SHOOTING ROUND THE CORNER.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 369, 31 March 1876, Page 3

SHOOTING ROUND THE CORNER.

(Sir Julius Vogel at Wanganui.) THE COiIPACT OF 185 G. I go outside the Compact altogether, and say I believe it is a convenient and desirable thing for every great division of the country to have an interest in the land revenue, and the principle of the Compact of 1856 is not undesirable if we were perfectly free to recognise it. That .principle I understand to be, is to set apart the land revenue both in respect to where it arises and to the object to which it is to be devoted. But what surprises me is that those who speak about it think it should only be made, only be maintained, so long as they consider it desirable. They talk of putting all the land fund of the Middle Island into one common purse, but nothing could less represent their views of the Compact. But the Government will consent to nothing which does not give the residue of the land fund for expenditure by the local bodies, and no proposal will be accepted which would make the land fund lose its special character. I believe it is the general feeling of the Colony that the land revenue should be specially applied. A greiot deal has been said lately about this Compact, but I do not myself expect that so much will be said about the subject when Parliament meets as had been predicted. My experience teaches me, and. I think my friend Mr. Bryce will bear me out, that there are always during the recess innumerable prophets foretelling what will take place when the Assembly meets and the subjects which will be chiefly dealt with, and that those are the very subjects which are generally most neglected during the session. 1 Daily Times.'