The Globe. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1072, 4 December 1877, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1877.

We do not envy the position in which the Zyttelton Times finds himself placed with reference to the Ministry and the Land Fund. Sir G. Grey has been too astute a party leader for our contemporary, who finds, when it is too late, that he is committed to the support of a Ministry, the main feature of whose policy is the robbery oi % Jand. fu»4 Qi ilio South

Island. In his rabid hatred for the party which abolished the provinces, but did its best to localise the land fund, the Tmes eagerly welcomed the advent to place and power, of the great leaders of the Provincialist party. Well, what is the result ? When Major Atkinson made his financial statement a short time ago, he proposed, to moot financial difficulties, that the land fund of Canterbury and Otago should contribute £167,000 to the consolidated revenue. The Proviucialist Government intend to take the Avliole of that revenue. The enemies of the provinces, and according to the attempted showing of the Lyttclton Times the spoilers of the land fund, proposed to take a small sum only out of that fund, but the champions of local self-govern-ment intend to seize tho whole of it. Major Atkinson chastised Canterbmy with whips, but Sir G. Grey intends to do it with scorpions. Our contemporary is naturally rather uncomfortablo at the prospect, and is exceedingly anxious to make it appear that it is all tbo fault of tho Abolition party. Tho Abolitionists of Auckland, we are assured, swept away the provinces in order that they might enjoy "an equal share in the substantial " land revenues of Canterbury and " Otago." " But apart from the trans- " parent moth'es which actuated the " Auckland abolitionists, we cannot,"' says our contemporary, " imagine how, "' except on the theory of epidemic lialln- " ci nation, a Province like Canterbury " could be so blind as not to see in this " matter the sequence of cause and effect. " The Province and Land Fund were as " inseparable as the Siamese twins. '•' Neither could survive the other. To " bring the colony into direct contact " with land revenue, and not to expect " colonial appropriation is as absurd as " to throw gold among large crowds, and "to rely on its recovery. The provincial " chest was the till of the Land Fund. " That chest was broken to pieces, and " the contents are scattered to the four

" corners of New Zealand. It may be " said that provincial institutions could " never have prevented the diversion of

" land revenue to the necessities of the " colony. We question the correctness "of that statement. When property is " in the hands of legitimate possessors, " we do not find, as a general ride, that " tho necessities of others lead them to " appropriate it. But when it is treasure '•' trove, mere flotsam and jetsam from " some wreck, necessities at once spring " up which know no law except that of " helping oneself.*' It must really he disheartening indeed for our contemporary to find that .nil his assertion on this question has produced no effect upon the minds of the thinking public of Canterbury. During the last two years we are afraid to say how often the LjjtleUon. Time* has told us that the Province and the Land Fund were inseparable. He has said it so frequently, and with such reiterated emphasis, that it is now evident that he considers he has conclusively proved his point. Day after day, and week after week, ho has rung tho changes on tho " inseparability of the " Province and the Land Fund;" of flic " provincial chest being the till of the "Land Fund;" "that neither could sur- " vivo the other." But tho public of Canterbury prefer some small amount of reasoning to convince them of the soundness of the position he has taken up. In one sentence we are told that Abolition has caused the seizure of the Laud Fund; in another, in tho same leader, that it is ourlfinancial difficulties which have brought it about. They cannot both be true. The Abolition Act has only been in force for eleven months, and the colony cannot during that short time have been slipping with such alarming rapidity into the " abyss of insolvency." Yet tho course taken by the Government is recognised and accepted by the Times as the most " statesmanlike solution of a grave diffi- " culty."