The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2259, 3 August 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1870.

Thu attack upon the Land Revenue of the Middle Island by the North Island rrtembers commenced in the House of Representatives bn the 21st of July, when Mr Creighton moved the following resolutions: — That, with the view to promote the speedy sott'emeut and co ;ur atipu of the waste lands of the Colony, it is desirable that the General Government should forthwith resume the waste lands of the Cro,wn in the respective Provinces, and administer the same, subject to the control of Parliament. That the General Government should prepare regulations for the sale, letting, disposal, set lement, and management of the waste lands of the Colony, and submit the same to Parliament for approval next session ; that, pending such approval, the several Provincial Governmedts should be restrained from selling, leasing, or otherwise disposing of any waste lands which they may now sell, lease, or otherwise dispase of, by virtue of any act of the General Assembly of New Zealand. That, in framing regulations with the view of promoting the settlement, cultivation, and profitable occupation of the waste lands of the Colony, the Government should make provision for compensating pastoral tenants of the Crown for any land in their occupation which may be indifferently selected for the purpose of settlement under the aforesaid regulations, in accordance with the terms and provisions- of any existing -Act providing for such corapt nsation; that, where no such special law exists, the amount of compensation should be assessed by a Commissioner or Commissioners 'to bo appointed for such purpose, provided that any pastoral tennant, in the latter case, within one month from date of making such award should have the right of appeal to the Supreme Court-to have the .amount of compensation to which he may bo entitled determined by a jury. That 'an Act should be introduced by the Government, giving effect to so much of the foregoing resolutions as may require to have legal effect given to them during the present session.

When last year the Provincial Government refused to bring the Otago Hundreds Regulation Bill into operation, one who was well acquainted with the state of Northern feeling pointed out the suicidal character of the opposition, and predicted that if the Province resisted the Act of the General Assembly, most probably the General Government would take the administration of the Land Revenue into its own hands. The present administration is not prepared for so extreme a step, but no one can say what may not be done by future Parliaments, unless some determined stand is made and a definite liability laid upon the North Island for all moneys laid out on its behalf. Our readers will be curious to know by what style of argument this new form of spoliation is attempted to be justified. We will,'therefore, save them the trouble of wading through long dry speeches by giving an outline of Mr Ckbighton’s theory. His theses are:—

First—That in the year 185G it was resolved that an appeal should be made to the Imperial Parliament to guarantee a loan of £300,000, and that an Act should also be applied for securing to the Provinces the territorial revenues.

Second—That as such Act, was neverpassed, although the General Assembly guaranteed to tire Provinces their land revenue, those resolutions arc open to revision.

Third—That such revision ought to be made, because (1.) The land revenue of the Province is Colonial, not local revenue. (2.) That in this view of the case the territorial revenue of the Middle Island, from 1853 to 1869 inclusive, amounted to £4,925,822 9s 6d ; while that of the North Island for the same period was only £959,910. (3.) That this revenue has been misapplied by the Provincial authorities of the Middle Island. (4.) That Otago lias x-eceived in territorial revenue, from 1853 to 1869, £1,781,972, and refunds (return of the share of its Customs revenue) £695,353 18s 9d. This he holds to be remission of taxation. Together these amounts are £2,477,326 18s 9d, and since during that time the -ordinary revenue collected in Otago amounted to £2,423,738 16s 2d, Mr Creighton maintains that Otago lias received £53,587 above its fair share. •Applying the same process of reasoning to Canterbury, he showed that our neighbors had received £638,473 more i

than they are entitled to. The whole of the Provinces were subjected to a similar scrutiny, and the conclusion arrived at is that Westland and Nelson were the only - “ two “ Provinces in the . Middle Island “ that have, according to (his) calcula- “ tions contributed anything whatever “ to the ordinary expenses of the Go- “ vernraent of the country during the “ last eighteeen years.” The total territorial revenue and refunds of the Middle Island during that period is stated to be £0,370,370 and to this is to be added the Provincial loans. Fourth—That this vast sum “has “ not been administered with a view to £< the introduction of population and “ the settlement of the country,” which is assumed to have been the object of localising the revenue. Fifth —That during the same period the territorial revenue of Auckland was £301,801, the ordinary revenue £1,962,61:0, and the refunds £421,711 (’?). This would make £723,545 received, as against nearly two millions contributed to the Colonial revenue. So that Auckland is shown to be entitled to a considerable balance. Taranaki, too, is shewn to have a large claim, and the only Province. Jn the North Island that has been a gainer by localising the land revenue is Hawke’s Bay. The balance is summed up thus:— The totals for the two Islands would stand thus: Ordinary revenue, North Island, from 1833 to 1809, inclusive, 13,493,081; territorial revenue and refunds to bo deducted, L 1,717,104; making the contribution from the North Island to the General Government of the Colony for all purposes, L 1,778,977, or averaging the population according to the statistics of 1806, a sum of L 23 per head Middle' Island—ordinary revenue, L 5,448,065; territorial revenue and refunds, LG,370,370 ; leaving a net gain over taxation of L 921,802, or something like a bonus of L 7 per head on the population on the census of 1806.

We have not space to go into the fallacy of this style of argument to-day. It may be sufficient, at least for tho present, to suggest that no fair comparison can be drawn between the territorial revenue of the two islands, for the one has had to give its lands away in order to induce settlement, while the tho other has found purchasers at high prices and on such conditions that a gross injustice would be perpetrated were such resolutions carried as proposed by M r Creighton and supported by Messrs Swan, Cracroft Wilson, and others. The note of warning is, however, sounded !