THE CLAIMS OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11780, 9 October 1901, Page 6

THE CLAIMS OF AUCKLAND.

MEETING OF CITIZENS.

RAILWAY COMMUNICATION.

THE QUESTION OF LAND

SETTLEMENT.

THE TRISCO MAIL SERVICE. i A public meeting, convened by the Mayor at the request of the Liberal Association, Trades and Labour Council, Chamber of Commerce and Liberal and Labour Federation, was held in the Y.M.C.A. Buildings last night to consider the questions of Main Trunk railway extension, Wellington to extreme North, land settlement and the San Francisco mail service. The Mayor (Mr. A. Kidd) presided, and there was a good attendance, among those present being Messrs. J H. Upton, F. Boclle, Graves Aickin, Wesley Spragg, R. French, Savage, W. B. Colbeck, W. Beehan, A. M. Myers, H. McLeod, E. Ford, P.. R- Hunt, Hill, J. McLachlan, C. W. Hemery, H. C. Tewsley, D. R. Caldwell, A. C. Caughev, Jno. McLeod, F. M. Kins, J. St. Clair, Geo. Higgins, C. J. Parr. T. Webb, J. Butt, Arthur Rosser and Dr Wallis. Apologies for absence were read from Messrs. J. Burns, J. J. Holland and Thos. Peacock, the latter, in his letter of apology, stating that ho would be glad to render all assistance possible to rouse the people of Auckland to a sense of the glaring injustice towards the North for years past in the allocation of the Public "Works expenditure. The construction at _ a much more speedy rate of progress of the- Main Trunk line from Wellington to Mangonui must be forced upon the attention of Parliament and the Government by every means possible. The completion of the line in justice to the North, in the interests of land settlement and as a profitable and statesmanlike scheme for the whole colony, it was the duty of Auckland's representatives to work for with unabating persistency.

MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY EXTENSION. Mr. Hugh McLeod, president of the Liberal and Labour Federation, who was entrusted with moving the first resolution with regard to railway construction, said the matter was one of the utmost importance to people of all shades of political opinion, and one affecting not only Auckland and the groat country of the North, but the welfare of the colony as a whole. He then moved as follows:—"This meeting of Auckland citizens, of all shades of political opinion, hereby declares its firm belief that the continuation and completion of the North Island Main Trunk railway, Wellington to the extreme North, has paramount claims on the attention of Parliament and the Government. That this meeting urges upon the Government and Parliament, and especially upon the representatives of this provincial district, the justice and expediency of this colonial work, which will certainly return good interest upon the outlay, " and by completing through railway communication between the northern and southern extremities of the island will materially assist in expediting the San Francisco postal service and in perfecting a comprehensive scheme of national defence." Speaking to the resolution, the mover said that, no doubt all present were aware that a considerable sum had last year been voted for pushing on the Main Trunk line between Wellington and Auckland. Some £120,000 had been expended in the direction indicated, and it was now for the people to see that the Government in future pledged itself to complete the line within the promised time, four years. One year of that time had already gone, and the Premier had issued a warning note indicating that there was to be a reduction in expenditure all round, but the people should see- that there was no failing in that promise, and that the line was completed within the promised time. An equally important question was that of the extension of the railways north of Auckland. The comparatively insignificant sum of £15,000 had last year been spent in railway construction in the North, while no less than £66,000 had been spent on the Otago Central line during the same period, a lino that, he had been informed, was run through practically valueless country, country that could not be utilised to any extent without the expenditure of something like £1,000,000 sterling in irrigation. The gum la ids of the North would not continue to be worked for over at a profit, and when this industry failed, attention would have to be devoted to the closer settlement of the land and the land north of Auckland was in the main in every way suitable for settlement. "Closer settlement in the North, and the completion of the Main Trunk line," should be the watchword of the people of Auckland, as the future prosperity of Auckland, to a, large extent, depended upon these works being carried out. There was a population of 47,000 people north of Auckland, who had all along borne their share of taxation, and yet this large section of the community had been allowed to grow grayheaded, waiting for the railway in the North, a line that had been creeping along at the slow rate of a mile and a-half a year. Mr. McLeod then quoted figures to show the injustice done to the North Island, as compared with the South, in the matter of expenditure on railway and rolling stock construction.

Mr. E. Ford, Maungaturoto, seconded. He said he as a country settler know something from experience of the wants of the North of Auckland. He regarded the meeting as representing almost every trade and branch of commercial interests of the colony, and whatever resolutions were passed would go forth with no uncertain sound. He believed the Government would not only listen to but would be influenced by the resolutions of such a meeting. All differences were for the time being sunk into insignificance, and all had met on one platform to advocate one common cause, the completion of the Main Trunk Railway, Wellington to Mangonui, with all possible speed. To be without railway communication was to be behind the times, and the increase of population and the growing prosperity of the North in conjunction with its undeveloped resources— there was good land in the North—entitled the North, with Auckland as its central city, to more prompt and proper consideration at the hands of the Government. He had no wish to dictate to the Government what route should be taken. Above all things he wished to avoid friction, and ho hoped that in connection with the extension of the railway northward the Government would not be provided with any excuse, if they desired to take advantage of it, that the people of the North were divided on this question. They should enforce their claims with a power that could not be disputed, they should see that the members of Parliament for the North did more to agitate this question in Parliament, and if the people did their part outside, then no Government could do otherwise than listen to the voice of the people. The primary object of railway construction should be the settlement of people on the land. One thing the people of the North were suffering from was loss of condition of stock, which had to travel long distances over very bad roads. That made a loss of 10s each on full grown cattle, and, besides that, it took from eirfht to 10 days to drive the cattle to the markets. Sheep also suffered at least from Is to 2s per head, and there was besides loss in the conveyance of fruit and farm produce. In the North they were contemplating going in for a butter factory, but when they considered what it would cost the butter-maker to get his butter to market, they were i'aco to face with a great difficulty. If they had a railway through the centre of the island that difficulty would be removed. It was not enough to say that there were in the province of Auckland 794,450 acres of land waiting for European settlement. That would not be much inducement for a Government to build a railway; it was too remote. But a great deal had already been done in the way of settlement. In the Maungaturoto and Whakapirau settlements alone they had cleared from 10,000 to 11,000 acres of bush land, which had been sown with good English and native grasses and wore now carrying thousands of" sheep and cattle. These were simply examples. Other places all round were similar in their capabilities. Settlement on the land was an absolute necessity to give backbone and stamina to the colony. In the extreme Ncrth there was coal, and through a wide extent of country there was lime. If the land in the North wanted anything it was lime, and if there was a railway the lime could bo utilised all over the North. The phrase " Roadloss North" was strictly true, but the quantity of metal cropping out from the mountains would astonish those who had not travelled in the North, and with a railway that could be utilised for the roads. Mr. Thos. Coates said he was familiar with the North, and could state that all Mr. Ford had said was perfectly true. Mr. Thos. Webb supported the resoluth n, and said if any people deserved the consideration of the Government it was the people who had gone up north. He knew something of the Northern settlers, and could sav they were men of noble grit. The resolution was then put to the meeting and carried unanimously.

Already a petition containing; over 20,000 si S has been sent to Parliament u:gof the speedy construction of th» railway. OPENING UP CROWN LANDS FOK U SETTLEMENT.

Mr C. J. Parr brought forward the question of the opening up of lands, for closer et k>ment. Ho said tho great of the settlement of the waste lands of Auckhmd must be clear to all. Auckland was SflaSest distributing centre in the colon* but, unlike other of the provinces more-than half of the available land was lying was.e and unproductive, a clear evidence of the dis advantages under which the city laboured Tier" was no reason why thousands and thousands of acres of good pastoral and agriBland should thus be allowed to lay waste • the land was in the hands of the Crown, but nothing had been done to throw these valuable areas open to settlement. In he upper reaches of the airoa North, and stretching on from Dargaville to Wha-no-arei thousands of acres of land were allowed to stand idle, which were in every way suitable for pastoral purposes, such as stockraWng and dairy farming. ..Then, again. while travelling from Te Kuiti through the King Country to Taranaki something like 20 000 acres of suitable land for settlement purposes had been brought under his notice, and it was surely hardly right or fair to the people of the North that this state of affairs shot-Id be allowed to continue to exist, lit the South large estates had been secured and thrown open for closer settlement, and while he saw no reason why this should not be—in fact, he believed that, judiciously conducted, the settlement would be for the good of the coiouv— was certainly for the people of the North to see that they were fairly treated in the matter of 'the opening up ot land for settlement purposes. They must object to the Government paying £15 to £20 per acre for land in the South, while 3t their own very dcors vast estates had been lying idle for years, and were still idle. The people of" Auckland wero to a great extent themselves to blame. They had been doing practically nothing: while, on the other hand, the people of the South had been alive to the position, and had brought pressure to bear that the Government had to yield to. It ■was for them to awake and to urge respectfully, vet firmly, upon the Government, the necessity for thriving the lands of the Nortn open for settlement. As' the most important centre of the colony, Auckland should demand attention. The trade from the districts that would be opened up would inevitably drain into the city, and there would be bettor times for all; a new era of prosperity would set in. He then moved: " That this meeting of citizens of Auckland is of opinion that the progress of this city and district is being most considerably retarded and prejudiced by tho delay of the Government in throwing open for settlement the large area of waste land in this provincial district, be longing to the Crown, and now lying idle and unproductive: and this meeting begs, respectfully and firmly, to press upon the attention of the hon. the Premier and his colleagues the necessity of taking further delay, to settle these lands." Mr. J. MeLachlan seconded, and the resolution, on being submitted to the meeting, was carried unanimously, amidst applause.

THE 'FRISCO MAIL SERVICE.

Mr. A. M. Myers moved, " That this meeting strongly urges upon the Government the necessity in the best interests of the colony to use their best efforts to arrange for a continuance for a fixed period of years of the San Francisco service, with Auckland as the port of call, both inward and outward. He said Auckland was united on this question, and it might be asked why it was continually cropping up for discussion. But they could easily see by the discussions in. the House of Representatives and from the leading articles in the Southern newspapers that tremendous pressure was being brought to bear on the Government, and that this service was at present in great jeopardy of being lost to Auckland. During the discussion of the Estimates last week it could be easily seen that a determined attempt was going to be made against the continuance of the San Francisco service, as Mr. Millar, tho member for Duneuin, was particularly anxious to get an expression of opinion that when passing the mail item it did not binu them to support the continuance of the above service. A Southern newspaper, in a leading article, stated that "unfortunately the people and representatives of Auckland have come to look upon the San Francisco service aa a peculiar and inalienable perquisite of the Northern city. No matter how faulty that service may be, no matter how disadvantageous to the colony, as a whole may b& the expenditure of large sums upon its maintenance, Auckland members are expected to sacrifice every other political consideration to its continuance, and they are given to understand that any slackening upon this allimportant question will imperil their Parliamentary career." However, this newspaper admits that the colony had something to gain from getting regular communication with the i United States—the other great Englishspeaking community, which was destined to share with Australasia the control of the Pacific that tho mail service brought us visitors, and helped to spread a knowledge of New Zealand, and indirectly, in spite of the hostile American tariff, encouraged trade, and was the quickest means of transport for letters and passengers between this colony and the United Kingdom. On the other side, the fact that our own Union Company was not able to participate in the contract seemed to be the only valid reason that they could urge against it. All this showed the necessity for urging on the Government to take immediate action to put the service on a more satisfactory footing, for, in his opinion, this was a question second only in importance to Auckland to the removal of the seat of Government. Up to last year there was a monthly service doing the trip from San Francisco to Auckland in 21 days, and in 1899 that service cost the New Zealand Government £29,739 10s 6d. Now new-

6000-ton boats had been put on to do the trip in 16 days. They all deplored very much that several breaks down had prevented these boats from carrying out their contract in its entirety. That was, no doubt, due to the building of the boats being rushed on too quickly, but the people who were responsible for this service were too intelligent to allow things to remain in that position much longer, and there was every reason to believe that the contract of 16 days from port to port, and the mails delivered in London in 26 days, would be carried out; in fact, the mails by the last trip of the Ventura were landed in London in 26 days and a few hours. The average mail money earned by the Oceanic Company, tinder the present poundage arrangement, was £1135 per trip. As 17 steamers per annum left Auckland, this meant a total of £19,285, or, roughly, £20,000. The Government had offered the Spreckels Company £15.000 per annum, which offer had been declined, Messrs. Spreckels asking £25,000 per annum, and a five years' contract. As the poundage, amounted to £20,000, nil the Government would have to pay for the advantages of this most speedy service between here and the Old Country would be a few paltry thousand pounds. He was surprised that the Premier, who had shown such intelligence and energy, and been so progressive in his policy, should hesitate for a moment to take advantage of the facilities offered by the present service, and put it on a more satisfactory footing. The shortest average time via Suez last year to any New Zealand port was 39.38 days, and via "Vancouver about 37 days, while they were offered via Frisco a 26 "days' service. Why, then, should there be any" agitation? Reluctantly, he had to state that the influence of interested parties was at work, and they had absolutely nc legitimate argument to offer against the service, except the non-participation by British-owned boats. That was a matter for regret. It was humiliating to our national dignity that no British-owned boat could participate at the present time, but they all knew how that had arisen, and they hoped that the New Zealand Government would, through the Imperial authorities, bring the position before the United States Government, and that they would be successful in overcoming the difficulty. But the same objection would apply to any other service. The mails via Suez were carried across Italy and Franco, and mails across the Atlantic often by American boats. It had been stated that business people now did most of their business correspondence by cable. .In reply to that he was there to say, as a commercial man, that as far as the commercial community were concerned, they appreciated the fast mail service just as much as ever before He almost thought it would be imnertinent on Ins part to refer to the question of the port of call. How any intelligent nerson could endeavour to divert the port of call from Auckland was beyond his comprehension, I be trip to Auckland was shorter by 300 miles, and the narboui; was at all times safe, while at Wellington there were times when steamers might, owing to bad weather, have to he out for two or three days. Auckland and Taranaki represented a fourth of the popuat.on of the colony, yet they were su P posed to have no rights. But this was a provincial question, it was a colonial question of. very great importance. Sir George Via should be reduced to a minimum, and outvie 111 b . C reduced to » minimum, the San f! ™ Stages mainly gathered for the ban Francisco mail. "° could it WO of keep , ins in touch with 80,000000 of people, sneaking the S.; an?e > a »d who had" the same traditions and sympathies, was not of great importance to the people of New Zealand? A speedy connection with America by up-to-date boats would bo an advantage to the whole colony, no only from a Sail standpoint, ■out from, a comaneroiai standpoint, and the importance of the tourist aspect of the

miestion was not,, in his opinion, realised by 2he majority of the people of Tvw especially after the visit of the Duke and dSSoss. of York, and after the sending 0 our boys to South Africa had brought pro«a. nentlv before the world where New Zealand «La In having a stream of tounsts passing throusrb the colony would benefit not only bv the amount of money they would spend, but in their spreading a knowledge of ft, country; and hero was New Zealand, the wonderland of the world, offering on thewhole attractions to tourists that no other country in the world could offer, questioning the advisability of keeping in touch with -Vmerica, which, he believed, meant thousand} of pounds to the colony, directly and indirectly. The Government certainly did not seem to realise the importance of the mattor and it was by the people showing they were in earnest that they could strengthen the hands of their representatives. On this point they must say to the Auckland m* m . ier* "You must vote as one man. irrespecrive of party." It would be a crying shame to Auckland, and a great loss to the colony, if such a catastrophe as the stopping of tins se-vice were to occur. Mr. Arthur Rosser seconded. He said it was time that Aucklanders awoke to their position, and to a realisation of then own importance as a part of the colony. The Southern men had been united. They might have had their little differences, but they -J. ways united when any subject of interest to the whole province cropped up. It was time Auckland had a little of the same discipline. They should show an undivided front on the question of the San Francisco mail service. The San Francisco service had lieen proved to be the speediest means of transport for mail matter'and passengers to the old land, and because of that it deserved the consideration of the whole colony. During tin last 20 years it had held its own with every other service. They could calculate the if. rival of the Alameda, the Mariposa, the Moana, and tho other boat? in the service a!most to an hour. "Where could they find another service they could say that about? The chief objection the Southerners had to the San Francisco service was that on its arrival at Auckland the Southern mails were delayed. That was a very potent argument in favour of the Main Trunk railway, and if the Southern members were in earnest in this matter they would help the Auckland members to get speedy connection with Wei. lington, and then their objection to the San Francisco 'service would be removed. They had been toM that they must not engender a narrow provincial spirit. Well, Auckland in the past ha/1 been too meek in this matter : now they must put on a bold front and stand up for their right; after that they might talk of engendering a broad colonial spirit. The meekness of Auckland in this matter was due to the apathy of tho community, and in that matter the workingmen and the well-to-do classes were both equally to blame. They should move the Harbour Board and see that proper facilities were provided for the discharge of cargo, so that there would bo every inducement to send Targe steamers to the port. If they lost the San Francisco service, which was so distinctively Auckland in its character, tho next move on the part of the southerners would be to remove. Eotorua and tho wonderland also.

Mr. H. C. Tfrtvsley, in supporting the resolution, said there could be no doubt that no other service could come near tho San Francisco service as regarded time, etc.; the excellence of the service for the post 30 years had clearly shown that. The question of the San Francisco service was merely introduced into Parliament by the people of the South, who were jealous of Axickland's possession of what might be termed its last littlestraw, and were anxious to take it from the North. He urged that the people of Auckland should stand shoulder to shoulder in the matter of the service in ouestion, and say that it must be continued. They should bo prepared to say to their members of Parliament, in the event of their coming back without doing their duty to Auckland with regard to the throe great questions under discussion that evening, " You can take » back scat."

Mr. R. French also supported. He said, in new of possible European complications, it was of importance to strengthen our connection with America. If they had America vitally interested in the Pacific they might bo pretty sure that the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack would keep the peace of the world.

Mr. Tyson, on behalf of the irades and Labour Council, said the 600 or 700 electors he represented would present a solid front on the question of the San Francisco mail service. He endorsed all that .had been said on tbo three questions before the meeting, and stated that if the Government did not deal fairly by Auckland on these three questions the workers would seriously consider the matter. . -..,.,. Mr. J. McLachlan also spoke. The motion was carried with enthusiasm.

On the motion of Mr. A. Rosser, it was decided that copies of the resolutions adopted should bo sent to the- Premier and Auckland members of Parliament, and a vote of thanks to the Mayor for convening the meeting and presiding terminated the proceedings.