THE CANTERBURY LAND FUND.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1449, 8 October 1878, Page 3

THE CANTERBURY LAND FUND.

CONFERENCE OF ROAD BOARD CHAIRMEN. An adjourned meeting of the Conference of the Canterbury Road Board chairmen re the land fund was held at eleven o’clock yesterday morning, at the office of Mr J. L. Wilson, Lichfield street. The following chairmen of Roadßoards were present—Messrs J. L. Wilson, chairman (Avon), H. J. Hall (Riccarton), R. L. Higgins (Gust), H. W. Peryman (Lincoln), W. C. Beswick (Levels), J. E. Gorton (Oxford), W. Attwood (Hcathcotc), W. Postlethwaite (Geraldine), J. Talbot (Temuka), A. Parsons (Mandeville), S. Barwell (Ashley), S. Bailey (Templeton), and O. G. Parker (Malvern), Westenra (Rakaia). Tho Chairman stated that he had called the Conference together that day as the case was urgent, because the mail was leaving that afternoon, and it was necessary to forward a petition that had been drawn up, by it. For that reason he had thought it right to call them together, and likewise to hear some telegrams read that he had received from the Hon. John Hall. The petition which it was proposed to send up would strengthen their hands, and also those of their members, and tend to secure the object which they desired. One of the gentlemen present here remarked that the hour of the meeting was a very inconvenient one, as many of the members of the conference had been compelled to be in town on Saturday in order to attend it. If it had been fixed for two or three hours later the country members would have been enabled to have come down by the morning train, and so would have saved a couple of days. The Chairman then proceeded to read several telegrams which he had received from the Hon. John Hall, and which were marked “ Private ” and “ Not for publication.” Mr Wilson stated that he had also received a telegram from the chairman of the Waimate County Council, who fully agreed with the object of the Conference, and who would desire to affix his signature to the petition. Mr T. I. Joynt then read the following petition :

To the Honorable the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives of New Zealand in Parliament assembled. The humble petition of the nnders ; gned Chairmen of County Councils land Eoad Boards within the Provincial District of Canterbury humbly showeth—1. That the “ New Zealand Gazette ” which was published ou the 24th day of January, 1878, contained a statement of account which purported to have been issued by the Honorable the Colonial Treasurer, and to bear the signature of the accountant to the Treasury, and which was entitled “A statement of receipts and expenditure of the land fund of the several districts for the quarter ended 31st December, 1877, under the Financial Arrangements Act, 1876,” and which statement so far as related to the land fund of the Provincial District of Canterbury was as follows— RECEIPTS. Revenue £ s. d. Land sales 237,203 1-1 3 Depasturing licenses and assessments 5 4 2 Rents and miscellaneous 374 0 6 £237,582 18 11 Receipts iu aid of Revenue— Temporary advances from Consolidated Fun;l Treasury hills transferred Total receipts 237,582 IS 11 Balance on Sept. 30th, 1877 ... 424,029 17 1 Total £661,612 16 0 EXPENDITURE. Permanent Appropriations— Interest and sinking fund on permanent debts 2,450 16 9 Interest on railway expenditure ... 9,330 11 9 New Plymouth Harbor Board Endowment Canterbury College reserves 8,728 0 0 Ellesmere and Forsyth Reclamation, &c 922 10 0 Board of Conservators, Clutha River Subsidies to local bodies 5,216 8 3 Annual Appropriations— Crown Lands Department 648 3 4 Surveys 7,116 3 7 Miscellaneous 0,701 6 10 Refunds of revenue Surplus land revenue 301,820 15 1 Treasury bills transferred Repayment of advances from Consolidated Fund in 1876-77 Repayment of advances from Consolidated Fund iu 1877-78 Total payments 345,937 15 7 Balances on Dec. 31st, 1877 ... 315,675 0 5 Total... £061,612 16 0 2. That your petitioners submit that it appears by the said statement of account that all the charges which by law were capable of being made upon and deducted from the land fund of the said Canterbury district up to the said 31st day of December, 1877, were brought iuto account against and deducted from the same, and that the sum of £315,675 0s sd, which appears at foot of the said statement of account, was the balance of the land fund of the said Canterbury district on the said 31st day of December, 1877, within the meaning of the 9th section of the said Financial Arrangements Act, 1876, and the 16th Section of the Public Revenues Act, 1877. . , ~ 3 That by the said 9th section of the Fiuaucial Arrangements Act, 1876, it was enacted that after payment of the charges and advances therein referred to (all which charges and advances arc specified in the statement of accounts above mentioned) the balance of land fund should he divided amongst the counties of the districts in the proportions therein mentioned, and by the 31st section of the same Act it was further enacted that iu the cases iu which the whole of the Counties Act, 1876, was not in force in any county the moneys payable to the county should ho divided amongst the several road districts and outlying districts included therein, in proportions to he determined as therein mentioned, and after making provision for determining the said proportions, it was further enacted that iu respect to each road district the Colonial Treasurer should issue and pay to the Road Board thereof the share of the moneys allotted thereto as therein provided,

4. That by the said 16th section of the Public Revenues Act, 1877, it was enacted that the balance of the land fund of any district payable under section 9 of the Financial Arrangements Act, 1876, in respect of the half-year ending the 31st day of December, 1877, and not paid at that date, should be payable and bo paid as is provided in the said 1 inancinl Arrangements Act, 1876, within ninety days of the said 31st day of December, 1877. 5. That by the 16th and 17th sections of the said Financial Arrangements Act, 1876, provision was made for payment out of the cash in hand, belonging to the several provincial districts in the colony on the 3ist day of December, 1876, of the liabilities of the said districts respectively outstanding at that date, and it was thereby enacted that if the said cash should be insufficient to pay the said liabilities, the balance should bo raised by loan or by Treasury bills, as the General Assembly should direct, and by the 6th section of the same Act it was declared that the moneys so raised by loan, while the same were outstanding and unpaid, should be deemed to be the permanent debt of the district, the interest and sinking fund on which were to be charges on the Land Fund of such district. 6. Your petitioners, therefore, submit that the whole of the said sum of £315,675 Os 5d was legally available for distribution amongst the County Councils and Road Boards in the said provincial district of Canterbury, and ought to have been distributed and paid to and amongst them respectively, as by law directed, within ninety days of the said 31st day of December, 1877. 7. That on the said 31st day of December, 1877, the whole of the Counties Act, 1876, was in force in the counties of Ashburton, Waimate, and Akaroa, and was not in force in any other county in the said district of Canterbury. 8. That no part of the said balance of the Land Fund was paid to the said County Councils and Road Boards respectively, within the said period of ninety days of the said 31st day of December, 1877.

9. That on or about the 3rd day of July, 1878, the said balance of land fund then being, as your petitioners believed, still unpaid, your petitioners held a conference and appointed a committee thereof for the purpose of taking such steps as they should be advised towards obtaining payment of the said money, and in the course of a correspondence which took place between the Hon. the Colonial Treasurer and the chairman appointed by the said committee a communication was made by the Colonial Treasurer to the said chairman to the effect that the balance of laud fund which was available for distribution among the said County Councils and Road Boards in the said provincial district of Canterbury was the sum of £47,668 Os 6d, and that the share thereof which was payable to the county of Selwyn was the sum of £13,571 9s sd, and that the said last-mentioned sum had been distributed amongst the several Road Boards in the said county on the 29th day of June then last past, and your petitioners believe that the said lastmentioned sum was distributed and paid accordingly. 10. That no further payment has since been made to the said County Councils or Road Boards, or to any of them, on account of the said balance of land fund, and your petitioners are advised and believe that the residue of the said sum of £315,675 Os 5d is still available for distribution under the provisions of the said Acts, and your petitioners respectfully submit that the said County Councils and Road Boards respectively are justly entitled to have the said residue paid to them in the proportions provided by the said Financial Arrangements Act, 1876, without any further deduction on any account whatsoever.

Yonr petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that your honorable House will be pleased to order that the balance of the land fund of the provincial district of Canterbury for the period ended the 31st day of December, 1877, as shown in tho statement of account so published as aforesaid, after deducting therefrom the sum of £47,668 0s 6d already paid by the Colonial Treasurer to the several County Councils and Road Boards in the said district as before-mentioned, be paid and distributed to and among |the said County Councils and Road Boards in the proportions in which they are respectively entitled to the same. And yonr petitioners will ever pray. [Here follow tho signatures.] Mr Bailey remarked that as the Canterbury members had accepted a compromise it seemed to him that the whole matter was at an end. He did not see how the present petition could affect the matter.

Mr Joynt said that at all events it could do no harm to forward it now that it was drawn up. Mr Baswick moved —“ That the signatures of those present should be affixed to the petition.”

Seconded by Mr Westenra. Mr Higgins would like to know how the petition originated. It struck him that it was informal, and would not be received by the House, inasmuch as it had reference to money matters. He thought it was against the Standing Orders of the House.

Mr Joynt said he had carefully read the Standing Orders, and there was nothing in them to prevent the reception of such a petition. Possibly tho last speaker had in his mind tho Standing Orders of the old Provincial Council, who, because they had no money to dispose of, declined to receive petitions bearing on the subject. Mr Hall thought that the thanks of the conference were due to Mr Wilson for the energetic manner in which he had worked in this matter. A vote of thanks was certainly due to that gentleman. He had certainly done much to secure a successful issue to their desires. At the same time the speaker was sorry to see that many of the Road Boards had declined to contribute a share of the cost of the conference, and their determination to get their rights. Probably, now that they found that a considerable portion of the land fund was coming to them, they would put their hands into their pockets and defray their proper portion of the expenses. He trusted that all the Road Boards in the province would contribute a fair share.

The motion for the signature of the petition was agreed to. Mr Hall then moved his vote of thanks to Mr Wilson. The Chairman would like to inform the meeting that a great deal of the credit of this agitation, which had resulted so successfully, was due to the Hon. John Hall. That gentleman had brought it forward in the first instance —in fact, he might say that ho was the instigator of the proceedings. With regard to what Mr Hall had said, he (the chairman) had much pleasure in stating that there were very few of the Road Boards who had refused to bear any portion of the expenses of the conference and its undertakings. Thcre.’certainly was one Road Board, not a hundred miles from Christchurch, which hau refused to do so. [‘‘Name; name.”] It was hardly worth while disgracing them mentioning the name. [A Voice —“ Ellesmere.”] They had thought they would get nothing, and consequently declined to pay portion of the expense of trying to get it. Perhaps now they were to get something they would not refuse to contribute their mite. He might stale that Mr Mcllwraith had left his signature to be affixed to the petition, but he (the speaker) was informed that that could not be done. Mr Hall was very glad to hear from the chairman that only one Board had positively declined to bear a share of the expense. At the same time, he had hoard that though many Boards had not absolutely declined to contribute they did not intend to do so.

Mr Higgins seconded the rote of thanks to Mr Wilson. The Hon. John Hall might have been the mainstay of the affair in the first instance, but the real practical work of calling the Conference together and conducting it had been undertaken by Mr Wilson, to whom their very best thanks were duo. He (the speaker) at one of the meetings had stated that he did not think his Board would contribute anything, but they had at a meeting held since resolved to do so. Therefore the remarks of Mr Hall did not apply to his district. Pos ibly their sources of information were not at all times correct, Mr W. Fostlethwaite said the Eoad Boards of Sooth Canterbury certainly felt themselves indebted to both Mr Wilson and Mr Hall for the part they had taken in this matter, and those gentlemen certainly deserved the very best thanks of all interested in the matter. For his own part, and speaking for those he represented, he ft It very thankful. Mr Talbot supported the motion, and on the part of the Temuka Eoad Board considered that the motion was a very proper one. The Chairman thanked the Conference for the feeling they had shown so far as he was concerned. He did not think it necessary to put the motion in a formal manner. For his own part he had felt very earnestly in going about this work, and he had been well supported by those around him. It was not only felt that Canterbury was losing a considerable portion of the revenue due to her, but it was also felt that a sort of swindle was being attempted to be perpetrated upon them. Considering that they were losing their land fund altogether, it would only have been a graceful thing on the part of the Government to have presented them with the amount about which there had been so much dispute, as a sort of dowry. [Hear, hear.] However, he was very glad to say that their efforts had been crowned with success. The motion was then carried unanimously.

Mr Bcswick then proposed a vote of thauksfto the Hon. John Hall, who had been so instrumental to their attaining the end desired. Mr Wcstenra had great pleasure in seconding the motion, which was carried unanimously. The Chairman said he should forward copies of the resolutions passed by the steamer leaving that afternoon. Before separating there was one matter which he desired to bring before their notice, which was that of the new Road Board Act proposed to be introduced into tho House. He did not think it would be brought forward, or at all events passed this session, and he therefore thought it would be a very good thing if they would g:t copies of it. and meet together during the recess to consider it. A copy bad been forwarded to him, which he should be glad to lend to any gentleman who would like to read it. It would be much better for the Road Boards to take the matter in hand practically before it was theoretically considered by the House. I'hrrc was one clause in tho proposed Act which they ought very seriously to

consider, and that was the one which debarred Road Boards from taking possession of any private improved land for the purposes of the district. The vote of thanks to Mr Hall was then carried unanimously. The Chairman of the Oxford Road Board said his Board had unanimously resolved to contribute their proportion of the expenses of the conference, and, therefore, the remarks of Mr Hall could not apply to them. He might state that he had only at a very late moment received intimation in reference:to the Conference. The Chairman explained that in the first instance it wis only proposed that the matter should be taken up by the Selwyn County. Consequently [one or two places were omitted that ought to have been included. Ho thought the confining the matter to the Selwyn County was a mistake—it should have been extended to the whole of the Canterbury districts. However he hoped they would do better next time. Mr Talbot hoped that all the Road Boards in the colony would be asked to contribute to the expenses of the Conference. The result had certainly been a very satisfactory one for Canterbury. Mr Hall, in explanation, said he had founded the remarks he had made as to certain Boards declining to bear any portion of the expense, upon paragraphs he had seen in the papers. Those present having affixed their names to the petition, the meeting terminated.