the matter in the meantime" is no statement of the ,_ case. Even if he had such guarantee Mr. Holland would still follow Minis- - tens to the crack of the whip, and his , qualified admission of what he would do is evidence of tho fact. But one simple truth is clear, that if the electors of the Auckland City and provincial district had filled those nine seats with men of the right stamp, men able to call their souls their own and back their opinions with deeds, the united phalanx of Auckland members could very certainly have • brought such pressure on the administration, that this long, unfulfilled claim fit right and of justice would have been conceded to Auck- , land. This is the penalty we have to ' pay for sending down to Wellington two parties of members able to neutralise one another and so make the ? vote of Auckland a practical nullity in tho House. ; It is the same course that Auckland has almost uniformly

H..«v« true f'S iß , ° S tie * : Acnvevti history of the dis- ™* we do not see that this tact nas nab to obtain for the district tlus Is oWon. What is the inference its- Is it not that tho from tins' ia V" u „.. p nv „,. n . ben who have th'e ear of the Govern nSnt have not tried to turn their n- £ x account l this «** S but contenting themselves with Crumbs they could gather or several constituencies, because these S votes for their own ley have been disinclined to use the aSal influence of their pressure on £ Government, to obtain this greatest of all boons for the community is something very ridiculous to hav the protestations of some of the mem 7who servilely follow Mimsto into the lobby as to their anxiety abort the Trunk line, when anyone with half an eye can see that they subordinate this question to others of a merely heootinnl kind that have not one-tenth of its bearing on the welfare of the people The public may well be wearied o this hollowness of profession, and i electors do not take a note Of it, and act on their convictions, when the opportunity is afforded, they deserve what they get. One thing should be very clearlv impressed on the public | mind of the city and provincial dis- , trict, that if these nine scats had been < filled with men having the intellectual I ability and moral strength to command ; the attention of the Government, we should not be idly praying for an act ; of justice, which the head of the bovernmontchafflngly says may come in the sweet by-and-by." Wo observe that a Southern paper, in speaking of the insistence of Auckland respecting the Trunk Railway, and the desire expressed that it should be a rallying cry, says, to such base uses have polities come. It adds that it does not believe that the patriotic men and womon of the Auckland province will listen to such advice; that it is a degradation of politics and shows a great degeneration from the olden days. In fact, it says it is putting the Auckland vote up to auction, and the party that will give the best pledge will get it. Now this is very heroic, but it wholly overlooks the actual state of the case. Wo do not know anything more unworthy than tho selfish outcry of province against province, and the scramble' of the provinces, which— our Southern contemporary to the contrary, notwithstanding—was really characteristic of "the olden days." Tho colony has risen abovo that to a large extent, and we trust the spirit will never bo revived. But this is merely the demand for tho rectification of an admitted wrong. Even our Southern contemporary will admit that tho completion of the Trunk line in both islands was of the essence of the original compact on which the great policy of Immigration and Public Works was based; and that that essential portion of the compact is still unfulfilled, even while new I and then unheard of railways in the ! South Island have since been undertaken and constructed, and while the South Island has received and enjoys, with equal population, over 30 per cent, more of railway expenditure than its equal share. Further than this, as everyone knows, a special loan was raised to make this Northern Trunk line; and so complete the terms of the original understanding, and it was not expended for this purpose, but diverted to other purposes of general utility to the colony. To I demand the reparation of this wrong, the restoration of this fund to its proper purpose, tho fulfilment of that original compact, and tho equalisation of railway expenditure, is not degeneration in politics. But if we were asked where degeneration was, and whoro we could find an illustration of polities turned to "base uses," we should point to a community of Englishmen, reputed to bo actuated by the British spirit of fairplay, yet refraining from taking steps to have this injustice rectified, and taunting the wronged and injured people of this Northern city and province with meanness and degeneration, and with a prostitution of politics in asserting the determination to have admitted justice done. The meanness is with those who, apparently blinded by selfishness, throw on Auckland the insidious and humiliating necessity of seeming to revive the old and hateful spirit of the provincial scramble.