The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2996, 25 September 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1872.

When the personnel of the new Ministry is considered, the Middle Island has reason to be very watchful lest it is once more sacrificed to Northern politics, Injustice to the inhabitants of the South has frequently and persistently been done in consequence of divided Councils. Canterbury and Otago have never been united, and neither Province has been true to itself ; for the representatives of each have usually

contrived to neutralize each other’s votes. On small matters, involving purely local considerations, division of opinion necessarily takes place; but on questions affecting a Province or Provinces, it is surprising that men cannot agree. But for this diversity of opinion on very plain business matters, the South would have been much further advanced in material prosperity, and would have had very much greater weight in the General Assembly than has ever yet been the case. It would be waste of time to revert to the past were it not that it is only by bringing to memory the errors that have been 1 committed and their consequences, that a repetition of them may be avoided. Division of opinion in the South has prevented the very just proposition of compelling the North Island colonists to pay the cost of their own protection. Division of opinion has been the chief barrier to financial Separation : division of opinion, founded on personal antipathies, has been the chief means of placing the Stafford Ministry in power. It is, therefore, necessary that we should ascertain the difficulties in which our representatives have involved us, and insist upon their not allowing the Colony to be subjected to a series of experiments at our expence. Of this tentative sort of legislation, there is great danger. Mr Stafford has his theories about the Maoris, which we consider, as far as developed, highly dangerous. He has treated the country on more than one occasion to a glimpse of his ideal of settlement along lines of railway, which seem to identify his ideas of a New Zealand Elysium with a thatched cottage, a pig in a stye, and a cow feeding on the natural grasses. Mr Reid has given notice of a Railway Amendment Act, which, judging from the peculiar aptitude lie has shown for entering into railway contracts, should be subjected to the severest scrutiny, lest it should lead to retrogression instead of advance. We consider it one of the greatest blessings to the country, conferred by the late Ministry, that they succeeded in forming contracts to such an extent that the present Ministry cannot altogether arrest oitr going forward. Perhaps Mr Stafford’s notions of immigrant happiness and success may be looked Upon as an amiable weakness, not particularly likely to find favour with practical men, and not very likely to succeed if it did. He might endeavour to plant townships of paupers along lines of railway, but immigrants would not be tied down to a place where they would only vegetate, when they could reach centres of industry where their fortunes would grow. Such a Utopia would soon set itself to rights. It would be a very harmless crotchet indulged, compared with the pet idea of the Treasurer, Mr Gillies. We in Otago have been for six or seven years busily engaged in devising a land scheme that shall work well as a means of settlement. We do not know that it is to our discredit that better success has not attended the efforts put forth. Similar difficulties have been found in every country, even in the most despotic. No doubt they arose from wrong notions of property in land being inherited by us, but that is not our present object to discuss. Our present purpose is to point out that all the labor, turmoil, and expense undergone during th 6 past seven years regarding special land regulations for Otago must be useless if the peculiar crotchet of Mr T. B. Gillies is to be adopted by the Ministry. On the 23rd of December last he addressed the electors of Auckland City West on the affairs of the country, and predicted that the revenue would not meet the expenditure of the country. He had, however, a recipe in his mind, the announcement of which was hailed with great satisfaction by his Northern hearers: we doubt whether our readers will be equally pleased with it The recipe is printed in the New Zealand lit raid of December 23rd as follows But there was one means by which the growing deficit might be met. That was by making the waste lands of New Zealand the property of the whole Colony. No Govern - ment would be worth the name of Government until they met that problem. The. Provinces of the South had received 'more from these lands than would pay for the tear expenditure and three million loan. There is no mistaking the meaning of this piece of quackery, and we should think there is no mistaking the effect the announcement should have on the people of Canterbury and Otago. The only set-off against the unjust taxation of the South for the protection of the North Island colonists bus been the retention of their land revenue. The land of the North Island was given away or sold at some live shillings an acre because of the Maori dangers. The land of tbe Middle Island has been sold at one and two pounds an acre because of the prevalence of law and order. The difference should represent the cost of maintaining order in the North, and perhaps it does, only the South has had it to pay ; and now, not content with being maintained in their possessions mainly by Southern revenues, the proposition is to take

land and taxes too ! Verily, we have changed our doctors and substituted quacks. ____________