TARANAKI VIEW OF THE POLITICAL CRISIS.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 57, 31 July 1862, Page 3

TARANAKI VIEW OF THE POLITICAL CRISIS.

(From a Private Letter.) Everything seems now to betoken war. I was inclined to think, a short time ago, that Sir G. Grey would succeed in tiding over affairs, and in leaving the solution of the native question to some unhappy successor, but turmoil is increasing and at any moment the inevitable contest may commence. Living at Nelson, you are far better able to jndge than I how far the question of separation will be pushed. But that the present condition of native affairs does not justify the demand I am clear, because the results of such a step would overleap our short spun of life, and this island will be Mooi’i or British before seven years are over. If it were shown to be possible to bribe the native people into quiescence, by conceding to them the right of combination to prevent British settlement, and by giving them unqualified dominion over unpurchased lands; and at tire same time if the colony were to be coerced into spending large sums of money for carrying out such a scheme by paying a host of British and Maori officials, the South would have just cause to grumble, but not a jot more than the North. Their land fund cannot be seized for the general purposes of government, and they, possessing a half of the representation of the Colony, can refuse their consent to an expenditure they deem inconsistent with the well being of the Colony as a whole. If the capital is not central let it be made so. If there be anything requiring special legislation let there be special legislation for this island. But the colony is a geographical unit, and is not a jot too large for the position it will have to occupy. The talk about difference of condition is absurd. The Southern Island is not to grow wool and collect for ever, and the Northern is not to be for ever as she is now. They complement each other; narrow in their longitude they extend over thirteen degrees of latitude, and the colonists of the North and South will have just those differences of habit and thought which arc necessary" for the healthy vitality of a country. Good local institutions have been framed and adapted so ns to give as much freedom to localities as is consistent with the duo subordination of the parts to tbe whole, and any defects in this direction may bo easilyremedied by legislation. q-) !e threat of separation is no idle one, for the Colonics are held so loosely that no British Ministry" would dare to coerce a limb so strong as the Southern Island, and her protest might go far towards bringing about a more wholesome system hero. ' 1 agree that the Colony should not accept the burthen of Native affairs. Fortcscue's speech is Lnuhum. Great Britain dare not abandon this island to savagery on the plea of economy. No Ministry that did so could face the Country". If Sir George Grey had been able to tide over affairs, at whatever expense to the Colonists, he would have been applauded at home, but his mistake does not involve the Colonists. If Eox and his colleagues choose to make mountebanks of themselves, that is their business. When they were permitted to assume office, Colonel Browne had solo charge of native affairs. If Sir G. Grey desired to identify the Colony with his action, he should have dissolved the House of Representatives, and indi cated the nature of his instructions but he did not do so, and allowed the Colony to suppose that he was authorized to assume the dictatorship. This subject will come early before the House, and I think the fullest explanations should be demanded from the Ministry. If they have assisted Sir G. Grey in implicating the Colony, they ought to be turned out at once. That they have done so I have no doubt : and that Sir Grey will make use of their complicity, 1 am equally certain. This appears to me the most momentous question of the coming session. I care little who the next Ministry may be, so long as they are trustworthy on this point, the eschewing of responsibility on native affairs. —Nelson Fxaminer.