The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 668, 31 August 1876, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, 01 whatever state orperauasioivreligioueor political *** * ' # Here iholl the Prcri the People's right maintain. Unswed by influence and unbribed by gain.

THURSDAY. AUGL r 6T'SI, IS7G.

The political wheel bus taken another turn, and the -figure of Major Atkiut>on iv place of that of Mi- Fitaherbert fctands upon the Ministerial apex. Beyond this one fact, the personnel of the future Ministry is a blank. •Tnesday, however, will show whether -the will be simply a change of front — a re-construction, ' with one or perhaps two new members, or an almost New Ministry altogether as predicted by certain Wellington telepraphio correspondents to the Auckland press. Such predictions though authoratatively given are of doubtful value. One thing- is certain, that the Ministry will lote rather than gain by a change either in the office of Native Minister, or in that of Public Works, and there is no reason to suppose ti.at any solid gain could be secured by interfering with the recent appointment of Mr Gecrge McLean to the office of Commissioner of Customs, while a chunge -in the Colonial Secretaryship which represents them in the Upper, would neither weaken nor improre the position of the Ministry 'in the Lower House. The weakness of the Cabinet is the Minister of Justice, and to this -department and that rendered vacant by the assumption of the Colonial Treasurertibip by Major Afckin.son, the changes will probably bo eonfined. Of -one thing we may be sure, that whatevet those olungcs may bf, the New Ministry feels itself secure. Such & petition, we are satisfied, lias uofc been forced unadußedly by Sir Julius Vogel upon his colleagues. It will be found that he has not lefb them in desperate stiaits to beat off a loe shoie the best way they caif. We give him credit for a higher Fen 3« of political duty than to have so acted. Soundings hrtve, no doubt, been carefully taken. We can well understand that the House is wearied of impractical legislation — despite the notice of motion put, on Tuesday afternoon, upon the Order Prtperj by Mr Alacitndrew, that Otago shal be oxempted from the Abolition measure — and that a working majority in the House under a certain Modification of tlio Government programme, which only could be honorably acceded to by Ministers after such reconstruct ion as is now in course of being carried out, are prepared to sit down at the eleventh hour to the practical woi'k of the session. 'The Now Government/says our correspondent of Tuesday, 'will command a majority iv tho House,' and, we are inclined to think, it will bo found as ho says. The abandon ment of the Financial Arrangements Bill and tho wi'luiriwal of tliu .Nafiws Lands liill, Ji«re announce!, arc indications that the r )o\ofnm<. at, iv tlm matter ol' 1 ooom- . i .'

its way step l>y step, and aceommo(iitfd itself to the pressure from without. As to tho rock ahoad which 3lr Mucan'lrew has conjured up in tho Abolition question, it is scai-cu likely tliat (ho immaterial bmjui* will %o to pioccg upon that. The h d"*oiis S| cclre of I'roviiscnili^m -tu-sdi on it with outfctrctyheil arms, wnitiiipf to told the Colony in its t"»ul cmbnire — u ben con which will fully serve to warn it of the danger — for, Provincialism for Otago means Provincialism for nil New Zealand, iiml tho Legislature can never cm sent to make fish of one ]>ortion of the Colony and flesh of another.

The question of making the land fund Colonial revenue may have been disposed of for u season, but rhc strife once entered upon muse be beqnearhe.i from session to se^ion till theeause is Won. \V {'return therefore to the papers in relation to the waste lands of the colony, which we referred to in a former issuo as accompanying the Financial Statement. These show that the several Provinces have bonefited by their waste lands in the following' proportions during the past financial year : — Auckland, £1553 ; Taranaki, £10,305 ; Wellington, £44,759 ; Hawkes Bay, £26,282; Nelson, .£13,200; Marl-borouo-h, £5,736 ; Canterbury, £453,248 ; Westland, £4,1«6 ; Otago. £248,694. As if to make the case of Auckland even worse than it is during the s«ime period, there have bee,u sold within her boundaries confiscated lands to the value of £20,872 Us 9d, the whole of which sum has gone to augment the Colonial treasury, and at the same time the district in which the greater portion of these were sold, Waikato, is asking, it wou'd seem, in vain, for a, sum of .£5OOO to connect the two dissevered portions of the district with a bridge. And when "we look at the large amount i*eceived from the Waikato district by the Colonial Government during the past year, the price of these confiscated lands, we s>ee another and a very powerful claim this district has upon the Government for the undertaking of the work above alluded to. In December of 1874, a distinct ple.lge -was made by the present Premier that a certain proportion of the price of these confiscated lands should be paid over to the respective Higjift'ay Boards in or near which they ( were situated, such money to be spent in public works, which would benefit the lauds so sold. And, this was only -fair, as the bringing into occupation of such lands would necessarily .create more work for Boards to do in the .ihape of roads aud bridges. Nof one penny, however, of the proceeds of these sales has been handed over by the Government according to promise, though, s>s we now see, a sum of over £20,000 was received by the Colonial Government for the sale of such lands between the 30 th of Juno, 1875, and the 30th of June 1876, the year subsequent to the data of the memorandum of Dr Pollen notifying the intention of the Government in the mutter. To return, however, from our digression to the land table, we find that Auckland possesses the largest area of laud of any Province in the Colony, seventeen million acres out of the whole sixty-seven millions of acres which are contained in both islands, and also what we little expected, that she has alienated a larger extont of waste lands, than any other Proviuce, namely, 2,128,225 acres; Canterbury comes next on the roll, having sold 2,028,225 acres; ntago, 1,795,274; and Wellington, 1,582,902 acres. Hawke's Bay, ! Nelson, Marlborough, and Southland have each alienated about the same amount, or, some 900,000 acres ecch, Taranaki and Westland, the one 66,000 and the other 84,000 acre*. Altogether more than eleven millions ot acres have been sold or alienated in the Colony up to the eud*)f 1875, so that, on the first day of the present year, there -was still left, including native lands, a public estate of fifty-six millions of acres. Of lands tit the present time open for sale in both iblands, there are thirty-three million acres, but, of these, two and ti-half millions only belong- to the North Island. Fully twenty millions of acres still remain in tile jjos&psaion of the 31aoi*is. 17 p to tho end of 1875, close upon a million and it-half acres in tho Province of Auckland also had been passed, by native owners, through the Native Lind<CourtB, and Crown Grants had been issued for the same. Auckland is the only province which has made free grants to immigrants, and to those she has given 446,671 acres. In 1 actual cash received for land sold from 4th March,' 1853, to 31st December, 1875, the amount stands as follows: — Auckland, 717,000 acre«, price £230,000; Taranaki, 28,000 acres, £'34,000; Hawkos Bay,' 949,000 acres, £375,000; Wellington, 1,271,000 acres, £546,000; Nelson, 915,000 acres, £338,000; Marlborough, 510,000 acres, £175,497 ; Canterbury, 1,546,305 acres, £3,001,000 ; Westland, 28,000 acres, £59,000 ; Gtago, 1,565,000 aores, £1,602,000; and Southland, 689,000, price £725,000.