The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MARCH 30, 1903.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 853, 30 March 1903, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, MARCH 30, 1903.

AN AUCKLAND BLUNDER. From time to time, we have complained of the small amount of interest taken by Aucklanders in all matters pertaining to the East Coast but the latest instance of inattention is calculated to almost take one’s breath away, so misleading arc the statements made. We refer to a leading article which appears in the Auckland Herald of Saturday morning, under the heading “ The Poverty Bay District,” which reads as follows “ Some persons in Poverty Bay have made an application to the Government that the district should be made a separate land district. We j see no reason why there should be any change. Poverty Bay is within the provincial district of Auckland, and we are quite sure that no complaint of slackness or neglect can be made against the Land Board here. Any complaint must lie against- the Government, through whose maladministration .the whole lands of the district have been kept locked up. The settlers of Poverty Bay ought to look to Auckland as the place with which they will become permanently connected. Surveys of lines have been made to connect the terminus of the present short line at Karaka with Rotorua by the Urewera country or by Opotiki and Whakatane. A large tract of the country at the back of Gisborne must be connected with Auckland even if a railway were made from Gisborne to Napier, which is very unlikely. The New Zealand Times, in referring, to this subject a few 'days- ago, stated that the Hon. Mr Duncan, Minister for Lands, was not inclined to favor the idea of constituting a separate land district for Poverty Bay, but was disposed to take the district from Auckland and join it to Hawke’s Bay, so far as its land administration was concerned. We should protest against any such change, for which no reason whatever can he given. In the Department of land administration, the Government have done as in other Departments—that is, they have absorbed almost

all the power that formerly was exercised by local bodies. We arc cjni to sure that it will he more for the benefit of Poverty Bay and the advancement of Gisborne to remain attached to Auckland than have a separate Land Board established or to be at-

tached to Hawke’s Bay.” It is difficult to regard the foregi ing seriously, it being so full of o vious errors. Both the leading .ion

'mils mentioned fall into as many mistakes as if is possible to do in

the space taken up. To the Auckland Herald, at least, (lie people of this district look for hearty support in the development of rich country by which Auckland City will largely benefit, and of all journals in the colony we had looked to Ihe Auckland Herald for help in getting Poverty Bay constituted a separate land

district. In regard to the article, it may tic pointed out in the first place that the Auckland Land Board has no jurisdiction further south than the'Hast Cape. Our interests, we hope, will ever be permanently connected with Auckland, but neither from Auckland nor Napier would if be possible to satisfactorily administer the vast area of land of which Gisborne is the natural headquarters. Auckland's protest is based on the grave blunder that this district is still under the Auckland Board, and we hope that when the error is discovered the hearty support of the Auckland members will be given to the reasonable request, that a separate Board should be constituted instead of Gisborne being still tied to Napier in matters that can be better dealt with here. The Northern journal touches on the subject of I lie railway, although, unfortunately, again falling into a blunder as to tlie terminus, which is still many miles from Te Karaka. There has been a great outcry in Auckland about railway extension : the people there have been clamoring for the pushing on of the Main Trunk line that will bring, their city into keener competition with Wellington, while all tlie time their interest would be far greater in tlie extension of the line that has been started from Gisborne. The Gisborne corner is the most fertile of the Auckland province —indeed, we may say of New Zealand. Millions of acres still lie in an unproductive state, and the turning of it to account would mean more to Auckland than the splendid output of gold from that province;