MINISTERIAL ADMIRATION.

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 37, 1 June 1907, Page 2

MINISTERIAL ADMIRATION.

What Will the Harvest Be ?

TO judge from the floods of Ministerial adulation that have lately been poured out upon the Auckland province and its resources, it may reasonably be expected that the district is about to come into its rights at last. For altogether too long, Auckland has been a kind of Cinderella to the rest of t!he political farrifly in New Zealand. Its principal importance in the eyes of other parts of the colony' arose from the fact that it was the terminus of the English mail service. For that reason, and chiefly in the interests of the southern districts themselves, its right to get its main trunk railway completed, some day or other, was recognised as indisputable. But outside that colonial work, Auckland had to be content, in the main, with such crumbs as other parts of the colony could spare without inconvenience.

Until recent years, the possibility that Auckland could ever develop into an important factor in the agriculture of the colony would have been scouted outside its own borders. The district was generally looked upon as consisting mainly of sour flax swamps, of ranges that would be of little use when once their covering of timber was removed, except for their auriferous contents, and of fernhills that were only of value for the sake of the gum that was lessening in quantity every year. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the fancy picture that would until recently have been drawn by any southern politician who was questioned as to the resources of the Auckland province.

Quite lately, however, there has come a change. Ministers, as well as minor politicians, have deemed Auckland worthy of some personal attention, and the study has opened their eyes to the real value of the lands of the province. As a result, we are in some danger of having our heads turned with laudation of ourselves and our district. Every Minister who comes along has something flattering to say as to the future of the Auckland province. First it was Mr HallJones, whose tour in the roadless North a year or two ago betrayed him into some very candid acknowledgments of the capabilities of the subtropical region, and the difficulties with which its pioneers were^contending. More recently Messrs* McNab and Millar have travelled in these parts, and their eulogies of the province and predictions as to its future have been pregnant with real enthusiasm.

All this, of course, is only what might have been expected to happen when the extent and quality of the unopened lands of the North came to be realised by the public men of the South Island. What really matters now is to ask what is to be the practical result of the enlightenment that has sprung from the politicians' visits ? Will the Ministerial admiration be translated into some definite action for the development ot natural advantages that are a substantial asset to the whole colony ?

Is it sufficiently recognised aer yet that the up-country districts of the Auckland province are destined to become what the bush districts of internal Wellington have been for a long time past — the hiving-ground to which the sons of farmers in the settled. South must swarm in their quest for homes of their own? Receut utterances of responsible men seem to imply such a recognition, but until Parliament meets, and the votes for public works are before the colony, we shall not know whether it is more than a formal acknowledgment. That, after all, is the ultimate test of Ministerial sincerity.

The opening up of the lands of the province involves the formation of roads to an extent considerably beyond the scope of the local bodies. Most of the land to be developed lies well outside the regions already settled and developed. Very soon we may hope, for instance, as the result of the labours of the Native Land Commission, to see the rich areas of the King Country made available to the settler. But before that can be done it will be necessary to lay out substantial sums of colonial money upon road construction. Besides, there is much ground to be made up in giving proper communication to other, aiid as yet neglected, parts of the province. Unless the admiration of our new-found friends is mere lip-service — and it would be a sorry return for their apparent frankness to suggest that it is — Auckland should bulk large in the public expenditure of the next year or two.