PROVINCIAL LOANS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 34, 18 August 1864, Page 7

PROVINCIAL LOANS.

(From the Southland Times, August 16.) The determination of the General Government to bring in a bill at the next session of the Assembly for the consolidation of the authorized loans of the Provinces of Canterbury, Otago,; and Southland, with the. 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 with interest for Southland. If the financial resolutions, introduced by Mr. Tarlton at the last session of the Council, are indicative of the intention of the General Government as to the future, we must take exception to snch a system for 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 £300,000, for introducing settlers into the North Island, apportioned as follows .- — Auckland, £150,000 ; Taranaki and part of the Province pf Wellington, lying to the north of Wahganui, £75,000; Wellington, south of Wanganui, £45,000; and Kawke's Bay; £30,000. For surveys and other expenses incident to the locating of settlers, £900,000, apportioned as . .follows : — Auckland, £450,000; Taranaki and part of Wellington, £225,000 ; Wellington, south of Wanganui, £135,000; and Hawke's Bay, £90,000. It is only riglt 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 NewZealand 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, and severely criticising, the mismanagement of our affairs. That objection should be taken to this mismanagement by _ our neighbors is not unnatural ; 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, and 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 -50 ... situated that it must drain a large : portion of Otago ; and if the popula'tiph of our. Province is small in comparison with that; of our neighbor,a : fah- share of her -settlers will, by contributing to the Customs' Re-; venue, help 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 vilhfjr us is not aj matter of 'surprise; but, that the- Press, of Canterbury should join the hue and; cry, without troubling -* itself to 7 ascer-j tain our true position^: mot merely! as to past expenditure, but as; to our ability to.Tmeet furtheri liabilities for the purpose of finishing the! railways, is, we must confess, rather; disgusting. When our contemporary;- the; LiittelUn Times, , was: . good a enpugh to i stigmatise a debt. of £450,000 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 mon- . strous liability; nor did he take /into' consideration that by 'far the greater ' portion -of this sum was for reproductive; works. '"When the New Zealand ' Com- j pany's .debt .was- allocated -between thej PrPrinceV'of Otago and Southland, soon ', after the separation of the latter, the following comparative statement of the agricultural lands in the two Provinces, was submitted to the arbitrators by the

Chief Surveyor*, df- Otagd, Sfa li & Thomson : — Otago Province ... 768,000 agricultualawes SouthkndProvince, 624,640 ' "„' ' Of %his quantify up to that date, 5 there had been been sold — Otago, 187,952 "acres— balance, 580,048 Southland, 108,220 „ ' •"do.*," 516,420 "leaving a balance in favor of AOtago 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 fthat at the present moment there is probably much less available agricultural land for sale in that Province than in Southland. We bave no means of ascertaining the extent- of-, available agricultural land in the. Province of Canterbury ; we only loiow 'that she has effected large sales, more particularly since the discovery bf gold in Otago. Probably she has parted, with 500,000- acres r .since the commencement of the settlement; and as the system of free selection is in force, we .conclude that the choicest lands have been alienated. That the average of the land in Canterbury is superior tb 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 Tv"of her waste lands. If the Province of Canterbury is much superior in size to Southland, her aspirations '■ -and -iteCessities are commensurately larger. Nature has done much for Southland. A dead level may _be traversed/: frPm "almost 7ariy7parfc of the frontier to the sea-board. -In-summer, at any rate, the. . roads /are/perfectly sound. There are no dangerous 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 tp fl be-.completed; we can rest on our oars 7 And even these ! railways should be considered as much , Colonial as . Provincial i. works.' ■ J We' do not require „.to spend hundreds of thousands in forming a. harbor.,.. _. We do not seek . /to spend/ /. thousands on buildings for the .General,, Assembly, in the hope that .some .day; invereargill may be the seat of Govei-nmentofdr-the Middle Island, and. .taking time,, by the forelock, be prepared for such' a-contin-gency. Southland has-jat the present time authorised loans to the extent of £290,000, and she requires a^further'loan of £150,000. t0 pay outstand^ing;liabilities, and complete her railways — making a total of -6440,000. "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 necessary "~ to" make "this" reprpductive, and it / is;/ in a this respect we have the advantage over any 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 Dunedihy 'and thence .to the Clutha. These, two are roughly estimated to cost £800,000, arid the probability is that they will cost much more, the total distance being some fifty-six miles. But Otago is hot tb 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 J million and a half will suffice for the present to initiate the few public! works? oft a more pressing nature. _ ..The breakwater is to cost £350,000, and other harbor works to match will be necessary. The bridge over the Rakaia is estimated at £200,000, but will probably • cost • £250;000:; ;The Lyttelton Times sees nothing monstrous or absurd in this, and yet,- this r 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, 7 doubtless, (IcPnceive' a debt of two millions for Canterbury by no means too /larger-while-: for .Southland £450,000 is monstrous. On what grounds this opinion is based it is difficult'- to -determine. Surely npt ; on the > wide disparity in the Customs' .Revenue of the two Provinces. Efbm the returns for the year 1863, we find : — ' CANTZEBTTBY SOTXTHXAJQ? (te., Lyttelton, Akaroa, (te, Invercargill, the and Timaru ) Bluff, and Riverton ) For quarter end- ■ ing March,3l, £15,0*2 - -£12,347 Do. Juno 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 ft " monstrous " debi fbr Southland,' £1,500,000 is a still more monstrous debt for Canterbury.