“The Press” In 1866

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30951, 6 January 1966, Page 8

“The Press” In 1866

January 6 AUCKLAND SEPARATION.—It is one thing to consider the proposals made by the North for effecting a change in the Constitution; it is another to consider the arguments by which the necessity for such a change is supported. There is one argument which pervades the whole of the speeches and writings emanating from Auckland, with which we propose to deal. It is talked of as a great grievance from which it is absolutely necessary that the North should rid itself, that it should be relieved from the interference of southern legislators, . j who do not understand the Natives, and who are not interested, except pecuniarily in the relations of the

Natives with the Europeans. . . . There are many men in the Middle Island who are quite as well acquainted with the past history and the present feelings of the Natives as nine-tenths of the population of Auckland, because they have studied the subject with a view to arrive at the truth, and not with a view to making money out of them. Auckland was willing to abandon all its political privileges and to return to the Downing street government if only permitted to carry on its trade protected by the presence of the British army, H as abandoned that hope? Or does it clamor for separation with the vision of a fat commissariat st m before its eyes? On this point in the recent meeting it is ominously silent.