THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 1961, 18 August 1869, Page 2

THE Evening Star. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1869.

There is something repellingly disgusting in the manifestation of selfishness in the Northern Island, which peeps out whenever the idea is thrown out that it shall bear its own burdens. The shifts and devices by which it is endeavored to lay the weight of the cost of the war upon other shoulders, would be merely contemptible had they not hitherto been uniformly successful. We have already warned our readers that they must not suppose the change of Ministry has wrought any permanent change in the relations between the North and Middle Islands, and that if financial or insular Separation was desirable before the advent of the Fox Vogel Ministry, it is not the less needful now. It might have been supposed that the very moderate proposal of the Treasurer to borrow on the security of the Colony for forming military roads in the North Island, and making the interest and sinking fund a charge upon it, would have been at once accepted as an act of common justice. There cannot be a clearer case in which expense should be localised. Theie is not a disinterested man in the world who would even hint that the Middle Island should be asked to contribute a sixpence towards such an object, yet we find tin Auckland WeeMjj I!crald pointing out this just proposition as a great defect in Mr Vogel’s financial scheme. Nor must it be accepted as an excuse that it is possible the feeling may not be general. The office of the public jouinalist is either to lead or to express public opinion, and when sentiments so disgracefully selfish are put forward, the necessary inference is, that they find acceptance with a very large class of people. The following is the comment we refer to, which we give in full, in order that there may be no mistake as to what the feeling of the people of the North Island is :

The principal political news received during the past week is comprised in the Budget speech of Mr Voge’ , winch, on the whole, is a masterly financial statement, but has one very grave defect. It is proposed to raise a loan for the purpose of making roads into disturbed districts, and to make the repayment of interest and sinking fund of this loan a charge upon the North Island 1 rovinces only. If the roads made were undertaken with a view to the opening up of settled districts, we could to some extent see the justice of making the charge a local one ; but such is not the ca«e. Not a mile of road will be constructed which will bring a ton of produce to the coast; but they must, of necessity, be constructed through the very districts where the Europeans do not own an acre of land. Evi n though the money be spent on road-making, it is virtually a war loan, for such roads as would be constructed would be made only with a view to military movements. Moreover, the money, charged locally, is to be spent, not by the local authorities, but by the General Government. The South would ill brook such interference on the part of the Assembly in the laying out of the vast revenue de rived by the Middle Island Provinces from their land revenue; yet they nevertheless are prepared to exercise the same kind of interference towards us. The measure is a most gross attempt to saddle the North with a special war loan, and will, we trust, he strenuously opposed by the Auckland members. This one blot mars the otherwise able speech of Mr Vogel, It will be seen that selfishness pervades every line and sentiment. The localisation of the loan is objected to because it is not proposed to expend it on Provincial roads. It is objected to because it is averred it will not bring land into marketable value ; it will not connect the Coast with the interior, and lastly, because it will be expended under the control of the General instead of the Provincial Governments. All this, in the face of the enormous sacrifices made by the Middle Island for Northern interests, is sufficiently ungrateful. All past experience has proved that no matter what the South may do on behalf of the North Island, the people there accept it as a right, and imagine themselves mightily badly treated if any body dare to question the justice of impoverishing the Southern Provinces for the’ir protection. They never seem to consider that what would reconcile them to the localisation of the loan, the South has been deprived of for their benefit; that had they not had the burden of the North to sustain, the Middle Island would have had its railways and hundreds of miles of road, connecting the seabord with the interior, and bringing tens of thousands of acres of rich land into a marketable position that cannot be available for occupation for years to

come. It may be suitable to them to forget this; but it will not do for us to let it slip by so easily. Straws show which way the wind blows. The words we quote from the Herald are lew, hut they are significant, and they should teach us in the South what we may | expect whenever the state of political parties gives the Northern [slanders the opportunity of a little further enriching themselves out of Southern revenues. With such opposition to so just and reasonable a proposition as the localisation of a wm loan on the North Island, the South Island, in self-defence, must still con- | tinue to agitate for a well-defined separation of financial interests. It seems generally conceded by the silence on the subject, that insular sepa. ration is not to he obtained. No doubt, the mixing up of Provincial interests that has resulted from past legislation, lias rendered it difficult to arrange, but it is high time that something definite was done to limit South Island liability The discoveries in the North Island of rich mineral deposits, and the prospect of a rapid increase of population, render them better able to bear their own burdens, and the sooner they arc relieved of Southern help and interference the better it will be for us, and the moxe equitable for all.