The Waikato Times. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1145, 28 October 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1879.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever «tate or persuasion, religious

or oolicioal. Here shall the Press the People's right

maintain, Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

Justice to Auckland is the theme of a very able and interesting political paper read by Mr James McOosli Clark before the Executive Comraiftee of tho £iorth New Zealand Association on Thursday last. It comes with threefold interest afc the present time, when a section of the Auckland members at Wellington, awakened to tho danger of allowing a Macandrew Ministry to perpetuate a reign of financial terror over the colony, have used their position as masters of the situation to secure for the Auckland district some' equitable redress for the wrongs done to it in tho unjust allocation of the. loans under the Public Works and Immigration Policy. We have not space to give the paper inferred to in full, but propose'to place "as succinctly as possible the results at which Mv

Clark arrives and his reasons for I hem. As the iuterest and sinking; fund of all our colonial loans are now chnrgod on the consolidated revenue, Mr Clark takes the cortributions to that revenue by taxation ns the most equitable basis upon which to calculate the claims for expenditure by the several Pro-, vincial districts within their bounds. Territorial revenue, and receipts from railways, he haves to one side ; tho 6rst. because it is really an asset of ho whole colony, and not of any particular portion \ the second, because the expenditure for value received'will bs found in each district to bear about the same propoition to revenue raised by taxation as it docs in other dist:icts, the advantage being slightly in favour of Auckland as her linns are notoriously more economically worked than those of any other district.;

The first question gone iuto is that of railways. Allowing 1 that North Island lines pay only If per cent., and South Island lines pay 3 per cent, on cost of construction ; and, üßsamiug the interest and sink- • ing fund ou the colonial debt to a»?onut together to G per cent., Mr Clark estimates tho- loss to the cnl.iny in the case of tho North Island lines at 4| per cent., and the loss in the case of tho South Island lines to only 3 per cent. These figures were given as.correct in the Public -Works Statement of Mr Macandrew. in August last, and Mr Clark as a basis for argument fairly assumes that in the case of lines yet to be completed in either island, the same returns may be anticipated, We now find that the contributions to consolidated revenue for the year grided. June 30th, 1879, are—From the Middle Island £921,176, and from the North Island £625,594, of which latter sum, however, the Auckland district contributes £282,354, agaiust £343,240 contributed by the South portion of the North Island. Against this the amount actually expended on railways to 30th June last is as follows :—Middle Island, £5,923,986 ; North Island, • £2,817,593. But of this latter sum the Auckland district has had expended within it only £987,775, while the rest of tho North Island has received as its share of railway expenditure the sum of £1,829,818. When these figures are worked out we find that the injustice is not between the North Island and the Sout'«, but between the treatment of Auckland as compared with that of the remainder of the North Island, for just in proportion as£343,24o(Wellington's, Hawke's Bay's, and Taranaki's contribution to consolidated] revenue) exceeded £282,354 (Auckland's contribution) so should the railway expenditure of the one have fairly exceeded that of the other, but instead ot Auckland receiving about £ls for every £lB expended in the rest of the North Islatjd, she received only £l4 for every «£2S so expended. The contrast between North and South, between Auckland and the rest of the colony, is thus put by Mr Clark—

' The amount to be paid annually out of consolidated revenue towards interest and sinking fund on Middle Island railways, at three per cent, per annum, is therefore £177,710 ; the amount which, in proportion to thc-fc aud to confci-ibutions by taxation, ought to be-paid towards interest and sinking fund on North Island, railways is £120,103. "he amount payable on' North Island expenditure oa £2,817,593, at four and a-quartcr per cent, per annum, is £119,7-17, or £','3 o6 per annum loss than her proportion; this being capitalised at per cent, per annum, amounts to £8,376, showing that there is little cause for complaint as between the two islands. The amount paid out of consolidated revenue towards interest aud sinking fund on constructed railways in Middle. Island (£177,719) and the amount paid on outhern portion of North Island railways on £1,829,818, at 4J- per cent., £81,767, amounts together to £259,486 ; the amount due to Auckland, in proportion, is £57,897, the amount actually paid is only £41,955, or £15,941 per annum less than her proper proportion, which, being capitalised at per cent., shows that Auckland in the matter of railways is behind the other portions of the colony to tho tuiio of £375,000.

The question of Immigration ia next touched upon. In proportion to tho vest of the colony it is shewn that Auckland was entitled to an expendirure under this head of £319,251, but only received £234,4240r £114,827 less than her fair pro ordon. The items of roads, water-races, and miscellaneous sho\v that uckland has received £79,570 iiore than her share. Deduct this from the amount of which she has been despoiled, and there still remains duo to her from the colony tho sum ot £410,248, and this, too, as r» debt, not her share of current expenditure from loans in hand or to come.