The Southland Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1864.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 33, 16 August 1864, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1864.

Tiie determination of the General Government* lo bring in a bill at the next session of the Assembly for the consolidation of tbe authorized loans of the Provinces of Canterbury, Otago, aud Sou tii la nd, with tlie view of giving them a Colonial guarantee, is satisfactory as regards the past. The course to be pursued as to any future loans is pregnant witli interest for Southland. If the financial resolutions, introduced by Mr. Tahlton at the last session of the Council, are indica live of the intention of the General Government as to the future, we must take exception to such a system i'or more reasons than. one. According to those resolutions, a general loan is to be raised by the Colonial Treasurer, to be hereafter allocated to the various Provinces on some equitable basis, which basis is more likely to be determined by the number of representatives in the Assembly which each Province can boast of, and consequently political support which each can give to any Government, than "the extent of available territory "or other resources in each." The allocation of the Three Million Loan amongst the Provinces of the North Island may afford some indication of the position Southland would occupy in the allocation of any loan for the Middle Island. Amongst other items of the Three Million Loan is one of £800,000, for introducing settlers into the Nortli Island, apportioned as follows : — Auckland, £150,000 ; Taranaki and part of the Province of "Wellington, lying to the north of Wanganui, £75,000; Wellington, south of Wanganui, £-15,000 ; and Hawke's ABay, £30,000. Por surveys and other expenses incident to the locating of settlers, £900,000, apportioned as follows : — Auckland, £150,000 ; Taranaki and part of Wellington, £225,000; Wellington, south of Wanganui, £135,000; and AHAawJces ABay, £90,000. It is only right that the larger Provinces should get the biggest share ; but certainly the above allocation is disproportionate "to the " extent of available territory or other ' ; resources " of the relative Provinces. With the miserable representation in the General Assembly which Southland at present rejoices in, we should share a similar fate to that of Hawke's Bay in any allocation of a general loan for future public works. We have before commented on the animadversions of the Press of New Zealaud on the Province of Southland, — its presumption in getting into debt, and its future prospects. No one can accuse us of hesitation in fearlessly exposing, aud severely criticising, the mismanagement of our affairs. That objection should be taken to this mismanagement by our neighbors is not umiatural ; nay, it is justifiable ; for it is possible they may, to a certain extent, be compromised by it; but to depreciate the natural resources of the Province, endeavor to cripple its credit, ai id curtail its borrowing powers, and accuse it of presumption for undertaking reproductive public works, is unjustifiable and unwarranted by facts. One can understand that Otago, actuated by jealousy, should lead the cry against Southland. Invercargill is so situated that it must drain a large portion of Otago ; and if the population of our Province is small in comparison with that of our neighbor, a. fair share of her settlers will, by contributing to the Customs' Eevenue, hep ours to pay taxes. This may seem, rather hard on Otago, but nature so wills it. Thus, that the Otago Press should do its utmost to villify us is not a matter of surprise; but, that the Press of Canterbury should join the hue and cry, without troubling itself to ascertain onr true position, not merely as to past expenditure, but as to our ability to meet further liabilities for the purpose of finishing the railways, is, we must confess, rather disgusting. When our contemporary, the LyiteUon Times, was good enough to fitiginatise a debt of £4)50,000 for South-

land as "monstrous," we presume he neither took the trouble to ascertain the extent of available land yet unsold in the Province, nor any other resources we might possess for liquidating this monstrous liability ; nor did he take into consideration that by far the greater portion of this sum was for reproductive works. When the New Zealand Company's debt was allocated between the Provinces of Otago and Southland, soon after the separation of the latter, the I following comparative statement of the agricultural lands in the two Provinces, was submitted to the arbitrators by the Chief Surveyor of Otago, Mr. J. T. Thomson : — Ofcago Province . . . 768,000 agricultual acres Southland Province, 624,610 „ Of this quantity, up to that date, there had been been sold — Otago, 187,952 acres— balance, 580,048 Southland, 108,220 „ do., 516,420 leaving a balance in favor of Otago of 63,628 acres. Since then there have been sold in Southland, up to June last, 113,940 acres. In Otago, the land sales have been considerably larger, so that at the present moment there is probably much less available agricultural land for sale in that Province than in Southland. We have no means of ascertaining the extent of available agricultural land in the Province of Canterbury ; we only know that she has effected large sales, more particularly since the discovery of gold in Otago. Probably she has parted with 500,000 acres since the commencement of the settlement ; and as the system of free selection is in force, we conclude that the choicest lands have beeu alienated. That the average of the land in Canterbury is superior to that in Otago or Southland we do not believe. That her sales, at a higher price, have been much larger, is attributable to the superior administration of her waste lands. If the Province of Canterbury is much superior in size to Southland, her aspirations and necessities are cornmensurately larger. Nature has done much for Southland. A dead level may be traversed from almost any part of the frontier to the sea-board. In summer, at auy rate, the roads are perfectly sound. There are no danger oxis rivers to be crossed as in Canterbury, and no belt of steep hills to be surmounted as in Otago. The railways once finished, our public works may be said to be completed ; we can rest on our oars. And even these railways should be considered as much Colonial as Provincial works. We do not require to spend hundreds of thousands in forming a harbor. We do not seek to spend thousands ou buildings for the G-eneral Assembly, in the hope that some day Invercargill may be the seat of Grovernment for the Middle Island, and. taking time by the forelock, be prepared for such a contingency. Southland has at the present time authorised loans to the extent of £290,000, and she requires a further loan of £150,000 to pay outstanding liabilities, and complete her railways — making a tota of £440,000. Of the £290,000, a large portion has been spent on the railways. Almost the whole of an extensive and most complete plant and rolling stock has been paid for ; not much further expenditure is necessaiy to make this reproductive, and it is in this respect we have the advantage over auy other Province in New Zealand. In Otago, the unfunded debt is between six and seven hundred thousand pounds, not one sixpence of which has been spent on reproductive works, unless roads, which, according to the report of her own engineers, cost from three to four hundred pounds per mile per annum to keep in repair, may be considered such. And Otago wants to commence a system of railways. The first lines to be constructed are from Port Chalmers to Dunedin, and thence to the Clutha. These two are roughly estimated to cost £SOO,OOO, and the probability is that they will cost much more, the total distance being some fifty-six miles. But Otago is not to rest contented with these. The Commissioners, in their report "on roads and their construction," speak of branch lines up the Clutha, to the Whakatipu Lake, and goodness knows where else, over country some of which is so rugged and inaccessible that pack-horses are used to carry on a traffic. In Canterbury, the works proposed are of a still more magnificent description, and more expensive, as befits a Province of such aspirations. Nothing under a million and a half will suffice for the present to initiate the few public works of a more pressing nature. The breakwater is to cost £350,000, and other harbor works to match will be necessary. The bridge over the Ealcaia is estimated at £200,000, but will probably cost £250,000. The Lyttelton Times sees nothing monstrous or absurd in this, and yet this one bridge will cost within £40,000 of of what our thirty-eight miles of railway, including rolling stock, purchase of land — everything, will stand us in. Our contemporary would, doubtless, conceive a debt of two millions for Canterbury by no means too large, while for Southland £450,000 is monstrous. On what grounds this opinion is based it is difficult to determine. Surely not on the wide disparity in the Customs' Revenue of the two Provinces. From the returns for the year 1863, we find : — CAKTEEBtTBY SOUTHLAND (i.e., Lyfctclton, Akaroa, (i.e., Inyercargill, the and Timaru.) Bluff, and Riverton.) For quarter ending March 31, £15,042 £12,347 Do. June 30 16,565 16,848 Do. Sept. 30 19,327 15,337 Do. Dec. 31 21,681 19,867 The disparity here is not so great. In one quarter we actually beat Canterbury by a few pounds. The difference in the land fund between the two Provinces has been, up to the present, undoubtedly great ; but it is by no means certain that the large land fund hitherto obtained by Canterbury will continue. As we have already observed, the best land has been chosen; and the more sold, the less

security to offer to the lender. Besides, there must be an end to land sales some day. Taking everything into consideration, we are inclined to think that, if . £450,000 is; a " monstrous! "• debt for' Southland, £1,500,000 is a still inora monstrous debt for Canterbury.