MR. CARD WELL ON SEPARATION.

Press, Volume X, Issue 1142, 6 July 1866, Page 3

MR. CARD WELL ON SEPARATION.

The following despatch from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Sir George Grey, is taken from the Parliamentary papers recently laid before the Assembly:— " Downing street, March 26,1866. " Sib, —I have the honor to acknowledge your despatches, No. 7, of January 8, in which you say, 'in compliance with the recommendation of my Responsible Advisers, I have the honor herewith to transmit a petition from the Auckland Provincial Council to her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, praying that the northern portion of these islands may be constituted a separate colony, uuder a Constitution calculated to establish and maintain peace, order, and good government.' 2. "' My Responsible Advisers, in transmitting this petition to mc, have nrt iflftte any raarfto upon it.' And JSTo 4 of January 4,, in. which you. s»fca.&o that the opinion yoii originalt^ conveyed fco mc in your despatch OX January 5, 1565, still remains xaxaltered, and proceed to say,—* , 7, The opinion I hold is based upon the necessity of strong, instantly acting, and entirely impartial Government, in a case in which an Huropean race, and a powerful and jealous semi-barbarous race, are mingling together. A country so circumstanced requires more government than a country in which an ordinary state of things prevail. I think that with such a Government, the happiness and peace of both races in the Province of Auckland might be shortly ensured, and that the present anomalous state of things would soon cease to exist there. I fear that without some such arrangement as that proposed is carried out, a long time of difficulty and trial lies before the northern part of the island, whica 1 should naturally regret to see it subjected to, because 1 believe it to be unnecessary.'"

I " I have felt myself fully entitled to i conclude since you abstained from I fulfilling your intention of reporting to , mc upon this subject twelve months i ago, that you had adopted the views of your former advisers; and when you conveyed to mc their memorandum of the 20th March, which closed with the j statement that they assumed that the j Colonial Government would receive! the firm and unwavering support of I the Imperial Government in maintain- j iug the unity of the colony,—l told j you in reply that I inferred your own opinion to be in unison with theirs, and I authorised you to answer in the same sense the petitions which you had forwarded to mc from Auckland. " Several mails have intervened without my receiving any intimation of your views. But if your opinion has all the while remained unaltered, it must, I think, have occurred to you that, in the adoption of any such measures, there would be many obvious difficulties, and that I should be glad to know your views on the possibility of overcoming them, and the mode by which they could be overcome. When the Crown and Parliament have deliberately established in i any colony the system of Eesponsible ; Government, — when that Govern- ' ment has been in existence several years, — when institutions, gene- ' ral and local, have grown up ' under it—private interests have arisen j and public debts have been contracted: it is no easy task to retrace these steps. j Even if I were assured by the voice of j tKe Legislature of New Zealand that ] the public feeling of the colony was in < favor of such a course, many practical •> questions of great difficulty would > require solution before I should be ' justified in assenting to it on the part of her Majesty's Government. But iv £ the present instance the presumption « is that the public feeling of the colony ' is adverse to any such proceeding. You l inform mc, indeed, that you transmit , this address by the advice of your f present Ministers,but you do not state, 1 and I do not infer, that they support < its prayer. ! " I request that you will inform the i Speaker that the Address of the Pro- ' vincial Council of Auckland has been ' laid before the Queen, who has been pleased to receive it very graciously ; , but that you have not been authorised , to hold out any expectation that her ' Majesty's Government would be able to advise a compliance with its prayer. " Since, however, you think the happiness and peace of the colony so much interested in the question, I have too much regard for your opinions, so long cherished, and so deliberately entertained, not to consider whether it is not possible to attain the object which you have in view. If it be necessary, in your judgment, that a strong, instantly acting, and entirely impartial Government should be established in the province of Auckland, to meet a case in which two races, one European, the other jealous and semibarbarous, are mingling together, and if your opinion be supported by that of the province itself, you will do well to submit for the consideration of.your Eesponsible Advisers the question— not whether a separate colony should be created in the Northern Island by the dismemberment of New Zealand, —but whether the Legislature of New Zealand might not, by local and temporary enactments, meet the necessity which you have declared to exist. It might indeed be found that, under the Constitution Act, those enactments required the aid of the Imperial Parliament, and in that case it would be the duty of her Majesty's Government to give their attention to the subject, and you might be assured that measures recommended by you as calculated to promote the peace and welfare of the province, acceptable to the Provincial Council, and adopted ; by the Legislature of New Zealand, ' would receive full consideration from the Government and Parliament of this country. " I have, &c, " Edwaed Card well. " Governor Sir George Grey, X.C.8."