SPECIAL TELEGRAM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4782, 20 July 1876, Page 2

SPECIAL TELEGRAM.

(FROM ODB OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Auckland, Wednesday.

The Southern Cross writes thus of Whitaker and Wakefield’s motion :—“ At last comes up in Parliament the real question of vital importance to the colony, the question of the land fund; and, its conversion into colonial revenue as being the produce of colonial lands. This will prove a crucial test of parties, before which they will be compelled to bow. Now comes the true Ithuriel’s spear (and it is in the hands of a veteran politician, Whitaker), the touch of which will test the sincerity of the Opposition and Government followers alike, and produce a re-arrangement of parties and a change of front by many. In the teeth of the repeated avowals of Sir J. Vogel, from the time of his Wanganui speech up to the delivery of his Financial Statement, in favor of localising the laud fund, we have not ceased to declare, as we have done for years, that the consolidation of the land fund was the only true mode by which the injustice the North has suffered in the past might be remedied, and justice to the whole colony be meted out for the future.. This motion of Whitaker's is the ordeal of trial for the Vogel Ministry. We have always maintained that abolition and the laud fund was the true colonial motto ; and if the Government are now prepared to take a bold step straight in the direction that Whitaker’s motion points to, they will gain the support of the North and the country at largo. If they fail to do this—if they adhere to the nibbling process announced the other day—we believe their days are numbered. No one can tell what unforeseen combinations may arise; but we hail with pleasure the notification given yesterday in Parliament of Whitaker’s motion as an embodiment of that great public principle of equity and right for which we have in these columns contended for years. We cannot believe that the Government, as one of our correspondents telegraphs, will remain spectators of the fight as between the two parties that this motion will create. The Government, in a question of such magnitude and on which hang such issues, must declare their opinions. It would appear that a choice of two projects is offered. The motion of Wakefield, for giving one moiety of the land fund to the locality and the other te the colony is but a half measure, which would awaken dissatisfaction in the localities themselves, and ultimately necessitate the fighting all over again’ of the battle now imminent, and which, when fought, should be decisive. Half measures are unsatisfactory, and are now too late. We therefore hope that, unheeding consequences, no matter who may stand or who may fall as the issue of the approaching debate, Whitaker will triumphantly carry his motion. The proposal is one which every reasoning man in Auckland must acknowledge to be for the benefit of this province, and we shall now see who are the true friends of the North—they who talk of separation, or those who strive for justice to the North as represented by the land fund and its substantialities.”

‘ The Herald says:—“ We desire most heartily to"i see Whitaker carry his| present, action to a successful issue, i Whitaker's chief support will of course be I from Auckland members, ' who; /will' indeed “be all with him except one, of perhaps two, who are bound to the Government.' He may also have some assistance from Nelson, Marlborough, the West Coast, and even Canterbury ; but we are afraid the Ministry will be too strong for Mr. Wakefield’s string of resolutions, which may yet> give the Government a very great amount of trouble. Probably they may be taken as emanating from the Stafford party, and in the event of a defeat of Whitaker’s resolutions, they would not unlikely be supported by the whole force of the Opposition.”