The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5448, 12 September 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1878.

Ix would be exceedingly desirable, we think, that some definite understanding, should now be arrived at as to the true meaning and import of the terra “ Coloniaiisation of the Land Revenue.” The legal interpretation of the term is given, as we have shown, in the Financial Arrangements Act 1876 Amendment Act 1877, which enacts that all land revenue, with the exception of the third of the proceeds of land sold on deferred payments, shall be and be deemed to bo part of the Consolidated Revenue of the Colony. We have announced to the public creditor that he would have an additional security for money lent to us when-the Land Fund was made colonial revenue; and the local bodies have been told that in making a common purse of the Land Fund there was an assurance for them of the permanence of the subsidies upon which they have been taught to rely to aid theii rates in carrying out necessary local works of roads and bridges throughout the colony. In the usual high-falutin style, the Premier in his speech on Mr. Ballance’s Electoral Bill, a day or two ago, said; —“Our efforts have “been in tho direction of obtaining a “ great charter of rights in the future for “ all the inhabitants of New Zealand. In “ what does that charter of rights consist “at the present time ? What have we “ already done to obtain it—done, in “ part, ourselves ; done, in part, with tho “ assistance of tho honorable gentlemen “opposite? WhenT ask'what have we “ done, I embrace the whole house in the “word “we.” I have no intention “ whatever to attempt to arrogate to my- “ self and my friends alone the glory and “ honor of what has been done. lam wil- “ ling that all shall share in what has “ been done for the common good “of the country. I say, then, we have “ first of all made tins admirable law, that “ henceforth every inhabitant of Now “Zealand, in every part of it, shall have “ a common share in the Land Fund of “ the country—that it shall be the in-. “ alienable inheritance of tho future “youth of this colony.* That is a fact “ accomplished, which cannot bo gone “ back upon. I feel that that is one of “those triumphs which, having" been “ achieved by reason, there can be no “ reflux of public opinion in regard to it. “It is not one of those questions on “ which public opinion runs how in one “ direction, and now iu another. It is “ a matter that so establishes itself in the “ hearts of the people that there can be “no reflux!” Mr. Macandbew was present on the occasion of this delivery, , “ sitting under” the orator, and must have been greatly edified by that eloquent “screed o’doctrine,” his little arrangement with Mr. Proudeoot, of Dunedin, for the construction of the Tapanui branch railway having been made a little time before. It is clear that there is an agreeable diversity of opinion in the Cabinet as to the true meaning, and import of colonialisation of the Land Revenue. The Honorable Minister for Public Works interprets it to mean making railways in Otago. “I have heard it objected,” he said in his “Statement,” “that now, “ when the Land Fund has been oolonial- “ ised, it is unfair to the colony as a “ whole to alienate largo portions of its “ landed estate for local purposes. To “ me such an objection seems—if I may “ be permitted to say so—simply absurd. . “ We are not alienating landed estate; “ we are changing the form of part of it, “ and thereby greatly increasing tho value “ of the whole.”

A committee of the House of Representatives as we have before shown recommended that land equal in value to £50,000 should be reserved for the construction of the Tapanui branch railway. The Minister for Public 'Works, without.the authority of Parliament, and actually even while the Houses were sitting, makes a contract with Mr. PboudFoor, of Dunedin, for a sum of £01,500, to be paid from the Consolidated Fund, and tells us that this reserved land when sold will “probably” realise more than will recoup the outlay; he tells us also that this is not alienating the landed estate. It is only converting it! It appears to bo a most unlawful 1 “ conversion.” What will tho “future youth ”of the colony say to this mode of dealing with “their inalienable inheritance?” Does Sir George Grey think it right that Ms Government should enter into a contract for the expenditure of £61,500 of the public money, the proceeds of land sales, in this way, without the sanction of law; and, if so, what does he mean by such a rhapsody as that we have quoted above 1 The line from Waipahi to Tapanui may be,, and no doubt is, an excellent and in every way desirable undertaking. The general recommendation for such a work now is that it will enhance tho value of Crown lands in its vicinity, or that it will promote tho growth of “cereals.” Mr. Donald Reid, who was then Minister for Lands, said, during tho discussion in committee about reserving laud for the Tapanui branch, that there was no Crown land, or only a’ small quantity, in the neighborhood of the line, and that nearly the whole of the district was in the hands of large proprietors. There would still of course bo a chance of the “cereals;” and the “unearned increment” might perhaps also be added to the prospects of the revenue of the future. But if it were the best of linos, and certain to be the most cheaply constructed and profitable of all tho branches in New Zealand, wo should not the less strongly protest against such an exercise of authority as tho making of it by any Minister or Government without the sanction of Parliament being previously obtained.