Wellington Independent THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3285, 24 August 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1871.

Pursuing our remarks on the debate on the second reading of the Wellington Reclaimed Land Bill we proceed to observe that we should be sorry to think that Mr Stafford attaches any weight to the petition he had the rather questionable honor of presenting, the contents of which have never even yet been made public. As an advocate of local self-go-vernment it seems most unwarrantable in him to interfere in a matter in which all the local governing bodies are agreed. When we remind him that Wellington is the first town in this island incorporated under the Municipal Corporations Act of 1807, we may claim for its Municipal Council a little paternal concern. Unless, then, it can be shown, as Mr Fitzherbert most clearly pointed out, that either the City or the Provincial Council has exceeded its proper functions in the matter, it follows that the supreme legislature has only to view the question in one light, namely, as affecting the security of tho colony. Now, in estimating the character and extent of this security, Mr Stafford seems to be guided only by " the wretched past." We would point out, however, to the lion, member for Timaru that Wellington under Fox, and Wellington under Stafford, are two very different things. During the late administration the landed estate of Wellington province was worth no more than he represented it on Tuesday. Indeed, because of the then existing administration of native affairs it may fairly be questioned if it was worth as much. When our settlers were driven from their farms into the very town of Wanganui it was useless then to talk of settlement on Manawatu or elsewhere. Land which could not be approached by roads or held with safety was of no real value whatever — wanting, as it did, one of the main conditions of value, viz., transferability. It is only a little over two years ago that a meeting took place in the (now) City Council Chamber, when the Government of the day, represented by the Native Minister in tears, were earnestly implored to take more effective measures for the preservation of the life and property of our settlers on the West Coast. Then, indeed, were tho dark days of the province of Wellington— then, indeed, her secu rides were not much to boast of. During the whole of that administration, Wellington did not get actual possession of an acre more of land, but instead had to surrender much that she had rescued from the barbarism of man and nature. Colonising work, like the web of Penelope, was then always progressing,

only to be undone, leaving to those who gave to it their time, their best energies, and their hard-earned savings, nothing but repeated disappointment, frequently bordering on despair. With their smiling homesteads abandoned to murderous savages, and the labors of years destroyed before their eyes, the settlers of " Our Province " could tell the hon. member for Auckland City West a harrowing tale of " How we were governed " ! Thank God, the wretched past is over, and from the downfall of the Stafford administration dates the renaissance of the Province of Wellington. From that day to the present, a feeling of growing security has taken the place of fear and discouragement, and the settlers have in ever-increasing numbers gone back to the farms they were then compelled to abandon. Pahs that were then the strongholds of murderous warriors are now stages for a coach whose agreeable and obliging conductor was then a terror to the whole district. Instead of military scouts, our settlers see civil engineers ; instead of a war, they see now !an emulation of races. Instead of military despatches covering eslimates of the killed and wounded, surveyors' reports are now laid on the table of the House enclosing estimates for tramways, railways, and roads. A military com-raander-in-chief makes way now for an acting engineer in-chief, and the Minister of Defence cheerfully yields precedence to a Minister of Works. From one end of the Province to the other the cheerful sounds of industry are heard, and the solitudes of a hitherio inaccessible interior are broken only by the sound of the axe. Wellington has entered upon a uew era — an era of peace and progress. A portion of the money so generously granted by the late Parliament for the construction of roads has already enabled her, as we see from the reports, to show the best example of special settlements and successful immigration that the colony can boast of. The member for Timaru cannot be expected to realise the change so much as tbe settlers who are rebuilding their ruined homesteads and recultivating their devastated farms. Believing, as he seems to do, that " our relations with the natives are not improving," he can hardly enter into the feeling of joyful security which is animating our settlers in the resumption of the long interrupted work of colonisation. We can assure him that the security of our landed estate is not even now to be sneered at, and that if but the policy is pursued which he helped so largely last session to pass into law, Wellington will, in a few years, be in possession of an estate she would not have dared to hope for, even under the administration which assured us, in royal speeches, of a " perfect peace having been established !" But without anticipating the future, we unhesitatingly declare that her lauded estate is far greater than seems to be supposed. As it is very important that a correct estimate be formed of it, in (he prospect of discussions on our projected railways, we cannot do better than give a full report of Mr Fox's speech in answer to Mr Stafford's disparaging observations. Coming from one who, in the language of an opposition journal, (and truth and reason are all on the side of the opposition journals) is " an enemy to Wellington," it will not bo considered too favorable an estimate : — Mr FOX thought that the more the bill was discussed the more satisfied would hon members be that it should pass. The views taken of it by hon members who wore unacquainted with the circumstancos of the case must be materially modified in consequence of what fell from his hou colleague the Chief Secretary, and they would see that, instead of lessening, this bill would considerably enhance the colonial security. With reference to tho observations of the hon member for Timaru ho was afraid tlmt.ho did not fully appreciate the diameter and amount of the landed estate of Wellington. Now ho had no reason for boasting in the matter, but he believed no hon member had a more ample personal acquaintance than he had with the hind — its character, localities, and circumstances in that province, and he had no hesitation in telling the hon member for Timaru that ho greatly underestimated its value when he thought that Manawatu was the only land worth having, and that the value of that was pretty well absorbed by a mortgage of £30,000. There were more than seven million acres in the province, a great part of which had hitherto been unavailable because it wns in the hands of the natives. Well, tho Government wns very rapidly acquiring the estate by the extinction of the native title, and hundreds of thousands of acres were likelj to pass soon into the hands of the province. Mr Ormond acting as General Government agent had only last week concluded tho purchaso of a quarter of a million of acres, (of what was known as the 70 Mile Bush) for £17,000, and of this fifty or sixty thousand acres belonged to the province of Wellington. They were also commencing a negotiation for some 200,000 move of the enme bush, all in tho province of Wellington, the "timber grown in which was of the finest, quulily and would bo immensely valuable and would como into nil tho markets of the colony. There- were besides this two blocks in Miiniiwutu already purchased and to a great extent surveyed, each of about quarter of a million of acres. Both of those were now at the disposal of tho province of Wellington, and a great part surveyed and ready for immediate sale ; and their salo was only deferred by the inability to get nccoas to them, which will very soon be removed by the establishment of roudß. Much of this land would realise £1 pet- acre. Tho reason why that land had been so slightly taken up was that it was inaccessible, but by tho operations ronderod possible by reason of tho £400,000 grant they would bo enabled to develope the resources of that district, by opening it up. By this means a large trade in timber would bo opened with ColliiK'wood and other places. Thus he had shewn that, half a million of acres of excellent land were, already in the hands of tho province, and a quarter of a million more would "ome sonn, land that could not be characterised as carrying one sheep to an acre, but which would grow sixty bushels of wheat to the acre ; and tho only charge upon it all wiib tho small sum of £30,000. It would perhaps bo desirablo to let hon members have more timo to consider those thingß, and ho thought they would como round to the idea thut the province was capable of giving ample Bpcuritv for tho loan.