THE SEPARATION BILL.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 340, 20 August 1889, Page 3

THE SEPARATION BILL.

SIR GEORGE WHITMORE S SPEECH IN THE COUNCIL. In proposing the Counties Bill, the object of which is the division of Cook County,— The Hon. G. S. Whitmore said this Bill

was brought forward for the separation ol the northern portion of the County of 000 l from the southern portion. Certified maps, he thought, were on the table, which showed that the portion about to be out off amounted to about eight hundred thousand acres cl land, and that tbe part remaining would be about one million thtee hundred thousand acres. Each o! the areas was quite sufficient for a county, so on that score he thought there would be no objection. Tbe people of the Riding of Waiapu were cut off from the portion of the county about Gisborne by a large extent of country through which there was no road for wheel traffic whatever, and though they had subscribed for years past very large sums towards local rates, and even now were under very heavy obligations incurred in the formation ot roads, they had not got, in their opinion, anything like an adequate return in the shape of roads and bridges. The settlers therefore had met and decided to take this step. They had given full notice of it to the settlers in the southern part of of the county, and he was informed that there was no objection whatever on the part of the Gisborne portion of the county.

He had that morning seen two members of the County Council, and they bad said that no objection had been raised. In the early future no doubt the Maori inhabitants would expect to be rated, and they anticipated with a certain amount of unwillingness the being rated for the purpose of spending the money around Gisborne. He did not wish to weary the Council with an array of figures; but the amount of the contributions by the Riding of Waiapu had been so large in the past, and the return had been so small, that it was not to be wondered at that trie people complained. He would not take up the time of the Council by going through the circumstances year by year, but would put shortly what the Waiapu Riding had admittedly paid in taxes to the Cook County Council'. Last year’s figures were supposed to be incomplete, but it appeared that £B,OOO had been raised in the last few years, as against £3,400 claimed to have been expeuded. Even of that sum there was a large amount which could not properly enter into the calculation, as,, for instance, expenditure on a road to Waiapu, which was charged to it, while even now that road did not reach to anywhere near Waiapu, or even much beyond the southern portion of the Tolago Biding, although if it were completed it would no doubt prove a benefit to the Waiapu Riding, But the County Council positively refused to make that road, and insisted on the General Government doing it, —which he hoped there was no prospect of their doing: it might perfectly well have been done out of the balance of rates which they had appropriated. More than that, tbe County Council could not afford Buch a staff as would allow of supervision over the roads of the dietriot from the Wairoa up to Hicks Bay; and the consequence was that their engineer, who was a very competent officer and hard-working man, could only manage to give two or three days in the year to looking at any of ths distant roads, which had become impassab'e. He had put in repair sometimes the little horsatrack over which their mails came to them, and which was their only means of communication with the outer world. This had only been repaired when a portion of it was washed away from a steep and beetling cliff, and all that was done in such cases was to make arrangements for a little piece of patchwork. If the road were made inland, nearer to Waipiro, it would be a great benefit. Some time ago it was decided to spend a small portion of money there in consequence of an outcry on the part of the settlers, but Mr Williams, who lived near that part of the country, and who was expected to be particularly grateful, and who had been foremost in pressing for the work, said the money had jeen spent so badly, in consequence of not being properly looked after, that he was himself prepared to guarantee that he could make twice the length of road for half the amount of money. That, of course, was not the fault of the engineer, for he could not possibly be in two places at once. If the county were separated as was proposed the roads in the new districts would be much better looked after locally than they could possibly be at present. As he had said before, no objection was made to the proposal by the rest of the county ; and, as this division of the county would be a distinct advantage to a large district which, owing to its isolated situation, experienced great difficulties in the way of settlement, the Bill deserved every consideration from the Council. He apprehended, therefore, that there would be no objection to its passing. Full notice had been given, and he had ascertained that no objection would be made to the proposal. The Hou. Dr Pollen thought, as a general rule, that the subdivision of counties was very objectionable ; and that was the opinion and the policy of the Legislafure, as was shown by tha fact that simple machinery had been provided by the general Act for increasing the area of counties at the instance of the ratepayers, whilst it had been enacted that no changes of the kind now proposed to be made should be effected except by means of a special Act of Parliament. He thought that a small grievance about a road not being made to this settler’s door or to that settler's door was not sufficient ground to move the Legislature to make a change to which it had generally, as he had said, great objections. He thought it would have been well for his honorable and gallant friend to have been able to show that there was a considerable European population in this new county. His own Impression was that the European settlers of this county were very few in number ; that they were scattered a great deal.- ■ ■ The Hon. Sir G. S. Whitmore,—They number five or six hundred. The Hon. Dr Pollen.— —and that the making of a separate county would be to establish a small landed oligarchy in this place, who would take very good oire of themselves, no doubt, without allowing that consideration that ought to be shown to thejwhole district. Theentire County of Cook, as they knew, was embarrassed by debts of Harbor Boards and liabilities of one kind and another, so that the whole pi the land, in point of fact, was pledged to the bondholders of the Harbour Board—that was to say, that the land was supposed to be available for taxation, and liable for the payment of interest and sinking fund on all these loans. It was a question whether, under these circumstances, they would not be reducing the value of the seourities already pledged to the bondholders if they consented to make this change. He did not say that the change ought not to be made, but that they ought to hgve stronger grounds for agreeing to it than his honorable and gallant friend had given to them so far. The Hon. G. 8. Whitmore had no doubt that the Hon. Dr Pollen was perfectly right in saying that he (Sir G. S. Whitmore) ought to have made further and more detailed explanations than he had made; but he had been In communication with so'many honorable gentlemen who had a knowledge of the circumstances of the district, and be was so authoritatively informed that the general opinion was that there would be no opposition at all, that he had not wished to weary the Council by speaking at any length. He thought it would be recognised that the district which it was proposed to constitute into a new county was the most neglected and, at the same time, tbe most' hopeful part of New gealahd; and he could not think that they would, by any resistance to the passing of this Bill, prevent the people from trying to make tbe district reproductive. There was no part of the North Island where there was so much hope for the future as in the district of Waiapu. It wanted only the ordinary facilities of transport, go as to enable settlers to get their products'away, and the land would ere long carry two millions of sheep, Bnt for the enterprise of certain settlers, who had cut a track to tha sgaboasd, no progress wiiateyer would have been made, He might mention that one neighbor of his employed from 3 hundred to a hundred and fifty white people regularly, and he had found that there were between five and six hundred Europeans in the district; it was, too, the most thickly populated Native district in New Zealand. The Natives had shown greater advancement in civilisation than those of any other part of ths colony he knew of, nod they occupied a very Jarg* agrieuHural iliitrict,2;pradu<jing

formerly great quantities of corn and wheat. There was a distance of about sixty miles between this riding and the Gisborne part of the county, over which no wheeled traffic—not oven a bullock-sledge—oeuld go. Year after year the settlers there had besought the County Council to do something, but it had absolutely turned a deaf ear to their entreaties. He would also further say that tbe seon'ity for the Harbour Board .loan would in no way be affected by the separation of the Waiapu Riding, for it must still continue to be liable for that rate; while oh the other hand, if the districts were divided as was proposed, the new county would be far more able to bear its share of the burden than it was at present. To show what they were doing, he might Bav that this year they would export three thousand bales of wool, which was not a trifle for a young district. They had only two roads in the district—one made by himself and another by a neighbor—and these gave the only access they had to the sea. Several years ago the General Government started a road in order to give work to the Ngatiporou after their return from the war. That road ought to have been continued, but it had fallen entirely into disrepair, so that at present not even a bullock dray could go along it. Every bridge that had been erected in a temporary manner was falling to pieces. The settlement of Europeans had increased in the last five years from very few persons to very nearly six hundred, and he believed that, if they could make roads so as to give access to the back-country,—which the Government would only be too happy to throw open at any moment,—they would have a large number of European settlers there. There were in the district nine flocks of sheep owned by Natives, each flock numbering from one to three thousand sheep ; and the Natives showed considerable intelligence both in their agricultural and pastoral pursuits. He did not want to allude to the injuries they had suffered from the County Council, but there were many things they had to complain of. Considerable sums of money had been obtained from the Government, and spent all round Gisborne, They were very much afraid of the Council borrowing a great deal more than they had done already on the security of this district, and spending the money on themselves ; and that had weighed very much with the settlers in getting them to come to the decision that they should have a county of their own. They had now to continue paying a |d in the pound towards a harbor which never could do them the smallest amount of good whatever. The Government had lately been letting a large number of small runs in the district—runs of from fifteen hundred to five thousand acres—and the settlers naturally wanted the means of access to them, to turn these runs to some profitable account, There was a large Native population in the district, and they were looking forward with apprehension to the fact that they would be asked to pay rates in order to have the money spent elsewhere. He thought they could not too soon put things on a fair basis, because it would ne intolerable to the Natives if, out of their small means, they found the rates which they paid carried away and spent in a district a hundred miles off. Compared with other portions of the county this district had little or no communication with the outer world. Other parts of the county had good roads, and could drive their coaches and buggies a’oug them. They had telegraphic communication and steam communication that they could rely upon. None of these things did the district to which the Bill referred possess. The only thing they had was the sea, and by paying for it, and by tha liberality of the Union Steamship Company, they had a weekly steam-ser-vice, which was the sole means they had of sending away their produce. Shipping from the beach, as honorable gentlemen knew, was. always attended with a certain amount of risk and loss, so that tbe district was very heavily handicapped altogether. But the fact that they suffered already was no reason why they should be made to suffer more. They had been paying a halfpenny rate on properties which were not worth half what they were valued at. They therefore did not think it unreasonable to ask to have some little voice in spending the money they themselves contributed. Tt;e County Council was composed of nine members, and the one member who represented this district was powerless ; whatever he proposed wae overruled, and the other portions of the County which were in communication with each other, got the advantage of their revenue. The people had not a single road except those which had been made out of their own pockets. They depended entirely on the sea ; and they found it hard to maintain a service when there was so few settlers, comparatively, producing to any large extent. The people thought that if they were allowed to administer their own affairs they would soon be able to send away a very large quantity of wool, flax, and grain. He should not be surprised if during the next nine or ten years they, would be able to export as much as two million pounds of wool. There were cases in which some consideration should be shown to isolated and distant settlers ; and he was not sure that there waq any other district in the colony which oould say with truth what he had been able to advance on behalf of this one. Bill read a second time.