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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Provincial Comparisons

Provincial Comparisons.

The Provincial District of Auckland is the largest in the Colony, its area being 25,746 square miles. That of Otago is a close second, with 25,487 square miles. Canterbury (14,040), Wellington (11,003), Nelson (10,269), Marlborough (4,753), Westland (4,641), Hawke's Bay (4,410), and Taranaki (3,308) are all small, and four of them are insignificant when compared with Auckland and Otago.

That the Auckland Provincial District suffers politically from being too large in proportion to its population may be inferred from the fact that, while political representation is based mainly on population, the need for Government assistance in such important matters as railways, roads and bridges rests largely on area. The isolation of the Auckland Province forms another very serious drawback. Like Wellington, Auckland is bounded by the sea, and the three other districts of the island; but while Auckland is disconnected from all the others by almost unexplored wilds, Wellington is separated from the two smaller provinces by no greater obstruction than dotted lines on the map. This isolation is keenly felt by the people of Auckland, and they are not slow to charge the Legislature with unfairness.

Of railways, Auckland has 367 miles, leading mainly to the Waikato, Thames, Rotorua and Helensville; the Rotorua extremity being rather more than a hundred miles from Gisborne, which is the second town and port in the province, and has a population of about 2,500. The three other provinces have together 453 miles of railway, exclusive of the private line (eighty-four miles in length) of the Wellington-Manawatu Railway Company, Limited, and these run through or to every town of importance, and most of the townships in the three provinces. New Plymouth is within a fifteen hours' run of Wellington, and Napier is about twelve hours' journey distant. Wanganui, the second town and port of the Wellington Province, with a population of 5,000, is reached in a little more than eight hours.

In such matters as roads and bridges and all other aids to settlement, Auckland has all along been labouring under precisely the same disadvantage, and, in view of the political factor, it is perhaps surprising that she has not suffered still more severely. That she has not, is probably owing to the vigilance or the two principal Auckland papers, the “New Zealand Herald” and the “Auckland Star,” both of which occupy very prominent places in the front rank of New Zealand journalism.

The Government moneys expended in the Provincial District of Auckland on roads, bridges, etc., and on water-races and other works for the development of the goldfields, amount to about £1,200,000, while a fourth more has been spent on roads and bridges in the districts of Wellington, Hawke's Bay and Taranaki. Leaving out of the calculation the special expenditure on the Thames and Coromandel goldfields, the expenditure in the three other provinces has been at least fifty per cent. greater than in Auckland. It is not surprising, therefore, that whatever justification there may be for this condition of affairs, the people of Auckland should conclude that their province has been unfairly treated.

The districts of Auckland and Otago being so nearly equal in area and population, a few comparative facts relating to the extreme northern and southern provinces may prove interesting and instructive. In systematic settlement, Auckland had the advantage of being about eight years old when Otago was born. At that time, 1848, the population of the whole colony was set down at a little over 17,000, and probably nearly half that number belonged to Auckland. The imports of the Colony were valued at less than a quarter on a million per annum, and the exports at about a fifth of that sum. The gain in the start, therefore, was not great, though for fifteen years after Otago was founded, Auckland had the advantage of being the seat of Government. The Maori difficulty, however, from which Otago was quite free, must have seriously affected Auckland, quite neutralising her advantages in age and early importance. The mileage of Government railways open for traffic in Otago is about 700, or very nearly double that of Auckland, while the cost—over five millions to the General Government and a third of a million to the Province—equals a trifle over £32 per unit of population. Every branch of railway in Otago is connected with the main line to Canterbury, which, in turn, is connected with every branch in that province; whereas Auckland is, for the present, not only hopelessly cut off from the adjoining provinces, but has some large gaps even in her own system, three sections of which have no connection with the main line or with each other. However, in roads, bridges, water-races, etc., Otago has had about half the expenditure of Government funds, which has taken place in Auckland; and in this way Auckland has, therefore, received about a fifth of Otago's excess of railway expenditure.

The Province of Canterbury is about three-fifths of the area of Auckland, yet in the expenditure on roads, bridges, etc., for every shilling which Canterbury has had, Auckland has had nearly a sovereign. This very great difference is due largely, no doubt, to the absence of engineering difficulties on the Canterbury Plains, and to the general compactness of the province, facts which have, of course, also helped the construction of railways. The mileage of railways in Canterbury (462) is nearly a third greater than in Auckland, yet the cost of construction is not a sixth page 19 greater. Deducting the three-quarters of a million contributed by the Province of Canterbury, the Government expenditure has been actually less in Canterbury than in Auckland, yet Canterbury has a main line in full connection with Otago, and running a few miles into the Provincial District of Marlborough, besides nine or ten branch lines, aggregating a length of 254 miles. The expenditure of Government money on railways in Canterbury averages about £18 10s per head of the present population. Thus, while it is evident that Otago has outstripped all competitors in the race for Government prizes, and that Auckland has been the main loser thereby, it is not clear that Canterbury has reaped any great advantages beyond such as rightfully belong to her through the favourable physical conditions of that part of the country, and the fact that the competition of water carriage is in that province reduced to a minimum.

In support of their claims for increased railway provision, Aucklanders urge that the ratio of expenditure to revenue is not appreciably greater, if greater at all, in Auckland than in other parts of the island, or even on the Hurunui-Bluff line, and that, given a fair chance by connection with the neighbouring provinces, the interest returns on cost of construction, which are now a little over two and a half per cent., would be greatly increased, so as not only to overtake the returns of the Wellington, Napier and New Plymouth sections, which are now about a quarter per cent. ahead; but the whole North Island system would be so benefited by the interchange of support, that the three and a half per cent. new yielded by the Canterbury-Otago lines might be equalled, if not surpassed.

If Auckland has been neglected in the Government expenditure, of which there would seem to be no doubt, it has not been because her representatives, as compared with others, have been less importunate on behalf of their own or more liberal towards other constituencies; but from the very plain reason that Auckland's isolated position—isolated because of the undeveloped country composing the whole of her landward boundaries—has deprived her representatives of natural allies. This will change with time, and is even now changing. On the question of the rival routes for the main trunk railway the Auckland and most of the Taranaki members have joined forces, because the Ongaruhe-Stratford deviation, which Auckland wants, would lie wholly in the Taranaki province, and would give that district the benefit of more direct communication with Auckland, without affecting her present connection with Hawke's Bay and Wellington. But against this alliance, Hawke's Bay, Wellington, and the whole of the South Island members are arrayed, because the central route, without interfering with their present connection with Taranaki, would give them the more direct route to Auckland, which they deem most desirable, at any rate for themselves and the constituencies they represent. Taranaki, of course, has all to gain and nothing to lose in securing the Stratford route. Hawke's Bay, Wellington and the South Island stand in precisely that relation to the central route; but Auckland has been placed in the position of having to decide whether her interests would be wisely conserved by shortening the distance to Ngaire, and the northern portion of Taranaki by about 160 miles, at the expense of lengthening it by 40 miles to the remainder of the colony south of Marton. At Baker's Crossing, twenty miles north of Marton, the rival routes equalise as far as distance is concerned. Wanganui would be about twenty miles, Patea about 100, and Hawera about 135 miles nearer Auckland by the Stratford than by the central route. Notwithstanding this, however, Stratord, and, therefore, New Plymouth, would be about forty miles nearer to Wellington than to Auckland, even by the Stratford route. Hawera would be between sixty and seventy miles nearer, and Patea about a hundred miles nearer Wellington.

In view of these facts, Auckland is fairly united with the middle and southern portions of Taranaki in the desire to save from between 100 to 160 miles of roundabout in the railway connection between the two provinces, and considering the rapid rate at which the population of Taranaki is increasing, and the indisputable fact that Auckland has not been too generously treated in the matter of railways, it is the opinion of not a few, whose interests lie in the opposite direction, that the prayer of these two provinces, if united, should be heard and granted. That two or more lines will ultimately be made, no doubt exists, and therefore little hardship could result from the choice of the first line being left to the provinces most immediately concerned. No doubt systematic agitation would get both, or something better. The New Plymouth residents, while they prefer the Stratford to the central route, are urgent in their claim for a deviation from Taumaranui to Waitara via Urenui, and it is by no means clear why Aucklanders do not prefer that route, as New Plymouth would by its means be about as near to Auckland as to Wellington. In the interests of all parties concerned it is desirable to arrive at an agreement which would permit of united instead of divided agitation, for as the “New Zealand Herald” points out, any route would be better than none, and no better excuse for hanging up the work could well be found than that the parties most needing it are at variance as to its direction.

Seeing that the provincial system of government is dead, it is to be regretted that the system was over born in this colony, for it has left a ghost behind which seems powerless for good, but potent for evil. When each province controlled the expenditure of its own share of the revenue, there was much to be said in favour of a continuance of the system; but now that no provincial machinery exists, the maintenance of the arbitrary division of the Colony can serve no really useful end. Had any sensible attempt been made to divide the Colony into districts, as nearly equal as possible, in area, boundaries, and natural advantages and dis-advantages, so that they might have enjoyed equal shares of Government assistance and patronage, with equal representation, a spirit of emulation might have been beneficially engendered; but, as these divisions now stand, they are productive of unfairness and consequent dissatisfaction. If the North Island were one province and had never been divided, the selection of the main trunk railway route would have been a matter for the engineers only. Yet for all practical purposes it is one province, and exists otherwise only in the imagination of the people, and in some of the statistics of Government. But page 20 sentimental divisions were ever the most difficult of effacement. The real division of the Colony into provinces was abolished about a quarter of a century ago, and yet there is even now a strong provincial antagonism in the breasts of many colonists who at that time were unborn.