The Globe. TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1876.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 654, 25 July 1876, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, JULY 25, 1876.

The important intelligence from Wellington which we publish elsewhere will, we feel sure, be read with almost universal satisfaction here. The Canterbury members have rejected the financial separation scheme agreed on between the Auckland and Otago members. As yet we are to a great extent in the dark regarding the details of the proposed arrangement. But, from what has been allowed to be made public, it is plain that the Otago members were prepared to take upon the Middle Island a very large share indeed of the public debt of the colony, viz., in the proportion of £610,000 per annum to £190,000 to the North Island. In consideration of the Middle Island paying £120,000 per annum the North was prepared to relieve us from farther liability on their account. The Canterbury members very naturally considered such an arrangement unfair to this part of the colony. They evidently cannot see an equivalent for the payment of such a large sum annually. What can have induced our neighbours in the South to put forth such a scheme we are at a loss to conceive. They are generally credited with having a tolerable regard for their own interests. They have always shown a disposition to sacrifice the colony for the sake of their own province. When the complete plan therefore is placed before the House, we shall not be at all surprised to find that it included the placing the seat of Government of the Middle Island at Dunedin, or some other similar advantage to Otago, But whatever may have induced the members from Otago to agree to such a scheme, it is plain that, from a purely selfish point of view, it should be rejected by the Middle Island. The payment of over £400,000 a year to the North—for that is what the proposal amounts to—is making the lap,d fund colonial revenue with a vengeance. This £400,000 must come out of our land fund, and the balance, if there should ever be any such, would be all that we would have to spend on reproductive works. Nor must it be forgotten that the land fund of the Middle Island is not likely to continue at its present high rate. The day will soon come when the best of our lands shall have gone into private hands, and, when that comes about, the proposed arrangement of the debt would press most ruinously on our resources. If, in the meantime, we are to contribute to the support of the North Island, why should we not have a voice in the proper expenditure of that large sum ? It would be far better to make the land fund colonial revenue at once, and remain united. For it must not be forgotten that no resolution or Act of the General Assembly can Jocalise the liability for our loans. Notwithstanding anything that Parliament may say, the public creditor will look to the whole colony for the interest and sinking fund. If the North Island cannot at any time meet the charges taken over by her we would be called on to pay them. Financial separation has nothing whatever to recommend it to the electors of the Middle Island. It does not appeal to our selfish instincts. Were it to become law, we would be a great deal worse off than under the Government proposals—worse even than we would be were the land fund declared colonial revenue.