Hawke's Bay Herald FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1869.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1094, 22 October 1869, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1869.

Our readers will doubtless have read with interest the report of the debates on New Zealand affairs in the Imperial parliament, as reprinted in a recent Herajld from the European Mail for August. There is one element in public feeling in England which is but incidentally alluded to in the exracts in question, viz., a feeling of indignation, real or assumed, at what has been said on behalf of this colony, viz., that, in the event of England continuing obdurate in her refusal to assist it in its dire extremity, the colonists would most likely seek from America or Prussia that reasonable protection which was denied them at the hands of the Parent State. This was charac- | terised, both by Whig and Tory, as an unworthy threat and was being resented accordingly. We suspect, however, that a pretext for resentment was much wanted — anything to stifle the qualms of conscience which must be felt by the senators of such a country as England at their base treatment of a weak dependency. The fact is that no such threat was ever used. But friends of New Zealand residiug in England did not hesitate to express their own opinion that the group of Australian colonies would be driven to separation by the policy enunciated by Lord G-ranville and his colleagues. And of this there can be no doubt. Whether or not dismemberment of the Empire is the object really aimed at, the course pursued by the Imperial Government is one eminently adapted to bring about such a result. It is a mere question of time, that is, should -p ua i-!.A ..^TirfaiTOrTn-nreT^TeßgnTTTame" of miud.