The Evening Star. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, NOV. 13, 1865.

Evening Star, Volume III, Issue 786, 11 November 1865, Page 2

The Evening Star. DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, NOV. 13, 1865.

Ma. Macaxdsevv's speech at Port Chalmers is decidedly the most practical and to the purpose of any of the extra-parliamen-tary utterances yet reported ; and it is the more important as falling from the lips of a man who, an old colonist, and attached to oldideas, now finds himself compelled to give in his adhesion to the only remedy ■which holds out any hope of successful!}meeting the difficulties of the colony—separation. Mr. Macau-drew placed the subject very clearly before his hearers. He showed them that the policy of the late Government was one fatal to the interests of the province and subversive of good government, and was, moreover, a policy that could only be successful in its avowed objects, at the cost o; the bankruptcy o; the colony. He vindicated the stand made by himself and some of his colleagues against the usurpations of the Weld Ministry, and pioved how disastrous those usurpations would have proved if carried into effect. We think, all who have read his speech, and are enabled to measure his remarks by their- own knowledge of the policy of the late Government, feel convinced that the course Mr Macaudrew and his coadjutors pursued was the right one They saw that unless a dead stand was at ©nee. taken against the encroaching and

mad policy of the late Cabinet, the only remaining chance of asserting and maintaining the liberties of the Middle Island Provinces would pass away and leave Otago and its sisters despoiled of their revenues and deprived of their rights. The " selfreliant" policj', so fulsomely and proudly proclaimed by the Weld Ministry aiid its supporters was, as our contemporary the Daily Times fitly describes it—" the hollowest of shams." It was hollow from beginning to end, and about as practicable as would have been the attempt of New Zealand to settle the North American difficulty. It was precisely the sort of policy that might have been expected to emanate from visionaries, —brilliant, but impracticable.

Mr. Macandrew, like Mr. Crosbie Ward, has awoke to the conviction that the price the Middle Island Provinces have been paying for the political unity of the Colony, is out of all proportion to the advantages received. In fact, it has been ail along a one-sided bargain ; for what Otago and its sister Provinces have received from the General Government, they could have conferred on themselves much more advantageously. What possible benefit does Otago, for instance, derive from its union with the North Island ? Its commercial relations are fettered, rather than otherwise : it neither gets protection nor assistance in any shape. On the contrary, the Middle Island Provinces have played the part of so many milch cows to the Noi'th. I Mr. Macandrew proposes to terminate this connection ; and his scheme is one that pi-esents many advantages. In the fh*st place, it could be accomplished by the Colony itself without the consent or intererence of the Home Government, or violating the Constitution. Time w r ould thus be gained. In the second place, it deals honorably with existing obligations ; and, whilst it shows that great ultimate advantages to the Middle Island would follow in course of time, it does not propose to confer them without considerable self-sacrifice. In the third place, it proposes to maintain the federal union of the two islands —thus conceding one of the chief points of the sentimentalists. In the next, it would confine the powers of the federal Assembly to narrow and well defined limits, and confer almost absolute independence on the Provinces.

It is certainly a startling proposal that the Middle Island Provinces should take upon themselves the whole charge of the interest and sinking fund of the Colony for an indefinite period. It is rather a high price to pay, £222,000 a-year, say for 10 years —or a total of £2,222,000 for the privilege of applying our own resources to their legitimate purposes. But still the financial independence gained would be -worth the cost. We wish we could go further into the subject, and shew the comparative figures, but our limited space forbids. We will return to it at an early opportunity. "We would conclude, however, by urging upon all the electors the necessity of making themselves acquainted with the political situation, for the next election must decide questions of the utmost personal importance to every member of the community.