New Zealand Times. FRIDAY OCTOBER 16, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4235, 16 October 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. FRIDAY OCTOBER 16, 1874 .

“ Misrepresentation, ” it has been said, “is the most powerful weapon in the “ armoury of the ultra-provincialists.” This is true beyond any manner of doubt, and its truth is being made apparent in a great variety of ways. In Canterbury, for example, the cry is : “ The land fund “ is in danger —a cry which has been faintly echoed over the border in Otago, but which has found little response in that very practical and money-making province. The Lyttelton Times is the organ of the party in question, and it is unremitting in its efforts to persuade Canterbury, with its overflowing treasury and immunity from direct taxation which presses so heavily upon the North, that its prosperity is a delusion, and that in truth and fact the majority in the Assembly, composed largely of Canterbury settlers and landed proprietors, means to confiscate its public estate and seize upon its revenues. Those who write, as well as those who read, the statements to which we refer, may come to believe them, through their frequent repetition ; but their very absurdity is the best possible refutation. However, it is consoling to know that Canterbury is not left to the misleading statements of the Lyttelton Times. The Press has frequently put the exact state of the case before the public there; and the Timaru Herald, of the 9th instant, effectually disposes of “the “ Middle Island land fund bugbear.” Our Timaru contemporary reviews the outspoken address of Mr, Parker to his Waimate constituents, and coincides with that gentleman’s conclusions. These are in effect, —“that provincialism in the “ North has broken down of its own “ accord, and must of necessity be re- “ placed by something better ; that pro- “ rincialism in the South is little worth “ preserving, and might be included in “ one general Act of Abolition without “ any injury to the country; that no 1 ‘ measure would be supported by a “ majority of the Assembly which did “ not provide for local expenditure of a ‘ ‘ fair share of land revenue, and that so “ long as that was secured, it mattered “ little to the people, or rather would be “ better for them, if the balance went to “reducing the general taxation instead “ of being spent by the Provincial “ Governments. This,” remarks the Timaru Herald, “is good sound sense, “ and really disposes of the whole ques- “ tion about the land fund.” Unquestionably it does, but then our ultraprovincialist friends, who protest their secret abhorrence of the provincial system, will not admit that it does so. Still on the misrepresentation trail, they protend to have discovered a nefarious design, on the part of the Premier, to seize the land revenue and despoil the outlying districts, and without a tittle of evidence such as would satisfy any impartial man that there is even a reasonable ground for suspicion, they declare the accusation proven, and pronounce sentence of political degradation accordingly. Their only hope of ultimate success lies in misrepresenting the motives and intentions of the Government, wherefore they deal in misrepresentations daily. But were the case fairly stated, we venture to say that the General Government would have no more strenuous supporters than the settlers living in places remote from the seats of Provincial Government. Major Jackson declared, in his speech to his Waikato constituents the other day, that “ the Provincial “ Government of Auckland was too far “ away ; that it never did anything for “ the district; and that if it had not ‘ ‘ been for the General Government the “ Waikato would have fared badly.” Wo quote from memory, but we give the substance of his remarks. And we know that he spoke the naked truth. So it is in every province of the colony. The outlying districts are sacrificed to purchase political support by expenditure of public money in the more populous districts. And this brings us straight to the question of the land fund. Tho proposal of the Government is to localise the expenditure of the land revenue in the North Island ;—there is no present intention of disturbing tho Middle Island provinces, wherefore tho Councils of tho Southern provinces will continue to appropriate, as formerly, the revenue raised in the remote districts in aid of works in and around tho centres of population. The Government is acquiring a vast landed estate in the North, which will yield a large revenue, and a fair proportion of this revenue is to bo applied, on a well-defined plan, to local purposes. In this way, every district would enjoy its own land revenue. There would be an end of provincial jobbery and favoritism. But the Superin - tendental party, all over the colony, dread the application of an • equitable principle

in the distribution of the land fund. The contrast between North and South would be so marked,i that their system would not stand the ordeal of public scrutiny, and their power, and patronage would pass away. It is to retain these, and not to improve the condition of their respective provinces, that they fight. They dread, above all things, the localisation of the land fund, but it is the bounden duty of the Press and representatives of the people to make the country really understand the point at issue. On this part of the subject, the remarks and illustration in the Timaru Herald are so apposite, that we reprint them :

Sir Craokoft Wilson, tho other day, told the Heathcoto electors that though he had supported the Resolutions, he yet was prepared to fight with a rope round his neck and do all sorts of eccentric reasonable things, in defence of the land fund. What land fund? The land fund raised in the Heathcoto district? Not at all; Heathcoto has no land fund. It Is the land fund raised in districts such as Timaru, Waltangi, Ashburton, and so forth, but partially spent in other and landless districts like Heathcoto, that Sir Cracroet Wilson is prepared to shed, the last drop of his blood for. It is amusing to notice the fervor with which gentlemen like Mr. Reeves, too, work on the feelings of their constituents, with this bogey of a land fund question. They seem altogether to overlook the fact that the country districts from which the land fund really comes, do not care a straw what becomes of tho balance of that fund, so long as their local claims are satisfied. Lot us take an instance. During the month of September last, the land revenue from the Waitangi district amounted to £16,080, and that from Timaru to £0907, making together nearly three times as much as that from all the rest of tho province, f or the same period. Now are we to bo told that the inhabitants of those two districts really desire that, their own wants having been liberally supplied, the remainder of this money should be spout between the Hurunul and the Waitangi? We know that they do not; on the other hand, if it must all be spent somewhere, it would suit the purposes of these districts much better if it were spent in North Otago than in North Canterbury ; and best of all if It went as Mr. Parker suggested, towards reducing the taxation which presses on the inhabitants of all districts alike.

This places the question in a practical shape before the South Canterbury settlers, and we are convinced that not these alone, but the bulk of the Otago settlers as well, would hail with satisfaction the localisation of the land revenue. But Suporiutendentalism could not exist with extended powers of local administration in the out-districts. Hence all the fuss about the sacredness of the Constitution, and an appeal to the ballot boxes while the people were yet ignorant of the merits of the question proposed to be submitted to them.