The Premier at Auckland.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIX, Issue 5905, 29 March 1894, Page 1

The Premier at Auckland.

(by telegraph. ) Auckland, March 28. The Premier received deputations today. He agreed to give LIOOO for the Auckland Hospital if the hospital board found another LIOOO for an extension of the accommodation. A large deputation from the Chamber of Commerce, headed by the chairman, waited on Mr Seddon re the gum industry. Mr Porter said that 7000 men were on the fields. The question was not purely an Auckland one, as Lloo,ooo to L 200,000 of money paid for gum went south for produce. A long discussion ensued in which nothing was settled. The Premier said that most of the proposals were in the main impracticable. He would not withdraw Crown lands frorii gum diggings. The private owners were getting the same royalties now as when the gum was high, and pressure should be brought to bear to get'them to share the depression. The appropriations for roads would not keep the men for a week. The only solution of the difficulty was to put the gumdiggers on the land. The export duty, was wrong in principle, and he would not support it. There was plenty of work, but many men had been improvident and had not provided for a rainy day when they had the opportunity. A deputation from the Northern Railway League asked the Premier what information he had as to what had been done lately with regard to collecting evidence as to the best route by way of Taranaki. The Premier feared they would have to ..fall back on the original central line. He thought it was immaterial to Auckland which way the railway went. What Auckland wanted at present was not.railway expenditure, but road making and settlement. The latter was in the realm of practical politics, while the former would;. require a big borrowing policy. He had impartially carried out the report of the committee, but he thought the money would have been better spent in road making. A deputation from the Auckland Institute waited on the Premier re the LittleBarrier Island question and the preservation of native birds reserve. The Premier said that action was blocked by certain natives who would not sell. He was with the Institute, and if the natives would not be reasonable, special legislation would be required and drastic measures adopted The Premier has decided not to deliver an address in Auckland at present. The Premier and party will leave in the steamer Chelmsford to-morrow for Tauranga on a visit to the Uriwera country. He will proceed to Whakatane, arid then start on his inland journey.