South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2369, 20 October 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1880.

It is satisfactory to know that all vague doubts as to New Zealand’s true centre have at last been set at rest. Wellington has long rejoiced in the nickname of the Empire City, Auckland as the commercial depot of the South Seas, Christchurch as the Cathedral City of the plains, and Dunedin as the seat of Presbyterian government, the shrine of the bottle-license, and the metropolis of the Otago goldfields. But the true financial centre of the colony, the seat of our future mint, the home of wealth and affluence, the district into which the lion’s share of our loans and revenue invariably finds its way, is remote from each and all of these places. The supreme centre of New Zealand is Taranaki. Around Taranaki all the other centres we have named revolve like planets round the sun. The Government of the colony,--the taxation of the colony, does homage to Taranaki. Despised by Wellington, embraced by Auckland, envied by Otago, sneered at by Canterbury, Taranaki lives, flourishes and reigns, the centre of attraction. The Empire City out of session is in sackcloth and ashes, soup kitchens feed the famishing in Christchurch, and at the two extremities of the colony, the unemployed are agitating ceaselessly, but Taranaki is in clover. Represented by such guardian angels as the Hon. the Treasurer and the Native Minister is it surprising that Taranaki should be another: “ Jerusalem the golden”—a land flowing with milk and honey ? Roads, railways, and harbor

works may starve in every other district in the colon}’’, but the building process goes on unchecked in Taranaki. It is said that every dark cloud has its silver lining, and the silvery side of the dismal cloud that has so long been suspended ever New Zealand is at Taranaki. Every other part of the colony has had to suffer for the extravagance of Mr John Sheehan and party who divided the money that ought to have been spent on public works among Wellington cabman and Maori Bacchanalians. But the penance imposed for these orgies on Taranaki is something peculiar. While Timaru has had to content itself with a barn for a railway station, and ministers have been cheeseparing right and left, let us see how Taranaki has fared. Here are a few items of the expenditure on Taranaki during the past year : Foxton-Taranaki railway ... £206,000 Main roads 31,000 Total £297,000 This is irrespective of the public money that that is being squandered on the New Plymouth harbor works. It is estimated that at a moderate computatation Taranaki receives between £400,000 and £500,000 out of the consolidated revenue of the colony every year. We ask our readers not to feel amazed or disgusted, but just to imagine half a million of money travelling partly out of their pockets into one little insignificant district in the North Island. Verily Taranaki ought to feel happy! With an army of nearly a thousand armed constables (850 we believe is the correct number) making her roads and supporting her storekeepers, she should speedily become the garden of New Zealand. We have given these figures so that when tradesmen feel depressed and business is dull, they may know in what direction to turn. When all other resources have failed and the shutters have to be put up, they need only wing their way to this Jesuralem the Golden—Taranaki the Happy ! and their prospects will immediately brighten. A few years ago strenuous efforts were made to secure a central prison for Taranaki. That idea, did not succeed, but Taranaki bereft of the united criminal labour of the colony, has repaired the loss, by keeping up a Maori agitation, and securing an array of armed constables and needy navvies. Anybody not positively blind and demented must be well aware that this armed force is not required to keep the Maoris in check ; but their labor and the money expended in their maintenance is wanted for Taranaki. We dislike slang expressions, but there is a common term which we arc tempted to apply to the process by which Taranaki contrives to prosper when times are dull in every other part of Now Zealand—wc refer to the term “ sponging.” Taranaki has undoubtedly been “ sponging” on the rest of the colony for years, her railways and roads and standing army represent a monstrous abuse and misapplication of public money. New Zealand, and particularly the districts of the Middle Island, are Taranaki-ridden, and wc arc not surprised that Auckland is offering the hand of good fellowship to prosperous Taranaki, We do not blame Major Atkinson or Mr Bryce for riding the public donkey as long as they can, but wc blame the poor brute for being so obedient. The Taranaki incubus is enough to make the people of this part of the colony sigh for insular preparation, and the fact that Auckland has began to rub noses with Taranaki should stimulate Canterbury, Otago, and the adjacent districts to make a united stand against the aggrandising influence of Taranaki.