New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1876. OTAGO MISREPRESENTATION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 229, 29 January 1876, Page 12

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, JANUARY 29, 1876. OTAGO MISREPRESENTATION.

The Otago provincialists are changing front. For several weeks their Dunedin oro-an has been filled with violent attacks upon Northern men, who were characterised as a band of conspirators and robbers. This tune is now changed. The canny Superintendent of Otago and his astute lieutenant, Mr. Stout, perceived that their minions had overdone the thing, and that it was necessary to conciliate Northern sensibilities which had been so wantonly outraged. Accordingly the Daily Times took up its parable and be gan to prove that the Auckland provincialists did not covet the land fund of Otago, the ''felonious intent" being on the°part of "the Wellington clique." According to the Dunedin newspaper the Cook Strait representatives are an exceedingly shady lot. This is what it says of them in the interest of the provincialist party : As we pointed out, the colonisation of the land fund would have been necessary to complete the scheme which the centralists so nearly carried out. Although the possession of our broad acres in the South will not now be the main matter of quarrel it would be absurd to suppose that the question is finally set at rest. It is hopeless to expect this so long as there are landless gentry who, like Hybrias, the Cretan, sow and reap with their spears and bows alone, or rather who regard their glib tongues and boundless audacity as the weapons with which they may hope to win some plunder and replenish their local coffers. The Cook Strait members have a conscience and a creed which they hold with an affectionate orthodoxy, which we must admire, even though we do not respect it. Their credo is : we possess not, and desire to have. Upon this simple faith they always act, and we have no hope of resisting them by moral suasion, nothing but a majority will be effectual in restraining their ardor, and whenever we cease to have a majority, we shall cease to have a land fund. Now that the opponents of the present Ministry have a majority, and that in a short time we shall see an end put to the Government by corruption, which has so long disgraced the country, it is as well to see if the safety of our land fund cannot be secured by some decided measures, and an effectual barrier be set up that may put a stop to the raids of the barbaric hordes.

This is very smart writing, but it is neither fair nor truthful. If the Otago land fund be localised, it will be by the votes of the Cook Strait members, and not by Auckland provincialists. Of this we have not a shadow of doubt. Indeed, it was the influence of these gentlemen last session that enabled the Government to affirm the principle of localising the land fund and incorporating it in the Abolition of Provinces Act, and despite the special pleading of the Daily Times this fact remains. If the Cook Strait members, who hold the balance of power in the colony, had taken an extreme position on this question, they could have carried their point. They did not do so, however, but moderated the tone of parties on both sides of the House, and did substantial justice to all parts of the colony. For doing this positive service, they are now calumniated by the organ of Mr. James Macandrew, and misrepresented before the Otago people. This may be easily accounted for, however. It was necessary to curse some one, and having taken to blessing the "Northern robbers," the Times turned to the central districts of the colony as a fresh field on which to pour out the vials of its inky wrath. So "the barbaric hordes" of Cook Strait have been defied by the champion of the cultured South.

Now, it is not matter of speculation or opinion that the Auckland Greyites, as for want of a better name they may be called, have been returned, pledged as one man, to colonialise the land fund ; in other words, their war cry is "one purse and one government." They do not care one farthing for provincial institutions. Indeed, they are nearly unanimous in wishing them abolished, but they have a most lively sense of the injustice inflicted upon their own districts by the inequalities of taxation caused by the fiscal system of the colony. And that sense of injustice has expression in the words we have quoted as embodying their policy. Let not the Otago provincialists live in a fool's paradise, for they will discover next session that Auckland will give a block vote upon this question, and will, with one or two exceptions perhaps, send far abler men into the Parliamentary arena to attack the land fund of the South than Otago will send to defend it. But our Dunedin contemporary is professedly living in this fool's paradise. The Otage lamb is about to lie down with the "Auckland wolf," to quote one of its own choice epithets, and it will assuredly repent its confiding folly. Nothing will save it from the Northern fangs but the prompt action of the Cook Strait members. With all their loud-mouthed boasting, Otago nmst shelter itself behind the protecting skirts of the much-abused " Wellington clique." If they do not—if they venture to fight their own battle, they will assuredly come to grief. It is something touching in its simple innocence this new-found faith in Auckland men. The Daily Times thus chronicles the reconciliation of these irreconciliables :

It is no doubt a very wise party move or the small clique of centralists to endeavour to sow dissention between Auckland and Otago, and to make out that they are so bent upon robbing us that they care for nothing else. The clique are fighting for their life, and we must not be too hard upon them if they use all sorts of means, some quite indefensible, tor making their case look as well as may be. Upon the race of it, however, it will be seen that there is an air of extreme improbability that the ultra-provincial party which lias won almost all the elections of Auckland should use for their war crv—One Colony, one Land Fund. This is the note Mr. Stafford, that truest centralist, of all the public men of the colony, has persistently and consistently sounded. In the mouth of Auckland provincialists it is obviously absurd, and we are happy to say they have too much sense to use it. We are* aware that at the beginning of the campaign, before the true bearings of the case were fully understood, some few men in Auckland used it, but they were, with hardly an exception, speaking to the mob. and not announcing a policy. Upon the other hand, it is so clearly and distinctly inconsistent with the platform upon which they stand, that they should demand the colonisation of the land fund, that only those who have an immediate object to serve would venture to attempt to mislead the ignorant here by putting such language into their mouth. And be it remembered that the same clique that are now endeavoring to father the burglarious doctrine upon the Aucklanders at large were only a few months ago playing fast and loose with the idea of sacrificing our land fund in order to attain their ideal of a united colony. Most of them had already sacrificed every other principle. It is no wonder if they sacrificed the property of the province. We well remember that about the time of the political meeting on the Abolition Act in Dunedin the abolitionists were for giving up our land fund to the colony. It was only when they found out that such a notion would not go down here for a dav, when they found out that the whole public voice was against them, that they proceeded to find out that abolition really localised the land fund. The state of things is simply this, that there is a something that Auckland cares for more than a share of our land fund, and that is the preservation of her entity and political rights. She says to us in effect, " we will hold out to you the right hand of fellowship and fight side by side with you against the nefarious intrigues of the dominant clique in Wellington, but if we are all beaten, look out for squalls, and do not imagine that the clauses of the Abolition Act will prove any security to you ; it will be a mere question of voting power, and it will be Canterbury divided against itself, and then Otago against the rest of the colony, with what results you may guess."

We suspect the Daily Times takes its inspiration on this subject from persons interested in throwing the Macandrewites off their guard, until they have their hands closed upon their throats. If our contemporary would only refer to the back files of the Auckland Herald and 'Evening Star, about the time of the general election, it would understand the real design of the Auckland provincialists.

Our contemporary, however, abandons provincialism. Its constitutional programme is identical with that of Mr. Macajstdrew last session. It says :

One Board of Works, with permanent salaried officers and a council elected by the people, will, we believe, satisfy the provincialists, and will take away alk those causes of reproach which have done so much to bring provincialism, into disrepute. We should have an end of the ins and outs, the sham of legislation, and with the death of these fopperies we should have an end of all substantial attack upon our Provincial entity. . . . With the Board of Works for the province must follow the retention of our landed property ; and we may suggest that at this juncture it would be well to secure a fuller right to the management of the land, unfettered and unrestricted by the action of the Assembly, than we have yet had. It would be in this way and by this means that we should hope to see the central snake scotched and rendered innocuous for the future. AVe trust that the provincialists will not be too confident in their moment of victory, or assume that because there is a majority at their back that therefore they have nothing to do but to go on as of old. Let them be canny and cautious, and remember that a little skilful action just now will secure to Otago a very great benefit, and that something of the show and fashion of authority may well be sacrificed to obtain a solid hold of our landed estate.

We take this occasion, in conclusion, of protesting against such a compromise as is herein proposed. Whatever may be done with the land fund, the Colonial Government must have the control of the land of the colony, or else it will be alienated without settlement, in large blocks, as has already been done to a criminal extent in Otago. " Give us the public estate to " deal with for our own purposes, and a " local clique under the title of a Board " of Works, to manage it as we please, " and you may do anything else you " like." This is the latest proposal from Otago. It stinks of jobbery and corruption. The Moa Flat sale would sink into insignificance beside the transactions which would. be immediately carried out by land-rings, through the agency of an irresponsible Board like that proposed. The Government cannot consent to this on any account. The Otago land fund is chargeable with interest on a million and a quarter, being the amount of the Otago debt, and in fairness to the taxpayers of the colony, it will be necessary to make all provincial debts a first charge upon the land fund. This would be doing no injustice to the isrovincial districts, and it would relieve the undue pressure to which the taxpayers are subjected under the present system. When the land fund of the provincial districts meets this charge, and the cost of rectifying their surveys, together with the other charges to which it is liable by law, there can be no objection to localising the residues ; but to hand over the public estate unembarrassed by the mortgages which the colony holds, to any provincial clique, would be to do an unwise and impolitic act, and would moreover be a breach of faith with the public creditor. The consolidation of the public debt did not relieve the land fund of its legal obligations, and the taxpayers of the colony will not consent to pay the money out of their own pockets to enable it to be done. We would seriously recommend Otago writers and politicians to study the subject in all its bearings, and they will see that without the goldfields' revenue, which ought not to be classed as territorial revenue, what is left of its land fund is hardly worth making a noise about. The Otago Pro-

vincial Government have alienated the land and squandered the revenue of the province, and the attempt is now made by means of brawling and bullying to turn the attention of the people from themselves and their misdeeds, and thus avoid accounting for their unjust stewardship.