The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3520, 4 June 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 4, 1874

The Provincial Treasurer concluded his Financial Statement yesterday by pointing ©ut that if the Province was to hold its own, it was necessary to make large appropriations. Few will be found to deny this ; at the same time we must not overlook two-very important facts, alluded to in a former part of the Statement. The first is that the principal item of the Provincial Revenue is the amount derived from sales of land ; the other is that if the Provincial Estate can by any means be retained in the hands of the Government till the branch railways have been constructed, the land within a reasonable distance of these lines —in fact, a very considerable portion of the landed estate of the Province -will have had its value so much enhanced, that it would be possible, as the present leases fall in, to dispose of them to much greater advantage, either by sale or by lease, than could be done at present. There could be no doubt, as the Treasurer pointed out, that if the lands could te held back till the railways are finished and

the leases have expired, there would be little necessity for finally parting with these lands at all: the Government would be able to lease them in smaller blocks, at a higher rental, and for shorter terms thanlthey do now, and it might even be found that this p'an would pay far better than the present one. At all events it would prevent the final catastrophe from] coming—the sale of our last block of land. It is only necessary to glance at the condition of those Provinces which have disposed of all their land, even at that of Auckland, which has a large population, in order that we may feel convinced that it is highly desirable that this event should be postponed as long as possible. It appears then that we are in a dilemma, our revenue is derived chiefly from land sales ; if we are to successfully compete with the other Provinces our expenditure must be large, and, consequently, the land sales must be extensive ; on the other hand it is highly desirable that the land should not be parted with, at present, at least, because we are certain that in a very few years it will have increased many times in value. It appears, then, that we have here a real difficulty. The Government propose to meet this difficulty by applying to the Assembly for a loan of L 500,000 on specified blocks of land, and by putting no large blocks into the market. If the Assembly will grant this loan—and there seems to be no reason why it should not, as the object with which the money is to be borrowed is the construction of branch lines of railway, which will have the effect of making the main lines pay their own ex penses far sooner than they would otherwise do—there seems every reason to believe that we may be able, owing to the peculiarly favorable conditions and especially the rapid advance of the Province, to construct branch railways,, to provide enough land in small blocks for bonajide settlement of the incoming population, to compete with other Provinces in educational and similar matters, and at the same time to husband our resources till they can be made far better use of than they can at present. Even if the Assembly should refuse to grant the loan, there would certainly be but little difficulty in getting it from some other quarter, on the security of specific blocks ot land. There are few, we believe, who will not allow that the hope expressed by the Provincial Treasurer that the finances of the Provinces would be found satisfactory must be considered as realized.