The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2230, 30 June 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 30, 1870.

ALTHOUGH so much that is new in the Treasurer’s scheme, that to fomf a fair estimate of the value of every proposition .require? more consideration than we have yet been able to give it, there is enough in it to condemn, on account of injustice to the Middle Island. It is amazing how pertinatiously every Ministry adheres to the development of the North at the expense of the South. When resident in Dunedin no man more strenuously advocated a separation of- the twflq islands than the Treasurer. Now that he is in the Ministry he seems to have forgotten the stern sense of justice that used to influence his opinions, and the North that contributes one-third of the revenue, is still to be nursed .out of the two-thirds collected in the Middle Island. Wo thought before this skilful development of official bribery made its appearance, that Mr Stafford had exhausted all the crooked means at command to ensure support. We really entertained the impression that the Executive would have been under the necessity ©f bx-inging forward some honest scheme through sheer inability to create bonuses : to use Mr Vogel’s new"term for differential duties. But we* underrated the Treasurer’s ingenuity. Sops, real or imaginary, are ;hcld up to view, just as baits are thrown on the surface of a stream to lure gudgeons. The Government sets up ns the creator and dispenser of benefits. Centralism hides its defoi’mities under a benign aspect. It is to be the Jupiter to whom all petitions from the Provinces ere to be presented if they want immigrants or railways. Our contemporary the Daily Times is very ungrateful for these blessings. For months past it has been asking lor these pearls to b® bestowed after this fashion, and now has the ingratitude to turn round and rend the Ministry. Wc congratulate him, however, on coming to a light mind, and trust hence-* forth to have liis aid in fighting the battle of Separation. If Separation was required in ox*der to obtain justice six years ago, it is equally requisite now. The Treasurer lays down the principle that notwithstanding the burden the North has been upon the South, the war expenditure shall still be borne in common—-the sole difference being that only the interest, not the actual cost, shall be paid for some years to come ; so that when the sum borrowed is repaid, the North Island revenue may have approximated SO nearly to the Middle Island, that it may have to pay one-half instead of a third. This assumes that we are to stand still in population and development until the North overtakes ua—a contingency not at all unlikely if they are to be nurtured at our expense. As a step in this direction, the North Island is “to acquire a landed estate “ to the amount of .£200,000,” and £400,000 is to be spent on roads in various directions. We are .not informed how this splendid acquisition is to be achieved ; but sad experience tells us that acquiring laud in the North Island has been the means of wasting Southern revenues in defence of such acquisitions. We have urged from time to time, until we fear our warnings begin to weary, that this is just the point on which the South should make a determined stand. The settlement of the North and the making of its roads is Northern work, and not one penny of Southern revenue should be allowed to be expended upon it. What need the South care about the £400,000 hold up as a bait to catch its support. If the North had to pay its own expenses, that would be a mere trifle to what we should be justified in borrowing. Even the expenditure upon roads in the North Island is fraught with danger to peace, however necessary to the retention of European superiority over the Maoris. The sops are so numerous to all shades of opinions that wc cannot at a glance perceive them all. There axe sops for the islands, sops for the Provinces, sops for the goldfields, sops for the fanners, sops for the squatters, sops for the brewers, sops for distillers, sops for the artisans, sops for the protectionists, sops for the employers of labor, sops for the unemployed. Something is held up for everybody ’ never was there such a budget of blessings; but we in the South Island may truly say they come in such a questionable shape that, no matter what the consequence, a determined stand should be made until the North is compelled to bear its own burden. If the islands were separated, there is not one advantage promised that could not be realised far more surely and abundantly by the South; while united the burden still remains in defiance of the soundest principles of common honesty.