THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13. 1903. THE WANTS OF AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12269, 13 May 1903, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 13. 1903. THE WANTS OF AUCKLAND.

We can. all the more cordially welcome -to Auckland the Premier and the Minister for Public Works because they-enust sooner or later become convinced that Departmental attention to the wants of the province is unavoidably necessary. The neglect of which we have had such good cause to complain, and which is responsible for political developments that the most firmly-seated Administration can hardly view with indifference, has not prevented the natural advantages of Auckland from being practically demonstrated. We have no desire to belittle the progress and the prosperity of the South Island or to make any comparison between the fertile plains of Canterbury and the very different agricultural character of the North. But it has been abundantly proved that in a number of ways the North contains the capacity for supporting a great and profitably employed population. The dairying industry of the colony, as an instance, is mainly a Northern one, and upon it the commercial standing of New Zealand more and more relies. The official returns for the expired year shows that while the dairying work of the South is actually falling off that of, the North is advancing by leaps and bounds. In butter alone the North Island, besides supplying a large local demand, has exported l to the value of close upon one million pounds sterling, the South Island being almost exactly eight hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling behind. Even in cheese, a less promising product, the North holds the lead. There is no part of the North which shows greater activity in dairying than this province of ours and no part of New Zealand which affords greater scope for Department encouragement in developing the latent resources of the country. We can point to the statistical fact that the marked increase in our colonial dairy factories during the past year is not only most noticeable in Auckland, but is almost entirely confined to this province. Mr. Seddon is rightfully fond of quoting the rise of the butter trade as an illustration of the agricultural possibilities of New Zealand and of its inexhaustible sources of national revenue. May we not as reasonably ask of him that he shall recognise the part the " neglected North" plays in this greai trade, and that he and his Ministers shall loyally assist us in expanding it to its full capacity by obtaining for us the roads, the railways, and the bridges, for lack of which dairying progress is so sadly retarded 1

We hope that neither Mr. Seddon nor Mr. Hall-Jones will tell us that in the matter of roads, railways and bridges—the three essentials of sound public administration—this province is advancing as fast as it has any right to expect. It is to the advantage, as it is the duty, of the national Government to facilitate and encourage the wealth production upon which our national revenues depend. Yet the North still lies a neglected storehouse of riches, where settlers struggle against difficulties which only Government can remove and hardly win a tithe of the wealth that might be opened to the public. At Gisborne, one of our provincial ports, which has no reason to congratulate itself upon Departmental favour, the exports for the first four months of 1903 were fairly doubled in value as against 1902, rising from. £118,000 to £238,000. Mr. Seddon may well boast a little in London of such a showing. Yet, as was stated by our correspondent in telegraphing these returns last week, the Gisborne district of Auckland Province has still half-a-million acres of Crown Lands out of use and a million acres of Maori Lands unoccupied. When we add to this that Gisborne is almost without railway facilities and that its lonely railway drags as though every new mile were as difficult as on the Panama Canal, we have surely good cause for complaint. The immediately throwing open of the locked-up lands would speedily rebound to that industrial prosperity of which the Government

is always drawing our attention, but not more than would the energetic prosecution of railway connection with the main provincial system at Botorua. For administration to equal the requirements of the case, railway construction should be pushed through from both ends, in the certain knowledge that it would not only result profitably to the Railway Department, but strengthen the finances, of the colony by enormously increasing the production of agricultural wealth. Idle land is worthless to a colony and to the Government. Isolated areas are hardly less worthless and entail an unnecessary struggle for bare subsistence on the part of brave settlers, whose energies should not be wasted when a young and burdened community needs the help of every industrious citizen. Mr. Seddon has told us that land settlement is to be the Alpha and Omega of his land policy. We heartily hope so, bub we as heartily hope that he will remember that roads, railways and bridges are the A B C of land settlement.

If the Government, in its insular lack of knowledge of the capacities of the North and in the ignorance of its Southern supporters and opponents that there may be supreme agricultural value away from the magnificent plains of Canterbury and the stony ridges of Central Otago, should still doubt the wisdom of encouraging Northern settlers, we would remind Mr. Seddon and Mr. Hall-Jones that the steady stream of immigration from the South to the North Island oughfc to change its view. As we have said, we do not seek to make comparison of lands where both are good according to their kind, but it must be evident to them that shrewd and capable agriculturists, born and bred in the South and originally prejudiced against the North, are flocking here in increasing numbers. At the low price at which Northern land can be purchased, many farmers with capital find it the most profitable investment they can make to enter the dairying industry in this province. It is impossible for any Departmental negligence to prevent this. And why should it be prevented? The South is assured of its future, and so is the North. What we want is not that the Government should assure our future, for nothing under the sun can prevent Auckland Province from winning its way to the front in its own particular specialties. But we say that it is the duty and should be the pleasure of an Administration to hasten and expedite that future, as much in its own interests as in the interests of local districts and of private citizens. Give us roads, give us -railways, give us bridgesand open up the land ! The soil of Auckland can produce that which pays for it all and which will repay a hundredfold every assistance that the Government can afford us. Already it more than pays its share of taxes, more than contributes its quota to a national revenue which depends completely upon industrial production. The province only wants fair and friendly consideration at Wei- i lington, only asks for the roads, the railways and the bridges so abundantly provided in the South; these given—for the land and the climate are already here—it would speedily double its population, its wealth production, and its revenue contribution ; it would help to lighten, for! the entire colony as for itself, that i financial burden which is oii'y oppressive because it falls upon this colony as it is and not upon it as it 'might be. We trust that the Premier and the Minister for Works will consider these pressing wants of Auckland and will return South to persuade their supporters that the province only asks what is its due and should receive it.