Other formats

    Adobe Portable Document Format file (facsimile images)   TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 10

I.—Want of Unity of Resources

I.—Want of Unity of Resources.

When the colony of Victoria determined to borrow nine millions sterling for the purpose of carrying out great reproductive works (railways and waterworks), it pledged the whole of its revenues, ordinary and territorial, for that purpose. There are some plain people who consider that when New Zealand came into the market to borrow moneys for war expenditure, whether with or without the aid of the British taxes, it ought to have followed this example. When a state or nation engages in war, the whole nation ought surely to assume the responsibility, and all the resources of the entire nation ought to be pledged for its support. The late Duke of Newcastle distinctly called the attention of the Colonial Treasurer to this plain duty so far back as the 26th May, 1862. "It does not appear to occur to him," he says, in his despatch to Sir George Grey, "that the portion of that revenue which is so applied as to relieve municipalities from the necessity of imposing local taxes, might be applied in whole or in part to the more pressing needs of the colony, and that the portion of that revenue which is devoted to public works and colonization may, in times of disaster, and particularly in time of civil war, which is disaster, be directed to the paramount object of averting absolute ruin." This kind of policy did not, however, suit the statesmen (?) of New Zealand, and accordingly page 7 the whole territorial revenue of the islands has been withheld from the security offered for their government loans, and this entirely in the interest and for the benefit of the settlers of the Southern Island, who have the uninterrupted use and enjoyment of forty-three millions of acres against the ten millions of acres which even now, after the war, form the only demesne lands of the Crown in the possession of the settlers of the Northern Island.*

There can be little doubt that it is owing mainly to this circumstance that New Zealand 8 per cent, debentures have been selling in the London market below par, whilst Victorian 6 per cents, were readily saleable at l06.

The following table, in which the statistics of New Zealand are compared with those of Victoria, clearly proves that New Zealand, with only one-third of the population of Victoria, has already developed resources which, relatively to the amount of their respective actual debts, afford quite an equal security if the whole resources of the country were pledged for the purpose:—

* The special benefit to the province of Canterbury may be judged from the fact that the whole of the expenditure voted by the Provincial Council for that province, in 1854, was as follows:—

Ordinary Expenditure £102,396 7 7
Lands and Works 166,781 4 1
Railways and Harbors 255,022 10 0
Total £524,200 1 8

A very modest and moderate sum, it must be confessed, says the editor of the Canterbury Press, for a population of 30,000 persona in times of great financial depression. See Canterbury Press, October 1st, 1864.

Crown Agent's Letter to Colonial Treasurer.

page break

Comparison of Statistics of New Zealand, 1865, With Statistics of Victoria (Australia), 1863. Live Stock. Exports of Colonial Produce. Demesne Lands. Native Territory. Total Area. Acres under cultivation. Amount realized by Land Sales during year. Total Population exclusive of Military and Natives. Horses. Cattle. GOLD. Value. WOOL. Value. VICTORIA, 1863 55,630,000 NIL 55,680,000 507,798 £ 450,646 574,331 103,328 675,272 7, 115,943 £ 6,520,957 £ 2,049,491 NEW ZEALAND, 1865 53,000,000 20,000,000 73,000,000 1,070,203 506,654 171,931 49,401 249.021 4,945,473 3,000,000† 1,250,000‡ Shipping. Revenue Colonial Debt. Inwards. Outwards. VICTORIA, 1863 1739 624,061 1782 618,052 £ £ £ 3,000,000 about £ 8,828,970 £ £ 8,828,970 £ 8,828,970 £ Nil. NEW ZEALAND, 1865 1154§ 419,935 1094 394,665 943,500 Estimated in Financial Statement. 606,830 1,550,330 3,650,000 2.644,000 6,294,000 4,308,268 1,985,732†† * Acres meed.   Allowing 20 per cent increase only over export of 1863. Amount under estimated.—See Postscript. ‡ Allowing 50 per cent, increase over export of 1863. § Actual return for 1863. ∥ Actual evenue of 1862, exclusive of Government Scrip and Land-Orders, equal to £13,200. The return of land sales for 1864 is not complete, except as to Southern Island, where the land sales produced £519,940! thus: NELSON MARLBOROUGH CANTERBURY OTAGO SOUTHLAND ¶ This is the total given by the Registrar General's statistics, 1863; but the Colonial Treasurer states the amount at £6,615,500. †† Apportioned thus: General £602,623 Provincial 1,383,109 £1,935,732

page 9

But it is not in the present depressed price of New Zealand Government securities that this selfish exceptional policy has worked a wrong to the settlers of New Zealand, both North and South.

When the late Treasurer of New Zealand negociated the loan of three millions in this country, for the Waikato wax, the British Govern ment offered to guarantee one million, at 4 per cent., if the lands of the colony were charged therewith; but the New Zealand Government refused to sanction this course, and consequently instead of one million sterling being raised, at 4 per cent., only £803,657 were realized by the issue of 5 per cent, debentures: the operation, in addition to the increased interest of 1 per cent., inflicting a positive loss of £196,343 on the colony. Again, the war has been carried on since November, 1864, by raising the necessary funds by short loans, at 8 per cent., and the whole three millions (including the payment of the imperial debt with half a million), less £602,623 has been thus raised and expended.

The pending financial operations of the New Zealand Government may be thus summed up—
1st.To raise the £602,623, balance of the three millions loan, to cover the expenses of the war since June last.
2nd.At different periods within the next two years, either to pay off the amount falling due on their short 8 per cent, securities, amounting to about £900,000, or struggle to renew them.
3rd.To provide the means of carrying on the native wax with their own unaided resources, after the above balance of the three million loan shall have been expended. The amount required for this purpose, as estimated by Sir George Grey, being simply one million sterling!* and lastly (concurrently with these operations) to induce the British Government to forego its claim for £40 per head for all British soldiers who, during the year 1865, shall have been in the colony in excess of 5,000

* See Letter to Mr, Cardwell, 8th April, 1865.

page 10 men;* and from that date its claim for a like sum for every man in excess of one regiment, viz., 1,000 men.

Now in what way does the "Weld Ministry hope to carry out these operations? Simply (in the same breath that it affects to dispense with British aid) by asking the Home Government to cover with its guarantee a 4 per cent. loan for three millions, thus making with the one million loan at; per cent, and the £650,000 loan, a total general government debt of nearly five million!

The question is—will the Home Government consent to give this guarantee—and if it does, will it not, and ought it not to require that the territorial revenue should form part of the security?

It will, no doubt, be said that the territorial revenue has been pledged for provincial loans, and that for this reason the guarantee formerly offered could not be accepted, but it clearly appears from the General Registrar's return,§ that although on the 31st December, 1863, £2,644,000 had been authorised to be borrowed for the provinces, only £689,750 had been then actually raised. It is possible, also, that nearly a similar amount may have been since raised by the provinces; but, however this may be, any security given to the Home Government can easily be made subject to the actually existing provincial debt, whilst all further borrowing for provincial purposes ought to be entirely stayed, so long as the colony chooses to be at war, or be permitted only, subject to the paramount claims of the general government for all further monies required for this extraordinary expenditure. The colonial ministers will, no doubt, reply, as they already have distinctly intimated, that this proposition being opposed to the interests of the settlers of the Southern Island, is "simply impracticable." If so, it clearly follows, and it is the

* See Sir Frederick Rogers' Despatch to Colonial Treasurer, 26th May, 1864.

See Financial Statement of Colonial Treasurer, and Sir George Grey's letter,

The Home Government has refused.—See Postscript.

§ No. 36, Statistics of New Zealand for 1863.

See Weld's Memorandum of March 20th, 1865.

page 11 plain fact that the responsible ministry of New Zealand are not in a position to undertake war on their own account, and that British capitalists ought not to encourage them therein by advancing funds for that purpose.

It is easy for Mr. Weld, the colonial premier, to talk of fulfilling engagements entered into between the provinces. These arrangements were made for times of peace and not for times of war, and if Mr. Weld's ministry insist upon the withdrawal of all the troops, simply in order to obtain the absolute control of a substituted colonial force, and further insist, "as a fixed condition of their proposals, that the unity of the colony should be preserved, with its seat of government established in a central position, viz. at Wellington,"* it follows, as a logical consequenoe, that unity of all colonial resources must be likewise established, and the South made to bear a real share of the burthen of the war, of which, as will presently be shown, the Southern members were the actual authors, and promoters.

The following table, showing the present resources of the North and South islands of New Zealand in detail, will further show what a one* sided game this native war must be when carried on as proposed by the Weld ministry, by the unaided resources of the colony, without recourse to any part of the territorial revenue, by way of security or otherwise;—

* See Weld's Memorandum, 20th March, 1865.

page break

Statistics of the Different Provinces of New Zealand, December 1864. PROVINCES. North Island. English Territory. Native Territory. Total Area of Provinces. Population, exclusive of Military and their Families. Land Revenue during Year 1862. Horses. Cattle. Sheep. Acres. Acres. Acres. AUCKLAND 3,590,360 13,511,070 17,101,430 42,132 129,147 6,572† 7482 42,294 73,151 TARANAKI 560,000 1,899,360 2,459,360 4,374 8,134 545 737 4,229 12,350 WELLINGTON 4,156,479 3,416,641 7,573,120 14,937 127,350 18,525 7356 49,200 411,502 HAWKE'S BAY 1,757,821 1,108,269 2,866,090 3770 65,671 27,384 2780 14,552 537,094 Total of North Island 10,064,660 19,935,340 30,000,000 65,263 330,302 53,026 18,355 110,275 1,034,097 South Island. Acres. Acres. Acres. £ NELSON (about) 6,500,000 Nominal. 6,500,000 11,910 91,411 63,298 3597 15,825 341,281 MARLBOROUGHN 2,500,000 Only a few Native Reserves, along the Cast in each of the provinces. 2,500,000 5,515 86,033 13,747 2735 7483 456,374 CANTERBURY 14,500,000 14,500,000 32,247 342,417 207,327 10,868 45,263 1,567,320 OTAGO 16,000,000 16,000,000 48,907 149,699 116,170 11,267 56,945 1,311,345 SOUTHLAND, and Stewart's Island 3,500,000 3,500,000 8,085 70,341 53,086 2579 13,230 235,056 Total of South Island 43,000,000 43,000,000 106,664 739,901 453,628 31,046 138,746 3,911,376 Add North Hand 10,064,660 19,935,340 30,000,000 65,263 330,302 53,026 18,355 110,275 1,034,097 Grand Total 53,064,660 19,935,340 73,000,000 171,927 1,070,203 506,654‡ 49,401 249,021 4,945,473 † 0,000 acres were also granted without purchase in lieu of passage-money. ‡ The Land Revenue for the Southern Island alone, during the year 1864, actually exceeded this amounto (See previous Table, p. 8.)

page 13

The character of the vast territory of the Southern Island may be judged from the results exhibited by the last table, which (to say nothing of its export of gold, amounting now to nearly eight millions) have been developed during the short period of fifteen years. The lands of this island, with the exception of the mountain ranges of the west coast, consist for the most part of extensive grassy plains and rolling downs, which have been let to the settlers of Canterbury, Otago, and Nelson at almost nominal rents, so that they may be said to have literally grown fat on Maori grass, purchased from the natives at a fraction of a farthing per acre; whilst the poor settlers of the North Island, to which the war has been altogether confined, and especially those of Auckland and Taranaki, have been experiencing all the miseries of the native war in their own persons, and at their very doors. To them the war has been domestic dissension or civil war, whilst to the South it has been simply a foreign war; and Sir James Mackintosh has clearly pointed out what little effect the latter has on the feelings, habits, and condition of the majority of a nation, to most of whom the worst particulars of the war may be unknown. Indeed, excepting a few military settlers, consisting for the most part of new arrivals from Australia, it may be doubted whether any of the Southern provinces have contributed even a score of original settlers as volunteers, for the aid of their fellow colonists in the North.

As regards contributions in money, the case stands no better—until the amended tariff came into operation about twelve months since, the expenses of the war were scarcely directly felt by the Southern settlers. The Comissariat Chest and the Bank of New Zealand kindly kept the Colonial Treasurer in funds whilst the borrowing process was going on here. When this proved unsuccessful, and the scheme of confiscation failed to repay the expenditure, the Southern members resolved, if possible, to stop the war, and dispense altogether with the assistance of the British forces, provided they could centralize the Government page 14 in their own hands at Wellington. "Unity of the colony," and "Reliance on our own resources," are favorite party cries of the Weld ministry.* By the former they clearly mean simple centralization, whilst the latter phrase, despite their protestations to the contrary, means nothing more than reliance on substantial assistance from the Home Government.

The Weld ministry are in truth afraid to touch the territorial revenue lest they lose the support of the Southern members, who boldly avow that the lands of the South are their own inheritance, available solely for the improvement by means of roads, railways, and other local works, of the lands already purchased by themselves and the other settlers in the Southern provinces; and the South, instead of assenting to the idea of an united colony, are prepared to vote, as will presently be seen, for an entire separation of the two islands, if any further taxation for native war is to be resorted to.

The great object of the South, "centralization," has already been carried cut. Although possessing from their pastoral occupations more wealth and leisure than any other class of colonists, the Southern settlers complained of the voyage to and from Auckland (the seat of Government) as an insupportable grievance, and, at last, by a majority of one, the rights of the Auckland settlers, like those of the original settlers at Taranaki, were confiscated, and the seat of Government has now been actually removed from Auckland to Wellington. In consequence, Auckland, on the one land, is insisting on entire separation from the South, whilst Otago, in the extreme South, for its own special reasons, is also insisting on separation from the North.

This brings us to our second point—

* See Weld's Memorandum and Fitzherbert's Financial Statement, August, 1865.