POLITICAL NOTES & NOTIONS

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 33, 30 April 1881, Page 352

POLITICAL NOTES & NOTIONS

Two very big questions sprung up during the last session. They are little understood, and a few words may be useful about them. They will be very likely to affect parties during the next session, and have laid the seeds of alienation between Auckland and the only true and steadfast ally she ever had in the Assembly. Side by side she has fought with Otago hitherto. She is still allied by a community of sentiment, especially on the great question of local government, for which the two provinces fought staunchly together against the influence of Canterbury and of the smaller provinces which Canterbury had gathered around her.

The first question was that of the Otago Central Railway, which a great majority of the people of Otago had much at heart. It was to cost a little over a million, to be be fully recouped by the sale of Government land, of which some millions of acres would be opened by it. The abortive railway commission was sent hastily over the worst part of the country to be opened by this line. It became an admirable buffer for the Government, which had no desire to open the country (as the Otago people declare) because many of their supporters held nearly all of it in leases for sheep runs which were about to expire, and which they could not hope to get renewed if a railway opened the country for settlement.

The Railway Commissioners could not be supposed to know much about this extensive country. But they condemned the line. The reply of the Otago people was that the Commissioners were wrong, and that they did not ask money to make the line. It should cost the Colony nothing. They could undertake to make it out of the land that it would open up and sell. It would give them huge crops of grain, would enable them to load hundreds of

ships at Port Chalmers, and would push ahead the province and the Colony. Give us only power to do it, they said, and it will be done without charge to the rest of the Colony. Refuse us, and you are shutting up vast tracts as sheep runs for another ten years, instead of adding immensely to the population and wealth of the Colony. Worse still, the land will gradually be bought up at a low rate by the runholders, and then yoxi will have pressure for "this railway which you now refuse. It will then go through private land, and the people will be taxed, while private persons will make fortunes out of it. Make the line first and sell the land afterwards was the Southern members' cry. They were pretty well unanimous, but were out-voted ; and among those who outvoted them were a large majority of Auckland men. The Otago members were sore •enough, and made no secret of their soreness at the time.

We now observe that Vincent Pyke has taken ■up these Bills. The county of which he is chairman is deeply interested in the line, audit will no doubt be strongly agitated for by him and many •others. _ Some of the Otago members opposed the project, as it would tend to divert traffic from other ports to Dunedin. But they were in a minority. The Auckland members joined in the opposition because, apparently, they were jealous that Otago should get railways while they were getting none. That, at ali events, was, # and is, the belief of the Otago members, .and it very much impaired the union that had :so long existed between them The Auckland members certainly knew nothing of the country, and had to choose between accepting the report of the Commissioners and that of those who had so much fuller local knowledge to guide them. They had also the assurance that it would not cost the Colony a penny, but could be made by grants to a company, or part of the land through which it ran, while it would considerably enhance the value of that which was left for the benefit of the Colonial Treasury. Such was the first cause of discord that arose between them.

The second cause was the withdrawal of 20 per cent, of the land fund guaranteed, as the Otago members held, by the Act under which abolition of the provinces was accomplished. The Otago people had always acted with broad views of settlement in dealing with their land. They had eschewed the idea of selling it merely to bring money into the local Treasury, but had held it back for boiia fide settlement. They maintained that without some guarantee this 20 per cent, would be locally available for opening up the land, it would not sell. The Colony" would thus be damaged as well as the province. It was appropriating the country virtually to use merely as sheep runs for an indefinitely longer period. To understand this it must be remembered that the Crown Lands in Otago are not covered with fern, but with natural grasses. It is important that this should be kept in mind, as it gives the land a value in its natural state which Auckland fern lands do not possess. If this value were all to go into the Colonial Treasury there could be no main roads unless the general Government would make them, and that it was a declared part of the Government policy not to do.

Canterbury was differently situated. Their land laws had given free selection, and had led to enormous sales to runholdcrs anxious to pick out the eyes of the country and so secure the grazing on inferior lands for many years to come. It would not be worth any one's while to buy these inferior lands, especially if there were no roads to them. The Utago men therefore held — and several of the Canterbury members from agricultural districts held with them — that this 20 per cent, must be paid to local bodies unless some other means were devised to open up the country when the subsidy was taken from them. But no other means were even suggested, and they regarded the measure as fatal to settlement and progress. They fought very hard against it, but were outvoted; and in the majority against them, the Auckland members took a prominent part.

We are far from blaming the Auckland members. The localisation of the Land Fund in any way we regard as objectionable. It gives advantages to one part of the Colony which others do not possess, and lays the foundation for much jealousy and trouble. But it is in the interest of the Colony to open up all lands iit for settlement, whether they be in Auckland or in Otago. The mistake made by Auckland members was in depriving Otago of this opportunity without providing at the same time some other means of attaining the end for all the Colony. The natural means would be to throw upon the Colony — i.e., the General Government — the charge of main roads everywhere. Even in the United States this is considered the duty of the Federal Government But the New Zealand Government is to take all the revenue and to do nothing in return except by loans. The policy is a bad one, and if the difference that has now arisen between Otago and Auckland leads them to unite for a remedy, it will have had good results.

Such a union is far from impossible. To Auckland it will be an absolute necessity, for —say who will to the contrary— Otago is her only' real ally. The small provinces are either very largely occupied for sheep runs —as Neison and Marlboro ugh — or are held by large proprietors— as Hawke's Bay— or are at the disposal of the Government that will spend most upon them — as Taranaki. With such provinces alliance by Auckland is impossible. They have neither feelings nor interests in common. Their large proprietors are a rulingclass, uncontrolled by the popular views of town or agricultural constituencies. A great counter influence will probably yet come from Canterbury. Her tendency is increasingly Liberal as settlement extends and population becomes more varied in character. But these changes will also produce a closer alliance between her and democratic Otago, and that alliance may be extremely detrimental to democratic Auckland if her people allow themselves to be made the tools of any Government,

to create discord, or to check progress in either of the other great provinces by preventing them from developing their resources.

Very little thought will force the conclusion that great political changes and a great change of the balance of political power are imminent. If the Auckland people play a wise and patriotic part they will be in a position to hold their own, and to command respect from all parties. They must look to the progress of the Colony, but must take care that in that progress they shall have a fair share. They have a right to_ claim this. They have a right to wield an influence proportionate to the greatness of their province, and they will wield this influence if they only resolve to do what is right to others and to demand their own due. But they must keep clear of petty intrigues, of petty and plausible schemes that set them in opposition to the rest of the Colony, and of projects nominally for the public good, but really for the benefit of a few individuals. They must not allow themselves to be made the tools of designing politicians, but show that they desire only the progress of New Zealand, while bent at the same time on securing in that progress the full and fair share which they are entitled and resolved to claim. If to such a policy they add an earnest desire for the welfare of the whole people, and not merely the advancement of particular classes, they "need not fear to be isolated.