THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, Issue 51, 22 September 1855, Page 3

THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

[From tho New Zealander, Sept. 12.]

The maintenance of the seat of Government at Auckland is the right of Auckland. We have so often and so fully set forth the claims of the people of this Province to the undisturbed possession of the capital of New Zealand, that we do not think it necessary here to recapitulate them; and it is almost needless to say that, firmly impressed with the justice of their cause, a firm stand will be made against any attempt by force of numbers to deprive Auckland of what may fairly be called its birth-right.

With the members from the South the removal of the seat of Government from Auckland appears to be a foregone conclusion. It does not seem that they have as yet agreed amongst themselves as to the new site, but from Auckland it must, they say, be taken. In the House of Assembly they are as 25 to 12, and the minority is unhappily weakened by division amongst themselves — what Mr. Brown calls " his party," having, of course, no community of action and no political sympathies with the other representatives of the Province.

An attempt was made during the first session to attain something like adherence, amongst the Northern members, to a definite plan of action, with a view of securing the right of the Province. Mr. Brown with " his party " declined, we believe, to co-operate, and adopted for himself a plan of action which he was pleased to call " conciliation." At the period of the formation of the first Responsible Ministry, an opportunity of making favourable terms with the majority was frustrated by the eagerness of some individual connected with the " party " to accept office ; the celebrated A. B. affair will not have been forgotten by our readers, nor that the effort of Major Greenwood to obtain that addition to the number of our representatives to which we are entitled, was opposed by Mr. Brown and " his party." The battle must be fought in the next session of the Assembly ; — it behoves the several constituencies to seek out men to represent their interests whose honesty is undoubted, and whose temper and disposition qualify them to get on amicably with their colleagues. United, we shall be strong; — divided, wretchedly as we are, we may indeed deserve to be called a miserable minority. The attempt which was made by our contemporary, in his leader of yesterday, to fix blame upon political opponents, is worthy of the dishonest ingenuity of the contributor of that article. It is very notorious that the removal of the seat of Government was several years ago pronounced by a Colonial Minister to be "an open question ;" it is equally notorious that the determination of the Southern members to accomplish that removal was promulgated before the formation of the Forsaith ministry; yet the inference clearly intended by the writer in the Cross to be drawn is, that, in consequence of the proceedings of the second mixed Ministry, the Southern Ministers will be enabled to " prescribe to the Governor his place of residence" — in other words, the location of the Central Government.

We will not now enter into the question of provincial separation. No one, we believe, denies the necessity of radical changes in our Constitution ; it must soon be seriously considered ; we are rapidly sickening of too much government, and a flourishing revenue can with difficulty support the host of officials, General and Provincial, now quartered on it.