South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2631, 26 August 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 1881.

SECOND EDITION

Thk Timaru Harbor Endowment Bill was read a second time yesterday in the Legislative Conned by 17 to 11. The majority was a substantial one, and under ordinary circumstances would augur well for the future of the measure. However, the AttorneyGeneral let fall some remarks of a very discouraging nature. He said that lie only supported the Bill on the understanding that the endowment clause would be struck out. We have been shown a telegram received from Wellington by His Worship the Mayor from Mr Turnbull, wherein the latter gentleman expresses very grave doubts as to the Council sanctioning the land endowment. The well-in-formed correspondent of our contemporary entertains also a similar gloomy foreboding. We need hardly state that hero the. endowment is looked upon as the essence of the Bill. But Tiraaru has been too late in the field. These arc not times of Parliamentary generosity. Indeed, for years, the Legislative Council has set its face against endowments for artificial harbors. The gentlemen of the Upper House have got into the groove of thinking that all these harbors are alike, with one solitary exception. During the discussion on the Timaru Harbor Board Endowment .Bill, it was stated that the only artificial harbor which had turned out a success was that of Oamaru. The construction of a harbor at the latter place was commenced long anterior to the breakwater here. The. Oamaru people have had time to demonstrate the practicability of forming a harbor. At the outset there were not wanting politicians who prophesied that the projected harbor at Oamaru would turn out a failure. dime has, however, shown that they were false prophets. We h avc no doubt that time will fully demonstrate that the croakers are equally out of their reckoning regarding the construction of a harbor at Timaru. For whether the endowment he granted or not, the works are certain to bo carried out to completion. The Council will he oven granting a concession in endowing the Harbor Board with borrowing powers. It is not every place that could obtain that boon. Local borrowing Bills, next to endowments for local purposes, are the special abhorrence of tiic Upper House. However, the Council could not well deny the- settlers of this district the right of entering the money market. There will he no risk whatever to the colony in the transaction. If there was any prospect of South Canterbury not being able to moot is obligations in connection with future loans,,it may he depended on that no borrowing Bill would pass the Council. In speaking against the Harbor Board Bill in the House of Representatives, Mr Jfall stated that the settlers could well hear the whole cost of carrying out the harbor scheme. Mr Hall was perfectly right, hut it is not equitable that the people of South Canterbury should he called upon to bear the whole cost of developing the resources of the. district whilst at the same time they are being called upon to contribute to the cost of works elsewhere. So long as tire construction of public works is a feature in the Government of the colony, the claims of such districts as this should not ho ignored. Do the opponents of the Timaru Harbor Endowment Bill for one moment imagine that the colony would have been able to cany out the Public Works policy had it not been for such wealth producing districts as South Canterbury ? The British capitalist before parting with his money always scans closely the export returns. Auckland is a pretentious province. It exercises more influence in the General Assembly than all Canterbury from the Waitaki to the Hurunui. Yet the exports from Timaru alone for the last quarter wore £IOI-,O(JU against £l-10,0U0 for the whole province of Auckland. There is an old saying that Providence helps those who help themselves. That is a maxim little adhered to by the Legislature. There is not a district in the colony which has received so little in proportion to production as South Canterbury. It is idle for the Legislature to say that a stop has been put to endowments for local works. There is a measure now before the House of Representatives which provides that the colony shall grant land endowments of the value of one-third of the cost of railways to be undertaken by private companies. Mr Macandrcw calculates that under the proposed system land to the value of two million .sterling may he alienated from the Crown. A railway from Christchurch to Greymouth is certainly not more of colonial importance than the construction of a harbor in South Canterbury. The railway referred to will, for the greater portion of its roufo, traverse barren mountainous regions. Not the slightest reliance should he placed on the paper estimate of its cost. If the work is undertaken it will probably involve the colony to the extent of parting with land to the value of half-a-million sterling. The cost of the railway over the Rimutaka is a fair criterion of what it will take to construct a line across the Southern Alps. It is not too much to say that there is more natural wealth in South Canterbury than the whole country to he served by the Christchurch-West Coast railway, and that is the best of the lines which are proposed to be made under the Railway Construction Bill. And yet a subsidy, roughly estimated, of half a million is to he given in aid of that line. Our readers are already aware hat the proposed endowment of 100,000 acres in the Timaru Harbor

Bill was reduced to 50,000 acres. The endowment would most probably consist of second-class pastoral land, the outside value of which may be set down at 80s an acre. It is an easy matter to calculate the whole worth of the proposed endowment. It would amount to about one-sixth of the intended subsidy for the ChristchurchWest Coast line. Yet there is every chance of the Railway Construction Bill passing the Legislature, whilst the reasonable demand of South Canterbury will most likely be refused. It is simply a matter of political pressure. This district is scarcely represented at all in Jhe Legislative Council.