COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL ENDOWMENTS.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1075, 7 December 1877, Page 3

COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL ENDOWMENTS.

[From " Hansard."] Mr Murray, on November 11th, moved in the House of Representatives—(l.) That each county in New Zealand should have a permanent inalienable endowment of Crown lands, in proportion to the area of such county, and the endowment, where possible, to be within the county. (2.) That each municipality in New Zealand should have a permanent inalienable endowment of public lands, in proportion to population, and the endowment, where available, to be within the municipality." Mr Montgomery wished to make an alteration in the original motion. He desired to excise the words " in proportion to the area of such county " from the first part of the motion. In the provincial district of Canterbury, from which he came, there were several counties of very large area, and some of the land within them was so inferior in quality that it was of very little value. Therefore it would not be fair to give the counties endowments in proportion to the area within their own boundaries. It was not fair to make endowments irrespective of the requirements of a district. He would move—" That the words 'in proportion to the area of such county ' be biruck out;" and he would have a few words to say thereafter respecting the amendment proposed by the lion, member for Onehunga. He might say at present that he sympathized with those municipalities which had got their endowments under the Act, and he did not believe that the House would consent so to deprive them. He thought, however, that the whole question of endowments, and also of subsidies paid from the consolidated revenue, should be considered next session. At the present time the city of Christchurch was absolutely without endowments of any sort except the 2000 acres of land lately reserved, while Auckland, Wellington, and Dunedin were largely endowed. When they began to consider the question of endowments they would have to take into consideration the endowments which were already held by some municipalities. It might be considered unfair that a municipality which was already largely endowed by reserves of land should have the same amount of subsidy annually from the consolidated revenue as a town of the same size which had no landed endowment. He was of opinion that it would be found that the corporations in the Provincial district of Canterbury were very lightly endowed. A very largo question had been opened up by this motion, and it would have to be considered at some future time ; but it would certainly be unjust to prevent the provisions of the law from being carried out in those cases where municipalities had been formed under the Municipal Corporations Act. Christchurch had an endowment of 2000 acres of land, which, at the outside, would bring in about £4OO a year. He did not think that that was a proper endowment for a city of that size. He would vote against the amendment of the hon. member for Onehunga. Mr Stevens intended to support the proposal of the hon. member for Bruce, and he did so because he felt convinced that, although no practical action might come of it immediately, yet it pointed in the direction he desired to go. He agreed very much with what the hon. member for Akaroa had said, that there were cities and boroughs which were absolutely without any endowment except the 2000 acres given to each municipality by the Act of last year ; but the principle adopted last year seemed faulty, inasmuch that every borough, without reference to its size, got the same quantity of land. That he considered to be very rough justice, if justice at all. Still, 60 far as reversing the action of last year seemed to be proposed, ho could not consent to that. The question opened up by the hon. member for Bruce was of so large and important a character that he bad been rather surprised to hear no indication given by the Government of the view they took of the matter. The hon. gentleman in charge of the finances of the colony must be aware of the enormous drain upon the and revenue for these annual aids to revenue in order to secure some approximation to making revenue meet expenditure ; therefore he submitted that the Government should, before the discussion closed, give the House some indication of what were their feelings upon the subject. It was far too large a question to be treated as an ordinary private member's motion, and perhaps his hint would not be allowed to pass unnoticed. He should like to take this opportunity of going much further than the honorable member for Akaroa. He would say point-blank that in his opinion the time was rapidly approaching, if it had not already arrived, when the subsidies from the Consolidated Fund to these local bodies, whether to the municipalities or to counties, must be resumed by the colony, and when fixed endowments must be given from the landed estate as part of that f encral scheme of consolidating the resources of the colony which could not bo much longer escaped. He might add that he thought that, as this question entered so largely into and so immediately affected the financial position of the colony generally, it would have been much better taken in a Budget iiscfassm. Tlie honorable member

for Bruco had brought forward a question the last of which would not be heard that day, and he (Mr Stevens) should support him in the position he took up. Mr Moorhouse thought that an injustice might be done to certain portions of the colony by the adoption of a cast-iron rule. If the resolution of the hon. member for Bruce were carried it would work extremely unevenly, and in some cases unjustly. The borough which he (Mr Moorhouse) represented had sustained a great injustice at the hand of the Provincial Council of Canterbury a very great many years ago. The early settlers of Canterbury had invested their money in the purchase of town land upon a distinct understanding, upon an agreement as solemn as couid be expressed. When the city of Christchurch was first laid out, the inducement held out to the early settlers to buy sections of land was that the town should have for its endowment a grant of land more than equal the size of the city itself. That was the inducement held out by the Canterbury Association, which was supreme in those days. The land that was to be granted as an endowment was at present nearly equal in value to the original township. Mr FitzGerald, his predecessor in the office of Superintendent, in order to relieve the Canterbury Association of the fulfilment of the promise made, propounded a scheme for selling this town land, and so relieving the settlers generally of the debt. He (Mr Moorhouse) always entertained the idea that from whatever point they viewed that proposal, it was extremely imprudent. Proposals were made twenty years ago, in order to balance the accounts, to make endowments of country land equivalent in value to those that were taken from the city. The city had only a very minor voice in the Provincial Council, and the representatives of the outlying districts disregarded any representations made to them, and consequently an injustice was done. The obvious reason for granting the original endowment was this : that the city of Christchurch was situated in a very flat country indeed, and at a very slight elevation above the sea. It was exceedingly difficult to drain, and at the time referred to there was no water supply, except at very enormous expense, for Hushing any drains constructed for the health of the city ; and, in the minds of the original founders of the settlement, it was considered that an exceptional endowment should be made in order to relieve the citizens, in their early struggles, of the enormous and extraordinary expense of organising a town in such a place. That was evidently the object in the minds of those who founded the settlement. Appeal after appeal had been made to the Provincial Legislature for compensation for the wrong that had been inllicted upon the city. He now appealed to the House for redress in this matter. There was already a reserve in aid of the revenues of the City of Christchurch to the extent of 2000 acres ; but that was a ridiculous compensation for the extent of the loss which the people of Christchurch had sustained, and for the sacrifice which they made of their estate in the interest of the colony. It was well known by those who were acquainted with that portion of the colony that any proposal to take a drain through Christchurch would involve an expense greater than would be incurred for the same purpose in any other town in New Zealand. The amount of debt which had been thrown upon the city, and the responsibility which had been contracted by the ratepayers consequent upon necessary disbursements, had no parallel in the Colony of New Zealand. He thought, therefore, that the proposal of his honourable friend the member for Onehunga was eminently unjust as regarded Christchurch, however fully that honourable gentleman's argument might be supported by the general condition of the colony. Having made reference specially to Christchurch, he contended that it would be eminently unjust to deprive the city of the possession of a paltry endowment which it had received under the law, in common with other Corporations, to compensate it for the spoliation which had been committed twenty years ago. Whatever action the House might take, he hoped it would not deprive Christchurch of the paltry assistance that would be a Horded to it by this endowment, which, as he understood, although 3et aside, was not Crown-granted. If that endowment had been g'ven to the city which was originally intended, it would have been worth a thousand times as much as any endowment that had been given to almost any other city in the colony. There was now no land in the shape of an endowment in the City of Christchurch, because, by the action of the House a few days previously, the Corporation had been deprived of the use, for any material or mercantile purposes, of all the unsold lands in the city. If the Corporation had been left alone, they would have had sufficient good taste and providence to have left these things unencumbered by anything which would interfere with the health of the people of Christchurch ; but the House in its wisdom had thought it right to take into its own hands the profitable use of the land, and deprive the Corporation of it. There were now no reserves in the city for the use of its inhabitants. Faery reserve had gone from them for the use and in the interest of the colony. If the House believed the representations he had made of the case of Christchurch, it should be exceedingly ashamed of raising its hand to deprive tho city of the very slight endowment it believed it now enjoyed under the law. The Crown grant for the 2000 acres which had been set aside ought to issue, and until that measure of justice was conceded he would never cease to demand it. There was no parallel in tho colony of endowments made by its founders so ample as those for Christchurch, and if the trust had only been carried out the income from those endowments would have been employed in relieving the necessarily heavy burdens upon the inhabitants of the town, and the pressure consequent upon the topographical condition of the city and its neighborhood. He trusted the House would hesitate before it affirmed a resolution which would have the effect of denying to his constituents what they were eminently entitled to. Mr Bowen said that the course taken by the hon. member for Onehunga appeared to him to be a very unfortunate one in dealing with a matter of this sort. These reserves had been conditionally made under the 350th clause of the Municipal Corporations Act, and in the 351st clause there was a special provision for the manner in which these temporary reserves should be dealt with by bot h Houses of tho Legislature. It was, therefore, not fair to raise the question of whether these reserves should be confirmed or not by way of amendmont, suddenly introduced, on a resolution which doalt with reserves of a totally different character from those provided for under the Municipal Corporations Act. The bom member for Christchurch city said I th 6 reserve of 2000 acres was quite inadequate

for the city of Christchurch. In that he agreed with the hon. gentleman. That town had been deprived of its original reserves without receiving any adequate compensation The amount reserved was small enough for smaller towns. He thought that, if the question was to be approached by the Legislature, it should be done by way of moving for a committee, so that anyone who objected to the reserves which had been temporarily made should have an opportunity of submitting and obtaining evidence on the subject, and ,so that the committee might inquire into the special circumstances of the different towns affected. lie did not think it was fanto tack to such a resolution as that of the hon. member for Bruce an amendment which, might, be held lo fulfil the conditions of clause 351 of the Municipal Corporations Act, but which, while it fulfilled those conditions in the letter, certainly would not do so in the spirit, of the Act. The evident meaning of the Act was that the reserves should be made temporarily ; that the House should inquire into the circumstances of each separately, and confirm them or refuse them according as it might be found most convenient in each particular case—then the Grovernment would make such reservations as were necessary under the circumstances; whereas if this resolution were passed it would be a refusal of the reserves that had been made, without any regard being paid to the particular circumstances ; and that would lead to very serious damage to different boroughs, seeing that land sales were going on throughout the country, and that the towns would not be in the same position again as they were in this year. His constituents were interested in this question, because a reserve had been made for the town of Kaiapoi, and he claimed a right to give evidence on the subject before a committee, before the House dealt with the question in tins general and summary manner. He might, say that they had no endowments of any kind in that borough, although they had a very large expenditure thrown upon them owing to having a navigable river running through the town. There was scarcely any similar case in the country, for in other places where there was a navigable river running through the town there were either harbor endowments or other endowments for the purpose of improving the river; whereas at Kaiapoi there were no meanß of doing so except out, of rates. He hoped the hon. gentleman who moved the amendment would see that it was not the right way to raise the question, and that any objection which an hon. member might have to any reserve temporarily made would be raised and considered on its merits by both Houses. Mr Murray-Aynsley thought the endowments should be given to counties, but that they should be within the boundaries of those counties, as most of them were very large and had plenty of land. It was a very different thing with regard to municipalities, for a great number of the old municipalities had no land which could possibly be turned into an endowment for their benefit. The town he represented had an undertaking from the provincial authorities that an endowment should be made tor its benefit out of lands within the provincial district. It was absolutely necessary that the borough should have that endowment in order that it might carry on at all. Even if the authorities levied the full rates that they could charge, they would not be able to do all the work unless assisted by endowments. If he had had anything to say to the setting aside endowments for Lyttelton, he would certainly have made them much larger than they were; but, as they were arranged between the municipal authorities and the representative of the provincial Government of tho day, the borough got much less than it ought to have got. There was great expense incurred in keeping the streets in repair, and there was a large amount of Grovernment property within the borough which was unrateable, so that tho borough must ask the House either to vote year by year the proportion that the Government property would give to the rates, or to give an endowment which could be fixed now as agreed upon. He hoped the House would not pass the second amendment, but would allow the endowments already fixed to be carried out; and then, next year, the Government could bring down a measure dealing with the future endowments of municipalities. Ho considered that when a township was proclaimed the Government should make certain reserves within the boundaries as municipal endowments, and should also put in their Bill a provision that private parties cutting up land as a township should be forced to put by a certain percentage of the sections as an endowment for that township, because, although those persons got high prices for the land, they left the people who took up the sections without any assistance, and caused them to apply to the Ho\ise for help, when there ought to be sufficient endowments within the township itself to render them independent.