The Evening Star. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3654, 7 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1874.

Sir George Grey, in his second petition, gives an interesting resume of the scheme initiated in Great Britain for acquiring possession of the lands of New Zealand by purchase from the Natives, it was a very modest investment, that vote of LI 0,000 wherewith to begin; but as laud was valued twenty-nine years ago possibly at a few glass beads an acre, had it been well worked, very likely by this time the greater part of the North Island, as well as the Middle Island, might have become Crown property. Unfortunately it has nut been well worked, and during those twenty-nine years the very facts which he has dug up and embodied in his petition had passed away from remem brance. This being the case, however plain it may be to the mind of Sir George Grey that the original intention has been departed from, and that the compact of 1856 was not in accordance with it, his course of reasoning supplies ample arguments why its provisions should be abided by. He maintains that because LI 0,000 was voted by the Parliament of England, to be applied to the extinguishment of the Native title to the laud, New Zealand belongs to the British nation, and that the General Assembly has acted illegally in adopting such a compact as that of 1856 without first receiving permission of the Parliament of Great Britain. On this assumption he builds up the theory that, instead of the proceeds of the sale of land being devoted to local improvement, it is to be considered British capital, and should be expended in assisting and developing the poorer portions of the Colony. Auckland, although mainly instrumental in forming the compact of 1856, he considers one of those poorer portions; and lest it should be deprived of the privilege of sucking the rest of the Colony, he petitions the Superintendent to take action to protect its rights. It may seem presumptuous in .us in the South to consider that, so far as Auckland is concerned, more than justice has been done by the rest of the Colony. Whoever reverts to the compact of 1856, and considers the circumstances under which it was arrived at, can reach no other conclusion than that its very object was to free rich Auckland from the burden of assisting the poorer Provinces. At that time Canterbury and Otago were in their infancy, and not even the most sanguine settler ever dared to think they would have outstripped Auckland in commercial importance. In 1859 Swainson said : Of the six Provinces into which New Zealand has been divided, the Province of Auckland is the largest and most important. It comprises about two-thirds of the northern portion of the Northern Island, nearly a third of the European population, and more than half the whole Native race. It is distinguished also for the extent of its coast line, the number of its harbors, and the facilities it affords for inland navigation.

With these natural advantages, besides for many years having been the capital of the Colony, and having had the consequent benefit cf the inevitable expenditure in necessary arrangements for carrying on the Government, all the other Provinces of New Zealand, and especially those of the South Island, have had to contribute largely, to maintain it in existence. If LIO,OOO voted for the purchase of land is held to constitute a claim to property in the whole Colony, at least thete should be some consideration for those'who have contributed fifty or a hundred times that amount to maintain possession. If the English Parliament claims the islands on behalf of the people of England, they ought not to have thrown the cost of defending the property on the colonists themselves. So far from the North having the slightest claim to assistance from the South Island, we consider they owe a debt they can never repay. In their early prosperity the Northern colonists feared they

would be saddled with expenses in assisting the struggling Provinces of the South; and, imagining their land almost worthless, and their prospects of success precarious, they considered themselves well rid of a probable heavy burden, by agreeing to make the land fund local revenue. Now that they find they over-reached themselves, they want to I'escind the bargain, and having exhausted their own estate nuprovidently, they wish to claim partnership in ours in the South. Sir George Grey seems to have overlooked two facts:—that when Great Britain left the Colony to fight its own battles, it virtually abandoned all property in it, and, in effect, said it was not worth fighting for; and further, that only a very fractional portion of the Native lands acquired was purchased with money voted by the English Parliament--whatever has latterly been bought being strictly and literally Colonial property, purchased with Colonial funds. Let Auckland repay the money spent in defending the property of the settlers, before uttering a word about sharing in the land revenue. Until that is done it has not a right to complain, and even then its short-sighted selfishness iu trying to shake off poor settlements in 1856 is sufficient reply to any claim it may put forward.