AUCKLAND.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 1980, 10 May 1875, Page 2

AUCKLAND.

This day.

Opening of the Provin-

cial Council.

The Superintendent's

Speech.

His Honor the Superintendent opened the Council at three o'clock this afternoon. In his speech- he referred with regret to the death of Mr Williamson, and. hoped to be able jointly during the sessiou to make some fitting recognition of his services arid his devbtio'h, which were unsurpassed by,any .other man in the Colony. He hoped to be able to promote the happiness and prosperity of the Province. The prosperity of a state depended largely on its finance; upon the maintenance of its integrity and punctuality* in dealings with the public, and individuals. He had, therefore, directed special attention to the financial position of the Province, and lie found that the Provincial revenue little exceeded £15,000 a year; Goldfields revenue, £10,500; from the General Government they should be entitled to £17,500 from capitation and special allowance ; and the land revenue would perhaps amount to £2,000, but such large deductions were to be made by the General Government that they cannot reckon on receiving more than two thirds. While the provincial revenue was so small, a large revenue—provincial and general, amounting -to £300,086 — was raised in the Province, making the taxation £4 12s per head on the entire population; so that each small farmer or laborer with a wife and four children contributes £27 12s yearly from taxation towards the revenue. He considered the condition of the laborer one of hardship ; the taxation bearing on the I necessaries of life falling; heavily on the poor. Impoverished by this indirect taxation, he is deprived of many comforts which his providence entitle him to; yet small provison is made from this taxation for education. He next referred to the £40,000 advance from the General Government. Twelve thousand of that advance had been paid, but the Government refused to carry out the agreement entered into, on the ground that only £24,000 were to be paid in one year, as if it were an annual grant. He wished the Council to consider whether he should accept any further sums upon account Of this advance, as it involved a sacrifice of half the land revenue in the first two. years, as repayment, and the whole thereafter until the advance was repaid, thus causing a diminution of the revenue in future years. Such advances mislead the public, who appear to receive a boon, but they merely cause an increased indebtedness and dependence. No doubt the province had been greatly wronged in its revenue, and he thought it better, instead of begging for advances to be repaid, that he should quietly but manfully require that justice be done to the inhabitants of Auckland—that an immediate stop should be put to the extravagant expenditure which is effecting our ruin, and that our financial right of spending ourselves the main part of our revenue to us by the Constitution Act) be at once restored to the province. By another enactment of; the General Government £50,000 were granted to the Pumping Association. The Government now desired to make this a charge on the province. The papers connected with it would be laid On the table, for the Council to decide whether it shall assume that liability, and annually vote such portions as the Association require. Of the £60,000 voted for roads north of Auckland only £10,000 had been placed at tho disposal of the province. : As the Council were aware the Assembly voted £250,000 to purchase a" landed estate from the natives of the Province. The Provincial authorities had never been consulted in the purchases made, and knew nothing of the remuneration given to land purchasers, but the Province had been given 123,936 acres, but of this 108,000 had been inspected for the purpose of determining the character of the land of which the Provincial Government had become possessed, and it was found that only 2,699 acres were really good agricultural land; 8,674 acres second class; and 96,180 acres of land of no agricultural value whatever. Considerable portions of the land acquired were also embarrassed by native leases to Europeans for cutting timber, etc, Reviewing the whole position, they had the extraord nary spectacle of Auckland, _ with all her manifold resources and her industrious population, raising a large revenue, making little or no progress: the cause was not difficult to discover. Of all the colonies Auckland alone possessednoland fund, notwithstanding, that the foresight of the Imperial Government had created a landed for the benefit of the European natives of colony. This fact had impoverished and ruined multitudes of industrious families. The claim of Auckland 'upon thp land fund was a subsisting, Jiving right. No wrongful act of one set of representatives could lastingly deprive the peoplo of then? rights. He still believed that either by the adjustment of the payment of interest on thp public debt, or some similar means, a method must be found for making reparation to the people of this province for the wrong inflicted upon them, and in recognition of their rights to participate in the future in the benefit of the land fund. Although these may now be small from the purchases made, they would see there was no hope that any land fund of importance would eve? b,e derived Irom the expenditure of the £250,000. Tp rely on this as a mode of extricating the province from its diffir cultics would be unwise, as in cas/s pf the loans mentioned, which he thought ghould not be recognised, they were being treated as children. He preferred fio rest on actual rights. If the large debt we owe werp charged to the land fund, settlemjenf; would be stopped. The interests of the humbler classes were sacrificed in another, form,

whilst those most largely benefited escaped. Next he alluded in detail to the i evenue of £309,086, derived from the province, and endeavored to show that after allowing for gaols and courts ' of justice £250,000 was taken from tho province and spent elsewhere. It was a difficult thing to remedy. He reviewed the revenue of the colony, shewing that of the-estimated total of £1,450,000, the* item of interest absorbed £850,000, lcav ing but bare margin for making reduc- { tions, and although a largo saving might and should be s effected off tha extravagant system, yet this divided among the provinces would reduce by very little the burdens, of the inhabitants. It might be said that additional taxation must be imposed, but a limit of profitable taxation had already been reached in the' direction already adopted, and it was very doubtful if further taxation in that direction would much increase the revenue, whilst it certainly greatly diminished the comforts and progress of tho inhabitants of the province. The income realised from railroads when completed would do much towards paying the interest on the debt, but the cost ot maintenance: and repairs for several years would be so large, compared with tho possible traffic on such railroads, that but a very small margin of profit, if any, could be available for public purposes. Tho plan that ;appoared to hold out the greatest hope of considerable increase in the revenue is to attempt by largely reducing the present gystem of taxation to lower the cost "of clothing and the prime necessaries of life. This would relieve tho mass of the population from heavy burdens; which now impede their industry and limit their comforts. Small farmers and the inhabitants of country districts would then be able to carry.on operations freed from some of the burdens by which they were now over weighted, but even when this was done it would still be necessary to have recourse to a system of taxation by which the wealthy would be required to contribute to the necessities of the state to an extent which bore some proportion to tho value of their property. He; believed, that in this|way;ia larger revenue would, be realised from- customs and ordinary taxation than is obtained under the present heavy rates of duty, and that commerce and trade would revive and increase; whilst the- amounts obtained from taxes to which those realising large fortunes were forced to contribute would form a valuable i addition r .to, the revenue. Referring to immigration he contrasted the number of immigrants sent to Auckland with those to Otagb and Canterbury, and thought them small as compared with the liability incurred on their account. The Governor had recently, by an Order in Council restricted the powers of legislation conferred upon Provincial Councils .by the Constitution Act. He was not satisfied that these orders could be lawfully issued, and had raised doubts on the point, which had caused the orders to be suspended pending a reconsideration of the question. Correspon • dence on the subject would be laid before them. Any representations by the j Council relative to Mr Vogel's Abolition Resolutions would receive due consideration. The system of Education was working. well. Its cost during, the year was £21,000. The subject would be brought before them in greater detail, and he proposed to ask them to make provision for the ordinary Provincial services for a period of six months from, Ist July to 31st December 1875. In the meantime the General; Assembly will have met, and they would understand the future financial prospects more clearly than they could at present. The amount of legislation they would bo asked to perform would be but small, consisting chiefly in amendments of Acts.