THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1882. A NEW LOAN.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2448, 9 February 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1882. A NEW LOAN.

Now that the time is not so very far distant when it will be possible for New Zealand to go again into the market for a loan, it is instructive, if not amusing, to see how the varions districts who think they have a chance of obtaining a slice of the money are girding np their loins for the fray. It matters not that the Ministry have dropped no hints as to their intentions when they are once mora at liberty to woo the British capitalist. It may be that when the time arrives, if they are still in power, nothing will be done but to borrow sufficient to pay off floating claims and to complete absolutely

necessary works, or it may be that some sort of a limited public works scheme, having for its object the completion of the Vogelian scheme, will be brought on the tapis. "What the views of the Ministry may happen to be matters not one fig to the various gentlemen who think it better to take time by the forelock, to bring their claims well before the public, and to organise a party bound to do or die in the sacred cause of their particular railway. But these parties do not all run on quite the same platform. Auckland and Taranaki take np the position that an integral part of the original public works scheme was thai: main trunk lines were to run through both islands, and they strengthen their claims by pointing to the richness of the land through which any line from Auckland or Taranaki would pass, and to the influence it would have, politically speaking, on the Native mind. Otago, on the other hand, cannot quite trust to tho Yogelian idea for its claim. There exists a trunk line through this island, so it is forced partially to rely on glowing accounts of the fertility of the land in the centre of Otago, and the population that would flock there were it once opened out. And, in this connection, Otago is particularly delighted with the report of Messrs Inglis, Mcllwraith, and Beaumont, on the country through which our proposed West Coast railway would have to pass. The papers down south are chuckling with glee over the candid exposition made by these gentlemen, and they are bringing again into notice the flowery report made by Mr. Bastings and other magnates on the interior resources of Otago. " Our interior," they say, "is a land flowing with milk and honey, and the matter o£ constructing a railway through it is a very different thing to sending one through the barren wastes on which Messrs. Inglis and Co. have reported." And yet they hold to the opinion that, notwithstanding the liberal concessions made to companies, it would never payone to undertake the tapping of this wonderfully fertile country, but that it is evidently the duty of the Government to move in the matter. The position is not, perhaps, strictly logical, but the cry is a good rallying oce. The position taken up by Auckland and Taranaki is a sounder one, more particularly as it would be manifestly impossible for any private company to carry out the negotiations with the Natives, necessary before a line through the King country could be made a fait accompli. There can be no doubt that the political and commercial advantages of a line through the centre of the North Island would be very large, and that the whole of the colony would soon feel the fillip which would follow the opening out of so much valuable land, and the more iatimate relations which would be established with the Maoris in consequence. Any Government, we presume, would be alive to the good which would accrue from such arterial communication, so that the position taken up by the Auckland press is not commendable. Ths Auckland members are invited to rally round the Waikato line as if they had been elected to Parliament for the sole purpose of making that line. At last, the press there declares, the Auckland men have a cry worthy of them. If they do not succeed in pushing the scheme through Parliament they will never be entitled to hold up their heads again. The Taranaki papers talk in much the same strain, but with a little more moderation. In criticising the result of the deputation to the Premier, which came off on the 27th ult., and which referred to the pushing on of the line from the Waitara northwards, the caution of the Premier is declared to be unnecessary. Mr. Hall said that it was the duty of the Government to be discreet in the matter, and that the pulse of the Natives had to be felt. The people of Taianaki, however, are made to believo that too much caution is inadvisable, and that most of the lines that have been carried through have been done so in opposition to the will of the the Natives, who, when the matter has been settled, have quietly acquiesced. Of course, that is ono way of looking at the subject, but it is a purely Taranaki one. The people of the colony at large are not all desirous of doiDg anything which will endanger the friendly relations between Europeans and Maoris. " Hasten gently" is the motto which they wish to see carried out oven in this desirable work.

The moral of the facts to which we have alluded io that they all point to the existence of a feeling which is not desirable when there is any chance of a new loan being raised. Here we find Auckland, Taranaki, and Otago scenting tho spoil afar off, and raising a cry which might easily bo developed into log-rolling on a large scale. Before it is at all settled whether a new loan will be raised, or, if it is, for what purposes it will to used, wo find districts up in arms to secure a portion of the expenditure. It is the same old spirit which wrecked the complete success of the original public works scheme. It renders a calm, dispassionate review of the wants of the colony by Parliament almost impossible. Members of Parliament are elected for the good of the colony at large, and not to secure the construction of any particular line or the expenditure of any particular sum of money in their districts. A rospeotable press has no right to urge such narrow views on ita readers.