THE TIMARU HARBOR ENDOWMENT. Mr F. A. Whitaker's Speeches. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1424, 18 August 1881, Page 3

THE TIMARU HARBOR ENDOWMENT. Mr F. A. Whitaker's Speeches. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.]

The folding is the speech delivered by the member for Waipa, (Mr ¥.- A. Whitaker), on the motion for the adoption of the amendment made on the Tiraaru Harbor Board Endowment Bill.: — He ventured to say that there was in the bill a question, of greater magnitude than in any other question now before the public of New Zealand. He considered the question of dealing with the lands of the colony to be one of the first questions before them at the present time. He objected altogether to haphazard endowments for a particular part of the colony with the land of the colony, which belonged to the people as whole ; he was not able to realise the justice of giving 60,000 acres of land to a district such as Timaru, which was rich enough to construct its own harbor works, and perfectly well able to guarantee the interest of any money it might borrow, while other districts in the col«ny were absolutely starving for money and absolutely unable to do anything towards opening up their own resourses. On the last occasion when he addressed House on the subject he did not speak so fully as he desired, and h« would therefore now fro into the •übject at greater length. Ib involved the whole question of the lands of the colony and the allocation of those lands. He understood last year when the question was submitted to the House that the last remnant of what whs known as the land fund had been swept away, and was dead. The House by a majority determined that the land of the colony should belong to the colony. That question was carried by the casting vote; he voted for it then, and would still continue to urge the principle which he then advocated. It appeared to him when that principle was adopted that the North Island at all events had no chance of obtaining justice at the hands of those who were able to carry everything against it. Now, by reversing that policy they would be doing a great injustice to parts of the colony which hitherto had Deen left out in the cold. He had himself twice inspected these harbor works at Timaru, and he believed they were calculated to do a great deal of good, not only to the district in which they were situated, but also to the colony. He would not go into the engineering question, as to how far they would be a success, but he would say this, that of all the parts of New Zealand which he had visited he believed that the district round Timaru, Temuka, and Geraldine and that part of the country, was certainly the richest in New Zealand, and he believed that every encouragement ought to be given to that district to construct these works for themselves, and entirely unaided by colonial funds, which should be kept for more needy and neglected portions of the colony, which had not as yet been opened up. It was all very well for them to come to the House and ask for 50,000, 100,000, or 200,000- acres of land, but when members did that they simply asked for so much money, and nothing more or less, and the value of that land, the exact amount of money was unascertainable. They had no evidence before them, either in the bill, or in any of the other bills asking for endowments as to the value of lands ; no schedules of maps had been laid before the Hou?e, and there was nothing to show whether the land was worth £10,000, £100,000, or £200,000. That was the main reason why he objected to these bills giving landed endownments. It was impossible for the people who did not come from the parts of country concerned to say what was the value of that which was being taken from the colonial purse and given to a particular locality. He would be quite prepared to vote for a moderate sum being placed on the Estimates to assist this work at Timaru, but he could not see that it was either proper or right that they should commit themselves to giving a certain number of acres of land, which might mean £100.000 or £200,000, without having a great deal more information than they were now ?n possession of. Ho felt certain that the bill had proceeded so far as it had entirely owing to a combination on both sides of the House. It had been carefully attended to. There were great number of members in the House himself amongnumber,who would not willingly vote against the member for Timaru and there were also a number of members who would not willingly vote against the member for Geraldine. He believed the bill had reached its prosent stage chiefly owing to that cause. It was not possible to believe that it had done so on its merit alone. That a House which in 1878 unanimously rejected the whole of the harbor bills then introduced and refused to grant any endowments for harbors could now, no more than three years afterwards, reverse the whole of that policy and let such bills as this pass was strange indeed. If it passed at all it would be carried through by force of association. He felt sure, however, that the friends of the bill would do well to agree to the motion of the Minister of jfjttnds and consent to its recommittal with a view bf excising the endownments clause. There wero a large numbfir of other harbors in the country which were equally deserving of endowments and expenditure upon them, but nothing was done for them. Take the Raglan Harbor for instance, in respect of which he had introduced a bill the other day. At the present time there was there springing up a lime producing industry ; it was a country which abounded in lime-stone, and lime \eas very much wanted in the city of Auckland for building purposes, and Auckland was within an easy distance of Raglan by sea. There was therefore likely to be a large export of. lime from Kaglan, and yet there was not even a piece of painted wood put up at that port to direct shipping in the daytime, and nothing was likely to be done for that harbour. He contended that harbours like those of Raglan and Waikato were equally as deserving of attention as Timaru, and he could not see the fairness of giving an endowment to Timaru when other harbours in the country were totally neglected. On the question that the bill be read a third time, Mr Whitaker said he had had the pleasure of listening that day to an interesting report on the New Plymouth Harbour, which had been brought.np by a Committee of which the momjTWifl who came from the Provincial district in which this harbour was situated was chairman. As he understood it, the report was decidedly adverse to granting land or to giving money proceeds of land to that harbour, yet 20 per cent, of the land fund of Taranaki vat, after due consideration, being given by an Act brought down ' for fchat purpose, to jjew Plymouth harbour! and that law had now ■been in force four years. Yet when a bill was brought down containing an endowment clause, which provided for handing over to a local body ltad, the value of which, ho ventured to nay, the House knew nothing whatever about, it was allowed to pass almost without ft protest. He was willing to »pologlse~pubJi^y tv;ftnd .privately to ♦Ny ton, member wp 1 cqufl C9»tra#t

him when he stated there wrs no member iv the House who really knew within any reasonable limit what wan the value of the land they .were parting with in this manner. He felt very strongly that the | House was walking in the dark, and he took this last chance which would be I afforded in this House, of placing distinctly and positively on record that he, and he believed the peopie of New Zealand, utterly objected to the taking of lands haphazard^ and giving as endowments to particular local bodies land and revenues that belonged to the colony as a whole. He thought that the principle therm involved was one of the largest if not the very largest that had been brought before the House this session. That was not the principle upon which the lands of the colony should be administered. They should be administered for tho general benefit of the colony as a whole and should not be parted with for such endowment* as were provided for in this and other bills. He had introduced three bills upon the same subject, but what was the fate of these bills ? Their fate was determined by the voice of the Ministry on those benches. They would not even permit the bills to be introduced, and yet this bill had been permitted to be introduced and carried through all its stages. He had placed a question on the Order Paper that day, and had been requested to postpone it until to-morrow, but in the meantime the very object for which the question was put was about to be defeated. He wished to know why, and on what grounds the assent of Ministers was given to the introduction of this bill, when it was refused to other bills of equal importance ? That question remained unanswered to present moment. An lion, member on the Government benches moved that the bill be recommitted, but when a division was taken, he looked in vain for that hon. gentleman. Mr Rolleston : I was paired. Mr Whitaker said he must then apologise. At the same time, the question remained unanswered. He was unable to understand why the bill was allowed to be introduced, and how it had reached its present stage, when all the other bills of a similar character and equal importance had been refused. He stated again positively and distinctly, but without meaning hostility to the gentlemen on the Government benches, that there was a great question involved in this matter, and Ministers ought to have taken care if they meant to defeat the bill to have their supporters present. Having understood that the Government were going to oppose the bill with all their force, he had thought the House would have another opportunity of considering the great question of whether the lands of the colony were to be thrown on the floor of the House to be scrambled for, or whether they were to be administered on broad principles. He could not allow the third reading of the bill to pass without entering his protest, because both on the question of harbor endowments and education endowments, and indeed all questions relating to the disposal of land, he felt they ought to be administered for the colony in general, and not for any particular locality.