South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2612, 4 August 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, THURSDAY, AUGUST 4, 1881.

SECOND EDITION

The member for Tiraaru is to be congratulated on bis success so far in piloting the Timaru Harbor Board Endowment Bill through Parliament. He has succeeded in getting the House to sanction an endowment of 50,000 acres of land, and this he accomplished in the teeth of the strong opposition of the Government. MiHall again repeated his warning that if they passed the endowment clause the House would be flooded with applications of a similar nature. But members do not appear to have paid much regard to his forebodings. The particular question before Parliament was considered on its own merits, and under such a circumstance the House could not fail to grant an endowment to a work of such large colonial concern as the construction of a breakwater at Timaru. South Canterbury has received few favors at the hands of the Government. In fact, it has been a milch cow for the benefit of the Colonial Treasury. Mr Hall’s idea is that the district does not need any outside help; that it has resources within itself sufficient to bear the cost of all public works required for the development of the district. He objects to Timaru being the first to obtain a grant of land. If the principle of endowments were again to be affirmed, Mr Hall thought that they all should have a fair start, so that this place should not get an undue advantage. That was the wretched twaddle by which the Premier of the colony sought to defeat the people of this district in obtaining substantial aid in developing -its resources, and thereby adding immensely to the wealth of the colony. If any place in New Zealand can show as good a case as Timaru for help in the direction of a land endowment, it is clearly the duty of every member of the House to aid that district in obtaining justice. There should be no cast-iron rule in matters of such large importance. It is perfectly well known that to attempt to make harbors in some places would be a sheer waste of money; and in other parts even if harbors were made, the resources of the districts of which the harbors are to be the outlets, would not justify the expenditure. Mr Turnbull was perfectly well aware of this state of affairs when he introduced the Timaru Harbor Board Endowment Bill into Parliament. The Parliament of New Zealand in a very great measure is of the nature of a Board of Works. What is the use of sending members to the House of Representatives if they are not to distinguish between the good and the bad? Is there to be a fixed rule that works of Colonial utility in large and populous districts are not to be proceeded with because pauper districts with few resources would lay claim to similar works ? The number of applications which it is said are likely to be sent in may embarrass Ministers, but the convenience of the Government is a small affair compared

pared with the development of the resources of the country.

In a previous issue we pointed out that Timaru in the matter of exports occupies the fifth position, coming immediately after Auckland and Wellington, and yet the whole of the produce of South Canterbury does not at present find an outlet at Timaru owing to the absence of proper facilities for shipping. We also remarked that the moment the breakwater was completed, this port in the dimensions of its export trade would rank after Christchurch and Dunedin. In the present absence of manufacturing industries, exports are the only guide as to the wealth producing power of a district. For the quarter ending June 30 last, the value of the exports from the port of Timaru amounted to £104,971. For the same quarter the exports from Nelson were valued at £7945, and from the Bluff and Invercargill at £37,048. We use the above figures to show the magnitude of the trade of Timaru compared with that of ports of considerable pretensions. The development of the agricultural industry should be the principal aim of Parliament. We remember the depressed state of the colony during a few years preceding the Public Works Policy. Had it not been for the exports of Canterbury and Otago the colony would have been unable to borrow a single half-penny in any money market in the world. There is no one;thing the money lender scans more closely than the value of the exports of a country. In fact, he has little else to found an opinion on as to its capabilities. It may not be generally known that only a small proportion of the richest lands in this district has as yet been put under the plough. There«is no doubt that when the breakwater is completed production will be increased fourfold, and the exports of the colony will be consequently increased. As to the feasibility of forming a commodious and safe harbor at Timaru there are no two opinions. Success has already been amply demonstrated. The benefits to he derived from its construction are of no remote character. The whole district is ripe for an immense development of the agricultural industry. What has been accomplished in the way of production and bona fide settlement under past and present disadvantages, in an assurance that great benefit will accrue to the whole colony from the formation of a good harbor at Timaru. Everyone who has the welfare of the colony at heart will be glad to see that a considerable section of the members of the House of Representatives have raised themselves above narrow local jealousies and have voted for that which should on all sides be regarded as a work of colonial importance. By 35 to 19, the House decided that a landed endowment should be granted to the Timaru Harbor Board, and by 33 to 22 the endowment was fixed at 50,000 acres. The Government appear to have used every effort to get the endowment clause of the Bill struck out. The measure will most probably pass the House of Representatives. It has yet to run the gauntlet of the Legislative Council. It is to be hoped that the members of the Upper Chamber will not be led astray by the arguments of Mr Hall and his colleagues, but will confine themselves to the issue, whether the 50,000 acres of pastoral land asked for could be applied to a better purpose than in greatly enhancing the value of all property in ■ South Canterbury, where there are already 364,000 acres of land in cultivation. It is well that the Tiraaru Harbor Board Endowment Bill was in charge of a gentleman who was undaunted by Ministerial opposition. Mr Turnbull is not so chicken-hearted as the writer in the “ Timaru Herald,” who the other day advised him to drop the endowment clause of the Bill, and work with the irrepressible Mr Wakefield in simply having borrowing powers conferred on the Harbor Board. If our contemporary was a seeker after correct information, it would have learned ere this that Mr Turnbull possesses infinitely more influence in the General Assembly than the member for Geraldine.