PETITION OF INHABITANTS OF WANGANUI, RANGITIKEI, WAITOTARA, AND WAIROA DISTRICTS.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1873 Session I, J-04

J.—4

1873. NEW ZEALAND.

PETITION OF INHABITANTS OF WANGANUI, RANGITIKEI, WAITOTARA, AND WAIROA DISTRICTS.

Presented 30th July, 1873, and ordered to be printed 31st July.

To the Honourable the Speaker and Members of the House of Eepresentatives of the Colony of New Zealand, in Parliament assembled. The Petition of the undeesigned Inhabitants of the Peovince of Wellington, humbly showith, — That your Petitioners reside in the Province of Wellington, but being inhabitants of the West Coast, including the Districts of Wanganui, Eangitikei, Waitotara, and Wairoa, the same having a coastal line of upwards of sixty miles, having little or no interests in common with the City of Wellington, or other parts of the Province. That the population of tho Wanganui and Eangitikei Electoral Districts, at the date of tho last Census, in February, 1871, was G,682, since which time a considerable increase has taken place. The exports of the districts, especially in regard to stock, have been large in proportion to the population and to the exports of the rest of the Province; the value of tiiese for the year ending 28th February, 1873, being £171,319. That your Petitioners have been for many years extremely dissatisfied with tho administration of the Provincial Government at Wellington, in so far as these districts are concerned, believing that while fully responsible for their share of tho Provincial debts and liabilities, commensurate advantages have not been received by way of expenditure. That your Petitioners have made several attempts, by Petitions under the New Provinces Act, and by Petitions to your honourable House, to secure for themselves local self-government, independent of the Wellington Provincial Authorities, whose interests are diverse from those of your Petitioners, but that hitherto these attempts have failed. That a Municipal Corporation exists in the Town of Wanganui, and the country districts possess throughout a system ofEoad Boards ; that your Petitioners require an efficient and inexpensive mode of local administration to discharge tho more general functions which pertain to a system of County Government. That tho interests of your Petitioners have been systematically neglected by the Provincial Government of Wellington, but especially the Eiver and Port of Wanganui, the said river being in a worse condition at the present time than twenty years ago, when its management was first assumed by the Wellington Authorities. The following testimony of the late Mr. Balfour, embodied in a report to His Honor the Superintendent of AYellington in 1805, as an evidence of the importance of the Port and Eiver of Wanganui, is worthy of the consideration of your honourable House. He says, — " This (Wanganui) important river is one of the most improvable I have ever seen, and one which is destined to play an important part in the future of the Colony as the shipping port of a largo and most valuable agricultural and wool-growing district." That your Petitioners have become truly alarmed at the recent action taken in the Provincial Council, in the introduction of a Bill authorizing the borrowing of £210,000, and believe that the greater portion thereof will ultimately fall as a debt on the Colony, and on your Petitioners as Colonists. That your Petitioners, for these and other reasons, most earnestly pray that your honourable House will separate your Petitioners' districts from the Province of Wellington, thereby affording your Petitioners the most effectual protection against ruinous schemes of which they do not approve, and from which they can derive no advantage. And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c. [Here follow, 1,108 signatures.] By Authority: Gxobge Didsbuey, Government Printer, Wellington.—lS73. [Price 3d.]