Stapka iint.es AND GOLDFIELOB REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 408, 14 November 1874, Page 2

Stapka iint.es AND GOLDFIELOB REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1874. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

As our readers are aware from what lias appeared in our columns and those of our contemporaries, Sir George Grey is not willing to allow the change in the constitution of the Colony proposed by Mr. Yogel to pass unchallenged. Sir George has addressed two petitions — one to the Governor and another to the Superintendent of Auckland — in arrest of the alterations. The first has boon for some time before the public, and has been effectively disposed of by Sir James Fergnsson. We cannot do better than quote the views of the " Otago Guardian " on the reply : — " Referring to the prayer of the ' Petition,' he goes on to point out that the proposition to summon the Assembly and transmit that ill-advised document to the British Government, is an invitation c to act independently of, if not in opposition to, his responsible advisers j' than which no greater or more flagitious breach of the Constitution could well be devised. And yet that is the course recommended — nay, almost insisted upon by the self-appointed champion of the Con-

stitution." The second petition, which is not in all respects harmonious with the first, was wired along to the Dunedin Press last week, and with it we purpose more immediately to deal, In addition to the views presented in our Wednesday's supplement in an article from the " Evening Star," there are other aspects of the subjept to which we now invite attention. It seema in the year 1845, the British Parliament voted £10,000 to New Zealand to buy up and cancel the Native titles to the lands of the Colony, a part of the proceeds of which to be re-applied in a similar way and so on, so long as it might be for the interests of the Colony to do so. The petition of Sir George, among other things, prays the Superintendent of Auckland, as the head of a poor Province, and the most important of the poverty-stricken, to take steps to protect the rights of his lead to the proceeds of the sales of waste lauds throughout the Colony. So, at least, we understand his petition. We are not at all sorry that Six- George lias appeared upon the arena. Indeed, we should have been sorry had no one taken up the subject of the Provincial changes as a champion of their rights — real or imaginary. The settlement of the question is all the more likely to be satisfactory and permanent in the end. At the same time, we cannot hold with the view represented by Sir George. At the time of the Compact of 1856, the Province of Auckland gave its consent, along with the other Provinces, to that Compact ; and we hold that any alterations in the calculations of the party agreeing to the Compact at the time, ought not to be taken into account as a matter of equity afterwards. The arrangement at the time was considered very favorable to Auckland, aud somewhat burdensome to the infant Provinces of the Middle Island ; and if, through the breaking out of war in the North, it has turned out differently, we cannot see that that founds a claim upon the Southern Provinces. If we buy a piece of improved land at a high valuation, and immediately afterwards it'be wasted by a flood, rendered, in short, equal to waste land, we have to boar the consequences. If we buy a house, and it be destroyed hy fire, the seller does not consider himself bound to refund the purchase money. If we invest in the funds, and these funds become valueless, we must abide by the loss. And we do not see how Auckland, having get her hand to the Compact of 1856 — a Compact which saddled the Provinces of the Middle Island with a debt of £200,000,— can now cry out of it, aud treat these .Southern Provinces as if they had not fulfilled the Compact. We subjoin one clause of the resolutions which formed the basis of th^ Compact, and our readers may judge how wide awake Auckland was at the time of striking the bargain : — ' ' That, in accord - ance with the former resolution of the House, the Province of Ancklaud be relieved retrospectively as well as prospectively from the New Zealand Company's debt ; and that, after payment of the sum due to the Company on the sth of April, 1857, the balance of £200,000 be made applicable to that purpose : the revenue in deficiency or excess to be adjusted when the same be ascertained, the Province of Auckland on its part bearing the sum of £911 Bs. 9d., under the Land Claims Ordinance, New Ulster, as a debt incurred for its exclusive advantage." It does not look well, to say the least of it, for Auckland, having claimed exemption from the debt due to the New Zealand Company, both prospectively as well as retrospectively, to come forward retrospectively in this fashion, requiring us to fall back upon an arrangement that she had herself abandoned in 185 G. But the South has not been so exacting with the North. It bore its share of all the war expenses— nay, has again and again signified its readiness to share securities for a loan to cancel the Native titles to lands in the North for the benefit of Northern Provinces. We refer in proof to the attitude of our Southern representatives when the question of the Provincial Borrowing Bill was before the House last year. They willingly acceded to the proposed arrangement that a large Bum should be set aside for this purpose. Nay, more, Mr. Vogel's scheme, as it is set forth, proposes to endow Northern districts with revenue from lands to be purchased by Colonial loan. To us it appears that the Middle Island has done more than fulfilled the Compact of 185-J. In its greater prosperity it has generously aided the less fortunate Provinces of the North ; and if the question be argued too strongly from Sir George Grey's point of view, it may be with less advantage to the Northern Provinces. Meantime we see nothing in Sir George Grey's petitions fitted to alter our opinion on the Provincial question aa we have hitherto set it forth.

Tbtb " Mount Ida Chronicle," the other week, accused the " Otago Guardian," while advocating the cause of the Dunedin Harbor Board, with occasionally poking fun at its expense. At the time, we scarcely recognised the justice of the remark, but certainly in lasb Tuesday's " Guardian" there occurs a winding up toa paragraph earnestly commending the action taken by the Board that appears to us very " fnnny." When viewed in the light of the "Guardian's" previous advocacy, and its impatience of criticism adverse to , its own views — a criticism which ventured to question the necessity for the work, — its admission is an entire vindication of all the criticisms which it condemned. The paragraph is as follows :—": — " And now that the preliminaries (of the working of the' Harbor Board) have been so satisfactorily adjusted, we hope to be able to record the rapid progress of the works necessary for the deepening and improvement of the harbor. At the same time there is no reason for neglecting the interests of Port Chalmers iv tlw matter ot pier extension 5 for we

doubt if anything will induce the larger class of steamers and other ocean-going craft to travel uj) the bay to Dunedin." We in our simplicity bolieved that ilia' cryli% necessity for this work lay in the fact that a few shillings per ton would be saved on freight should the harbor be deepened and the large steamers and sea-going craft allowed to discharge their cargoes at Dunedin; but this has been a delusion. Then, pray, will our contemporary inform us what the crying necessity for this work now is 1 and further, why it was the " Guardian" would hardly allow us to call our pen otir own when we ventured to demur to thisj "great" and "essential work," which was to be such a convenience and saving to the Dunedin merchants ; and why it was it objected when we required of the Board to pay for the- whistle they were so mightily enchanted with ? The Board will have the unspeakable luxury of spending some £200,000, or perhaps half a million, at tlie risk of the securities of the country, and for what ?