THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1867. TOWN EDITION. THE PROROGATION SPEECH.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 25, 24 June 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1867. TOWN EDITION. THE PROROGATION SPEECH.

We reprint in another column the speech delivered by His Honor the Superintendent when proroging the fifteenth sessession of the Wellington Provincial Council. It will he seen that he is still opposed to any alteration in the existing land regulations, and seeing that there is but little use in locking the stable door when the steed is stolen, we feel very much disposed to agree with His Honor relative to this most important subject. In 1856 a financial arrangement was made for the special benefit of the Middle Island, under which the land revenue of each Province was to be treated as Provincial revenue. It is to this arrangement His Honor alludes when lie says that the territorial revenue has been imperilled by the operation of the Native Land's Act—an Act which to all intents and purposes abrogated the"; so-called financial compact of 18-5(3 between the Northern and Middle Island. It will be necessary here to point out, for the information of the public, including with them those journalists in the Northern and Middle Island who appear to have lost sight of, if they were ever acquainted with the fact, that under the Constitution Act, all money expended in the purchase of Native Lands was made a first charge upon the Land Fund i —not of the particular Province within which the land was purchased—but of the whole colony. Under the same Act the land revenue of the colony, equally with the Custom's revenue, is chargeable with the cost of the General Government, and, subject, consequently, to the appropriation of the General Assembly—the surplus of both revenues being handed over to the respective Provinces, and subject to the appropriation of their respective Councils. On certain one-sided conditions the Provinces of the Middle Island, where the Native title was extinguished, were allowed the whole of their land revenue, while those of the Northern Island, where the land was principally in the hands of the Natives, had to pay exclusively out of their own revenue, tho cost of extinguishing the native title. It is to this monstrous arrangement His Honor refers when he says that the Native Land's Act clearly ' set it aside. After this explanation there will be but few of our readers who are not of His Honor's opinion. We are not saying anything- about the justice or the policy of the Act, but we maintain with His Honor that the financial compact of 1856 ought from the date of the passing of that Act to have ceased aud determine!. It was in order to preserve that compact intact, and to secure to themselves the loaves and fishes they obtained under it, that our great-souled, high-minded statesmen, of the Middle Island, consented to the exclusion of the Manawatu block from the operation of the Act. They cared no more about native rights than did the Government of New Plymouth, when they urged the purchase of Waitara, if the recognition of native rights would imperil that land revenue out of which they drew their salaries as Provincial Government officers, and by means of which their private estates were raised in value. We commend this wellestablished but unrecognised truth to the attention of the Venerable Archdeacon of Otaki, whenever he again takes up his pen to denounce the injustice of excluding from the operation of the Native Land's Act, a large and valuable tract of country, which, more than any other in the colony, ought to have been brought under its provisions. The native title to the block was disputed, and hence the necessity for its investigation by the Court established under the Act; but rather than imperil the compact of 1856, which secured to the Provinces of the Middle Island the whole of their land revenue, your Welds, Sowells, Richardsons, and Riehmonds, your .Bells, Wards and Domett's consented to the exclusion of the Manawatu block from the operation of the Act and became'consequently parties, from interested motives, as Mr Stafford told them at the time, to a sham, and under the cloak of hypocrisy, were guilty of an act of downright and palpable injustice. The Native Land's Act did, notwithstanding, abrogate the compact, and rendered either new financial arrangements necessary, or the fallingback upon the provisions of the Act under which the present General and Provincial Governments were both established.

We‘have, dwelt so long upon this part of His Honor’s speech that we cannot refer, at the length we should be justified in doing, to that part of it in which he endeavours to prove that the City of Wellington has not been fed at the expense of the country districts. The subject is one which requires a separate article for its;discussion and elucidation. We may mention here, however, that the amount claimed by the Messrs Kennard, on the Wharf contract, will, if a verdict be given in their favor, swallow up the

whole of the territorial revenue,-and leave not a penny for the construction or even the repair of roads. Then there is the Patent Slip arid the Wanganui Bridge, and although the latter is not designed ‘for the special benefit of Wellington, the town of Wanganui has never been included in those country districts which it is alleged the Government has robbed and neglected. Nearly the whole time of the Council, during the session, was occupied in the discussion of questions in which either the towns of Wellington or Wanganui were especially interested,, and the whole nionev the session cost, amounting little short of £I3OOO, has been almost if not altogether expended in, if not on Wellington. We should be glad if we could as heartily coincide with His Honor on this subject, as we did on those of the land regulations, and the„operation of the Native Land’s Act, we are bound to state however that His Honor’s facts, and the arguments ho bases upon them, do not meet the objections the Wairarapa members and the Wairarapa Mercury have urged against the treatment this district ha* received at the hands of the Proviricial Government; and both his facts and his arguments are in direct contradiction to those which were employed by the Provincial Treasurer when making his financial statement. His Honor states that in the appropriation of the revenue for the current financial year the whole of the revenue, after some large and most important deductions have been made, has been devoted to the country districts! Ho says :—“ lam anxious to draw your attention to this fact in order to provo the injustice of the charge, so often made against the Government, that tiny feed the City of Wellington at the expense of the country districts,” Bnt what says Mr Hickson ? After explaining that when he took office there was a defi ciency in the Treasury of some L 15,000, he observes“ I trust that hon. members, and especially those from the country, will not deem that there is any blame to he attached to the present . Government for not placing a larger amount on the Estimates for works in their districts.” He regretted especially that large sums could not'be devoted to the Wairarapa district, and intimated that the reason why this could not be done was because of the large and expensive contracts whiah had been entered into by the Brandon Executive for tho benefit chiefly, if not exclusively, of tho towns oi Wellington and Wanganui. But the returns furnished by tho Government of tho receipts and expenditure in the Wairarapa confirm the impression that the Wairarapa and East Coast have been starved to feed Wellington and the West Coast, and we direct the special attention of the supporters of the Municipal Bill to the returns in question. With regard to a more equitable ap- . portionment of tho ordinary revenue, than is at present made between the , General and Provincial Governments being in-future effected, we shall be excused if we state that there is a better prospect of this being done than His Honor appears to imagine, if he will only heartily co-operate with the Ministry in doing justice to the outlying districts, and as heartily co-operate with the outlying Provinces of Auckland and Otago in their efforts to secure for tho Provinces generally a share of the Stamp duties with their present share of tho Custom’s revenue.- Should success crown their efforts there is a. prospect of the supplementary estimates, amounting to £11,570 being expended. We regret wa have to say it, as our sympathies are with the Provinces, but there is no disguising tne fact, that wo shall have to look to the General Assembly for securing to us , that justice which the Provincial Council during its last session denied us.