Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 22, 1864.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 184, 22 July 1864, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, JULY 22, 1864.

The Loan Appropriation Act has passed, of course, as could any other Act or deed proposed by the Provincial Government. But the manner in which the sum borrowed is to be appropriated is something remarkable.

Thirty thousand pounds is put down as the sum proposed to be expended upon Native Land Purchases when those purchases can be effected. It does not appear, in the present state of the Native Land Market that anything in that line is likely to be effected, for unless those good gentlemen who now occupy the native lands as squatters are very much misrepresented, it will not be their fault if any of those lands are thrown into the market, just yet, at all events. If that .£30,000 is to be spent at all for the assigned purpose, it will .not be before certain gentlemen who have the management of it, are prepared to re-purchase on their own account, those lands fortunately rescued from the hands of the original owners. We have every reason for believing that while the Provincial Government make a vast to-do about purchasing native lands, they have not at present the most remote intention of doing so. It is contrary to their own private interests, and that is at once a sufficient reason for not troubling themselves about the public weal. If the Government was really'sincere in its desire to purchase native lands, then £30,000 is a very small sura indeed for that pin pose, but it is quite large enough, as merely representing a possible, but not very probable contingency. With regard to the £IO,OOO for immigration purposes, that item is singularly contradictory of the one just alluded to. If the Government buy £30,000 worth of land from theMaories, and re-sell that land openly and for the good of the Province, the tide of Immigration will flow in as surely as the sun rises, and therefore it is quite unnecessary, in fact, it is decidedly absurd, to ask for £IO,OOO, or even £I,OOO or any other sum for the purpose of introducing settlers. It is only necessary to offer sufficient inducement in the shape of land to intending emigrants, men with capital enough to do well in the Colony, but who have not capital enough to do much in England, to get any number of them here. The same overtures and promises which are made to the military settlers, a class of men most unquestionably useless, if made in England to people anxious to leave that country, would secure us a healthy stream of substantial, able, and resolute colonists.

<£l,ooo for a lighthouse for Napier Port. For once a really useful metlkd of spending money, at the suggestion of the Provincial Government; providing that it is not erected for the mere purpose of throwing light on another Government office.

<£4,000 for a bridge over the Ngaruroro river. It is to be hoped that if this bridge is to he built, it will be built in a suitable place, and that the gentlemanly and eloquent member for Clive will be able to find “good and valid reasons' ’ for that bridge not being built for his especial accommodation. We are so accustomed to finding the Provincial Council agreeing to all sorts of absurdities, that nothing would surprise us less than the Bridge in question being built near Pukanau, and thus take all Hawke’s Bay some 10 miles out of its road, as now.

£7,500 for completing the Main Trunk Eoad. Perhaps the Provincial Government would condescend to say which is the main trunk road. If the Te Ante road is meant, that road has already absorbed a very large share of Provincial Revenue. It has probably not cost less than £40,000, half of which sum, or probably two-thirds, has been expended on native lands. £7,500 for Harbor improvements. The Lord have mercy on the unfortunate craft which, encouraged by the fact of all this money being spent upon the Harbor, should, in an‘evil hour, make an incautious trial of those “improvements.” “Harbor improvements” are a kind of Provincial Will-o’-the-Wisp, which emits a very suspicious and treacherous light.