CANTERBURY.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 381, 18 June 1861, Page 3

CANTERBURY.

(From the Standard.)

The startling character of some of the statements put forth by our contemporary, the Lytteltqi} Times, in noticing the first issue of the Press, compels us to notice it. The Lyttelton Times, in effect, tells its readers that any further discussion of the railway scheme, either in its operation upon the resources of the province, or in regard to the contractors, or to the substance of their contract, must, to be practical, refer, 'to the sale of the debentures in the money market,* and brands as ' traitors to the state and unprinciple scoundrels' all who continue to expose the mischievous character of the scheme, in relation to the circumstances of the province, or who attempt to show the mischievous character of the contract, in its relation to the scheme. We do Dot pretend to greater virtue that our neigbors, nor can we hope for, or expect to obtain, the same amount of credit for patriotism and propriety as the Lyttelton Times, but we can scarcely believe that we shall be held as ' traitors to the state,' or ' unprincipled scoundrels,' for conscientiously pointing out the evils that are likely to be inflicted upon tlie province by the crude and hasty measures of the Government.

We venture, moreover, (with all deference to the Lyttelton Times) to take a totally different view of the matter, and have no hesitation in declaring our conviction that the apprehended evils are far more likely to flow from the singular proceedings of the Government than from anything wo niay do in exposing them. Spectators who see frqm a distance, will look with astonishment at the financial arrangement? entered into with the Bank; astonishment, only to be rendered greater, when they peruse the miserably loose and absurd preliminary contract entered into with Messrs. Holmes and Co. If the credit of the province is to suffer, it will suffer from these causes ; and the only hope we have of averting the evils, so seriously threatened by the Lyttelton Times, rests in our ability to show that there is still in this province a party who are not prepared to endorse either the mad finunce or the crude legal arrangements of the Government. We do not apprehend that reasonable people will call us 'traitors oi seojjntlryla' for doing this, nor do we fear that the discussion will 'either mischievously and tiaitoiously prejudice the public credit, and entail a }qjjs .upon the province—or prove the worthlessness of the lands of Canterbury.'

In political, as in social life, the proper management of our income is essential to our present happiness and future progress, and it is as true of a nation, as it is of an individual, that it is going to ruin, if it spends its capital with its income. TLet ns not be Bttisundewtood, however. By * spending' in this Miro of the word, we wow spmctiog on-

productively, and there can be no spending more wasteful or more injurious than that which is applied to enterprizes, tho results of which are not correspondingly beneficial.

If the necessities of the province at present are such as to lequire tlie full amount of revenue raised, in order to meet them properly, and if the system of taxation now in force (for by what name soever tlie various items forming the general revenue of the country may be called, they are taxes in the fullest sense of the word) be based upon those necessities, then it is clear that we have no means of meeting the interest on the proposed loan, without either giving up some portion of. the expenditure now deemed necessary, or by increasing the taxation. If, on the other hand, the amount raised by taxation is greater than that which is necessary for the purposes of the state, it becomes important to inquire how best to dispose of the surplus. We may reduce the taxation to the level of the expenditure, and the tax-payers will individually benefit. We may apply the surplus in works of advantage, calculated more rapidly to develope the resources of the country —such as immigration, extended roads, bridges, &c. j and, in the present aspect of the province, this would be the better course. But it is our duty to do this in a careful and prudent manner. We are not justified, because our income is greater than our ordinary necessary expenditure, in embarking upon speculative undertakings. We cannot afford to waste the capital from which such excess of income is derived. *■■ We are only justified iv investing it reproductively, and in canying out works of present and prospective utility, in the most efficient and. economical form.

If we cannot, by auy more economical measure obtain the results in view, then wo are justified in carrying Out the proposed scheme, for no doubt the construction of therailway will be piwHuolive ofconsiderable advantage ta„the,community ; but our objections to tlie'scheme arise from the fact that the same advantages could have been secured at a fourth part of the estimated cost, and within it sixth part of the time to be devoted to the construction of the intended line —in other words, our objections are based upon the wasteful expenditure of upwards of £18.0.000 and the delay of many years in teeming that which has already long been loudly called for—namely a more ready, rapid, certain, and economical mode of communication between tlie pla^u of discharge and shipment of our goods, and tlie place of consumption and production. Far be it from us to oppose the construction of a railway. We wish to see a system of railways carried out throughout the province; but we wish that system to bear a proper relation to the resources of the province. We do not wish to see a scheme commenced which must break down. We do not wish to illustrate the fable of the Frog and the Bull; and when we know that practical experience has shown that the revenues of Victoria are as yet unequal to the construction and maintenance of locomotive lines, we do not care to see our revenue absorbed in the attempt to introduce them amongst us, when results equally beneficial in other respects can be obtained by an economical appropriation of the revenue.

It these views make us ' traitors to the State,' or ' uprincipled scoundrels,', we cannot help it; but we must, nevertheless, maintain them, despite the Lyttelton Times.