TARANAKI GOVERNMENT GAZETTE.

33

given in connection with immigration. That is to say, under some plan by which the land upon which money was advanced should be made specially available for the purposes of Immigrants.

3. My views upon that subject generally are stated in a letter addressed to the Superintendent of Wellington a printed copy of which was forwarded to you.

4. My principal object at present is, however, to remove the misapprehension which seems to exist in your Honor’s mind concerning the Confiscated Lands.

5. I was unsuccessful in making my meaning clear if, from what passed at our interview, your Honor supposed that the General Government intended to use the proceeds of the sales of Confiscated Lands for Colonial purposes, or rather, as your Honor put it, in your Speech, “required” the money for Colonial purposes. On the contrary, what I wished your Honor to understand was, that there are certain liabilities hanging over the Confiscated Lands, including Appropriations by the House; and that when those liabilities and appropriations had been satisfied, the respective balances would be available for the Provinces.

6. As your Honor mentioned in the Speech to the Council, a vote of Five Thousand Pounds (£5,000) was taken against the Confiscated Lands for Roads in Taranaki, as well as Twelve Hundred Pounds (£1,200) in payment of an Advance on account of the Waitara Bridge; in addition to which, half the cost of the Bridge over the Patea River is being defrayed out of the proceeds of the Confiscated Lands.

7. I am glad to be able to inform your Honor that, since our interview, there is so obvious an increase in the value of the Confiscated Lands, that the General Government have come to the conclusion that they will be able at once to put apart a portion of the proceeds for the benefit of the Provinces, leaving one-half to be applied in meeting liabilities and satisfying appropriations.

8. I shall address your Honor further upon the subject. But I may now say that it is proposed to hand over one quarter of the proceeds to the Provinces, for Provincial appropriation; another one quarter being expended either by Local Road Boards or under the direction of the Public Works Department upon roads in the district and for the benefit of the lands disposed of. It is proposed that this arrangement shall date back to January 1st, 1874; so that, under it, I shall have the pleasure of remitting to your Honor a portion of the proceeds of the late land sales at Patea.

9. I shall be glad if your Honor will give to this letter publicity equal to that given to the Speech to the Provincial Council.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,
Your Obedient Servant,

JULIUS VOGEL.

His Honor,
the Superintendent of
Taranaki.

EXTRACT

From the Speech of His Honor F. A. Carrington, Esq., at the opening of the Twenty-third Session of the Provincial Council of Taranaki:—

“I did not fail to point out to the Hon. Mr. Vogel the impossibility of our administering this land to advantage through our want of funds, and I told him that I feared there would be difficulty in dealing with it in any other way than by raising money on it, or by forming special settlements on deferred payments, in which latter case Mr. Vogel told me the Government would help us in the cost of making the necessary surveys and in utilising the forest. The money so advanced to be refunded to the Government as the land from time to time be paid for. Mr. Vogel would not consent to give any portion of the money about to be derived from the sale of Confiscated Land in our Province to aid in the surveying and laying out of this newly acquired bush land, as the money was all required for Colonial purposes, but he told me that so soon as the open land on the Coast be acquired it shall be handed over to us for administration, and this, I have reason to believe, will shortly be done.”

Printed under the authority of the Government of the Province of Taranaki, by Charles Brown,
of Brougham-street, New Plymouth, Printer to the Provincial Government for the time being.