MARLBOROUGH.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 5, Issue 269, 21 November 1861, Page 3

MARLBOROUGH.

Tlie governor has, assent ’ to the act for raising a loan to make the Wairau Railway. The following reasons are given by the Colonial Secretary forthe. refusal. .. The conditions’ imposed' by the home government in a despatch dated loth Sept. 1857, have not:been, complied with., The. loan is not a mere local concern,.' blit affect the general credit of the colony. There are no relative data furnished as to the financial results of the undertaking- , Setting aside any expected returns from the' undertaking itself, the government are under the necessity of looking to the proposed loan with reference to the resources of the province and its ability to bear so heavy a charge. The population of the province does not exceed, according to the best estimate that can be obtained fty the government, 2 000 ; and its estimated': ordinary revenue from all sources, according, to the estimate of the auditors, does not exceed 1,707/ 4s. ll’d. per annum. The ordinary current expenditure of the province,., exclusive, of . immigration, public" works.*" fp_ ' , $33. 53.;;,. and.'the land' revenue .for-the-same period is £27,985 Is. 2d. It does not appear to the. Government;: under these circumstances*, that the ordi-. nary revenue of the province-is equal To so large a loan as £60,000. The land revenue, no doubt, is at present considerable ; but the land fund is precarious. The government have reason to suppose that*th.e bulk, of the . agriculturaLland of the province-has been already sold ; and as the rest of the lands, will probably be. sold , within a, limited* period, this is not source of; revenue. Besides this;. the districts from; which land revenue accrues ar.e jussumed. , to have - claims, on i that-., whiqj> ; sre,, in general, ’so greakgs.- little, if; any, surplus available for "pf l this descrijation.'.-Will the remote districts at the province, from which alone the land . revenue will come, be satisfied with ike application of a large portion to a work from which they will*’derive* but a ferni-tb* , benefit ? The lands to which inimedia ■> value will be given by the work’ • lie in the lower part of the -valley -of- the \Wlrau, to which it will open accf«s.fro7?i t;*e sea. These land* ai-r. hi. (h.--.. of private pfdpid.oton,. some _of hold a very large extent, of couptiy, prrh chased at a rate varjinj'irbmiOrf. to per acre. * , ::1 ' ,

It would .be. proper, in any plan,-for establishing the proposed railway, to provide that a fair portion of the burthen shall, by direct taxation, be made to fall on those who will be mainly and directly benefited by it. ■ The communication ends by an expression of the earnest desire of the government to fxjrther the prosperity of Marlborough by encouraging this as well as any other undertaking having that end, go far as they prudently can.