Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, 21st APRIL, 1868.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2607, 21 April 1868, Page 3

Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, 21st APRIL, 1868.

The resolutions passed at the Greytown meeting on Saturday, allege that the Wairarapa district has not received justice at the hands of the Provincial Government, and that if the grievances of the past are not redressed and a guarantee given of better treatment in the future, the settlers will endeavor to have the Wairarapa formed into a separate district independent of the Wellington province. It cannot be said that the speakers who supported the resolutions made out their case of past injustice very clearly ; still less did they show in what manner the Wairarapa would bebenefited by being created into a separate district. Vague assertions and wild dealing with figures may do pretty well inhurried public speaking, butthey don'tprovemuch. MrEenall, as usual, was violent and incoherent. According to this gentleman, who, in his place in the Council, always says foolish things, and never does wise ones, every work performed by the Provincial Government has been done badly, and its officers mar everything with which they meddle. Mr Eevans again, has apparently only been enlightened as to the shortcomings of the Provincial Government, within the last few weeks. Tor twelve years he has been blind, and now by some miracle he sees. He has stuck to Provincialism for what he could get out of it, and now he is going in for Shire Councils, actuated by equally disinterested motives. The petty and selfish motives which may animate particular men, do not, however, of themselves prove that they have a bad case. Indeed it has yet to be discovered by very careful inquiry, what grounds, if any, the section of the Wairarapa people who assembled at the Greytown meeting, have for their complaints. Mr Bunny, after manipulating figures in a manner wonderful to behold, tells that the Customs' revenue of the colony is £1,000,000, and that the Wairarapa contributed to it at the rate of £5 a head of population, £11,565 a year. Now, in the first place, the estimated Customs' revenue for 1868 is not £1,000,000, but £870,000, and from this sum falls to be deducted £44,471, as the charge of collecting that branch, of the revenue. Of course, public speakers cannot always be strictly accurate, but when a misstatement is made of such an enormous amount as this, people will not be inclined to trust much to Mr Bunny's figures. His statement as to the amount of the Wairarapa contribution to the Customs' revenue is not correct ; while, in pointing out the large expenditure in Wanganui and Bangitikei, he conveniently ignores the fact that the people of those districts raised money themselves by levying rates for roads and other improvements, thereby rendering it compulsory for the Government to supplement those sums by a grant equal to a double equivalent of the amount raised. The Eoad Board system has been in operation for years in the Wanganui and Eangitikei Districts, while it has had little more than a twelvemonth's trial in the Wairarapa; It is not fair, then, for Mr Bunny to complain of the Government expenditure in Wanganui and Eangitikei, without making this explanation. We should like this subject to be very fully and impartially examined, before the cry for separation is raised by one or two selfish and interested agitators. The Wairarapa settlers must look things fairly in the face, and then, if they like, talk of separation. What are the conditions

council ? We are not prepared at a short notice to answer this question fully, but a few points suggest themselves which it may be well at present to state. The mainstay of tho Wairarapa as a separate and independent district would need to be its land revenue. Now it so happens that the land has nearly all been sold, and there is every prospect that in three years from the present time there will be no land revenue forthcoming. There are at the present moment about 15,000 acres of five shilling land applied for in the Wairarapa, and when that has been sur veyed and sold, there will be very little more left from which any immediate revenue can be forthcoming. "When the land revenue is exhausted, the projected Wairarapa Shire Council would have the privilege of taxing the settlers, and to the amount so levied, the General Government might possibly — as the Provincial Government already does — give a double equivalent. Moreover, the Shire Council would have the additional privilege of taxing the settlers by levying special rates in addition to the ordinary rates we have already mentioned. The separation of the Wairarapa from Wellington, therefore means that the settlers in the former district shall have the fullest power to tax themselves, that they shall obtain no special grants, and that the grants in aid of local taxation shall be the same as at present. Apart from this, separation involves certain disagreeable conditions. The province of Wellington has already contracted certain loans, which amount in the aggregate to £155,000. Then on the reclaimed land there is a mortgage of £35,000, and a further sum of £25,000 has been borrowed for the payment of the Manawatu block. If the Wairarapa district separated from Wellington, it would require to take upon itself — as Westland did for Canterbury— a share of the provincial debt. Wellington would, of course, keep the Manawatu block and pay off the money borrowed out of the land sales, while the proceeds of selling the reclaimed laud would go. to liquidate the mortgage. These two transactions being entirely separate and apart from the ordinary debt, Wellington would take them upon itself, and Wairarapa, while incurring none of the responsibility, would reap none of the profit. The liability of the \Y airarapa district would, therefore, be confined to paying its share of the £155,000 borrowed by the province. The proportion of that debt which the Wairarapa might be called upon to pay, would be either one fifth or one fourth ; the basis on which we make this statement being the population and resources of the district as a part of the province Thus, the new Shire Council would start with a debt of from £31,000 to £38,750, and we should very much like to be informed by Mr Bunny, or his coadjutor Mr Revans, how they propose to extinguish this liability, with a failing land revenue, which must almost altogether cease in some three years ? No doubt these gentlemen will say that, apart from the 15,000 acres already applied for, there is an immense quantity of land in the Wairarapa still unsold, from which a revenue may be derived. We admit the first assertion, but deny the second. There may be of hill-tops, and bush, and precipitous land totally unavailable at present, perhaps a million of acres yet unsold in the Wairarapa and East Coast districts. But what is the use of it at present as a source of revenue ? It can't be got at for practical purposes, and it probably will not be surveyed for years. In the meantime, no one will apply for it, and its sale is impossible. It is therefore clear that the land revenue of the Wairarapa is rapidly decreasing, and will in three years come to an end — not altogether, but for a very considerable time. It is, no doubt, very pleasant to have local self-government, but the Wairarapa settlers may pay too dear for their whistle. We do not pretend to deny that there may be some foundation for their complaints, and, so far as we can discover facts which bear out the assertions of Messrs Bunny and Revans, we will assist our Wairarapa fellowsettlers in their efforts to obtain redress. | If we looked totheinterests of Wellington alone, we should support this movement for separation, because, if the Wairarapa were constituted into a separate district, there would be a larger amount of revenue spent here, than there is at present. But it is the interests of the province as a whole which we have at heart, and we think these would be seriously endangered if it were shorn of any of its districts. We have seen quite enough of the extravagance, corruption, and jobbery which the Westland Shire Council Bill inaugurated, to wish the experiment repeated in Wellington. If the Wairarapa has real grievances, it can appeal to the Provincial Council ; and whenever we can find that its demands are founded on reason and justice, it will have our heartiest support in enforcing them. Meantime, we trust that the great body of the settlers will not be led away by the representations of a few selfish agitators, who are trying to serve their own interests and gratify their own ambition, under the plausible pretence of acting for the public good.