The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1869.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IV, Issue 140, 12 October 1869, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1869.

New Zealand affairs have lately excited a large amount of discussiou at home, where many intelligent and influential champions have been found to plead the cause of the much maligned colouists ; and we hope thut for the future we shall be held in somewhat higher estimation amoDj? the politicians and the public generally of the home country. But here all advantage to be gaitied by us by having our affairs thus keenly dicsussed will cease. No one who has read the debates that have taken place in both Houses, and the leading articles that have appeared in the more influential journals, can arrive at any other decision than that England has determined to leave us to fight our own battles in the best way we caD, and unless a vast change should take place in public | opinion, which is a niosi; improbable con- : ttn&tucy, we frar that the Commissioners whom it is proposed to send home will simply entail i\ large expeuse upon the colony without obtaining the object of their errand. But although there is but very little likelihood of our beiug assisted by British troops,a desire seems to' be gradually gaining ground that some better understanding should be arrived at between the Colonies and the Home G-overnmenfc, and that steps should be taken to prevent the grave mis- i takes fthat arise in the Colonial Office, I from igoorauce of the countries it is supposed to rule, as it is feared that a disruption of the empire may be the result of the present state of things. A meeting of several eminent New Zealand colonists has been held, to consider this matter, and it is proposed that there shall he a conference of colonial representatives, as the opinion of such a body of men could not fail to cany great weight with the Imperial authorities. The promoters of this scheme, we are told, fear that, should the New Zealand people propose to be separated from the Imperial Government, and in their dire distress apply to any foreign Power for assistance, the whole of Australia would sympathise with them, and this would lead to the breaking up of the Colonial Empire. We do not think there is any probability of this taking place, but whatever may be the motives that have induced so mauy leading men to take up the New Zealand question so heartily, we are glad to fiud that we are likely, through their efforts, to become better known in England, and we trust that as the public there are better acquainted with us they will cease to look upon us as aliens, aud will begin to acknowledge that ibe New Zealand colonists are as loyal a body of Englishmen as are anywhere to be found.