THE NELSON EXAMINER. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1860.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIX, Issue 23, 21 March 1860, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21, 1860.

Journal! become more nece«i»ry as men become more equal and indlvidualiim more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to tuppoie that they serve only to aecure libertyi they maintain civilisation. Dc TocaviviLLi. Of Democracy in America, vol. v.,330.

Pursuing the subject of the division of the colony into two, as advocated by the Lyttelton Times, let us resume, that the alternative issues are these. Either separation may be carried, the political partnership existing between New Ulster and New Munster being dissolved, and ft separate establishment provided for each;

or, secondly, an opposite policy prevailing, separation may be rejected, existing financial arrangements reversed, and a return made to the conditions of the Constitution Act; or, thirdly, the integrity of the colony being maintained, and its financial arrangements conserved, the action of the Executive of the General Government may be rendered more efficient, more acceptable and less partial, and the working of our representative system attended with greater fairness, and the minimum of inconvenience to the members composing it, by the removal of the seat of Government to some central place. We may mention once for all, that by the seat of Government we mean the place where the Governor resides, and the chief Executive officers of Government have their offices. As a general rule, that must be the place where the colonial Parliament will assemble.

We have glanced at the motives by which the Representatives of different provinces might be supposed to be actuated in supporting any of these courses, and at some of the consequences which might be expected from their adoption. But there are other considerations vvhich present themselves to the mind in chinking the question out. In the first place, without reference to all to the state of colonial parties, what power have we in the matter ? Directly, none whatever. The creation of Colonies is the act of the Crown, an act which the Crown would exercise with the advice and md sauction of Parliament. If the colony were unanimous for separation, its policy would still have to be considered by the responsible advisers of the Crown from an imperial point of view, and the recommendation night be adopted, or it might not. Unanimity )n the part of the colony would be a strong argument in favour of it ; but if resolutions or memorials in its favour proceeded from a bare majority, and were met by the opposition of counter memorials, and petitions numerously signed, separation might be indefinitely postponed. But there are circumstances which ippear to us to render the agitation for division of the colony at the present moment. idle md unprofitable. We know by intelligence now more than a fortnight old, that the natives at Taranaki are in a state of open defiance of the authority of Government, and that the Governor, with most commendable decision and energy, has at once gone there with all the lisposable force at his command, to bring them to their senses. What may in the interval have occurred, we cannot tell. But a war with che natives may have commenced ; or even if this insubordination of William King and his followers be corrected and proper submission nade, there are in the North Island a hundred points and probably as many subjects on which at any time Government may come into collision with the aborigines. Nothing appears to as more certain in the history of New Zealand chan this ; that the Natives will never know iheir proper relations to the white man, and consequently will never be able to appreciate his forbearance and care for them, until they satisfied of his superior physical power. They are treated with patience and generosity it the present time. They ascribe it to fear md weakness. But when they have once had a good thrashing, they will know what forbearance means, and it is to be hoped that their behaviour and their moral character will be improved accordingly. If example be better than precept, it certainly will tend to their edification that they should know that we, a people physically infinitely their superiors, are restrained by considerations of truth, justice, and morality, from forcibly seizing their property or doing them any injury. Until we have asserted our physical superiority, we can read them no such lesson. We may talk about treaties and justice and faith at the present moment, and we may inquire most scrupulously before we buy their land ; and even after we have paid our money, if an equitable claimant starts up, we may lose our money and give back the land. But this is not ascribed by them to its true motive, magnanimity. They look upon us as a very in- j dustrious, but cowardly people; and having seen us tolerate so much, are persuaded that rather than face their grimaces and tomahawks we will take anything at their hands. We shall certainly produce a much better moral impression upon the Maories, when we have satisfied them that resistance is hopeless.

To return, however, from this parenthesis : there cau be little doubt that disturbance with the Natives, and even to a serious extent, is a thing which may be looked for at any time, and that the assertion of our superiority and the maintenance of law and security in the North Island may be for years yet a difficult and expensive matter. Now mark the effect of separation upon such a state of things as this. Only think for a moment how a British statesman would look at it. In his eyes it would appear to be simply a proposition to cut off one-half of the strength of the Colony, and its inevitable effect to throw upon the Imperial Treasury an expense which should be borne by the undivided colonial resources. For we must lay our account for this, that in the event of increased military assistance being required, weahall be called upon to take our share of the expense. The cost of the maintenance of Britiaii regiments in other colonies, is boms in great part by those

colonies, if we are not mistaken, and even we ourselves are paying for this present year at the rate of for barracks and other military purposes. With increased numbers of soldiers, of course these expenses would be still greater, to say nothing of the Militia, which, it is reported, has already been called out at Auckland aud Taranaki, and, in the event of extensive disturbances, would be called out at Wellington, if not at Nelson also. Could a British statesman, under these circumstances, attempt to persuade Parliament or advise the Crown to weaken the colony by detaching from it its larger, wealthier, and stronger half? The idea is simply ridiculous, and the sooner it is abandoned the better.

Among the provinces of the Middle Island j the position of Nelson is different, with regard | to this question, from that of Canterbury and Otago. The two last-named provinces have a very large and very fine territory, and an immense prospective land fund. This is not the case with the Province of Nelson. Her area of available land, unless indeed there should prove to be something very wonderful on the West Coast, is very limited. Of that available area a large portion had been sold by the New Zealand Company before the financial arrangements were made, and a very large slice of the remainder was absorbed in the discharge of liabilities which were not incurred by the Nelson colonists, and which it wa*> just as fair to fasten upon them, as it would have been to hold them responsible for the delinquencies of the Directors of the Royal British Bank. Yet this was done by tht Land Orders and Scrip Act ; an act unjust and dishonest in two directions, for it fastened upon Nelson liabilities which should have been equally borne by Canterbury and Otago, and it broke faith with the scrip-holder by arbitrarily reducing the value of the scrip hf held. To say nothing of its injustice towards Nelson, it was the first act of repudiation of a contract perpetrated in these colonies. From these different circumstances, the landed estate which Nelson has to offer for sale is exceedingly small. To Otago and Canterbury, their land- fund is their life-blood : it is every thing. They look to it to construct tunnels and railways, to level hills, drain swamps, bridge rivers, introduce immigrants, and cover tht wilderness with the incidents of civilization ; and Heaven speed them, say we, in such » noble work. But we have no such prospect* from our land-fund. Latterly, it is true, it has been considerable. But the causes of this are exceptional and shortlived. The land sold is mostly low-priced hill land, and tht process must at no distant period come to a close. Our land-revenue will be exhausted before any appreciable inroad will be made upon the broad acres of Canterbury and \ Otago.

It cannot, under these circumstances, be supposed that Nelson will exhibit the same iutense eagerness in defending existing arrangements as its Southern sisters. At all events, she has not the same motive for throwing herself headlong into desperate expedients, likely to result in nothing. In their absorbing desire to save their landrevenue, the Canterbury men may lose their heads and be carried off their legs ; but Nelson must be excused if, by virtue of her limited expectations, she looks at the whole question from a cooler and more calculating point of view. Canterbury and Otago may shout for "repeal," but Nelson may say as Sydney Smith said to the Irish, " instead of shouting for repale and Erin-go-Bragh, and all that stuff, why don't you shout for Eriu-go-beef and potatoes, or Erin-go-breeches without holes V And so we say, instead of getting up a clamour for separation, which won't be granted, and under any circumstances must be referred home, why don't you resolve to make a strong pull to get the seat of Government to a central place ? Instead of calling upon Hercules, the home Government, why don't you endeavour to do what can be done by the Colonial Parliament alone, and use every exertion to have the seat of Government moved to the South, to Nelson or Queen Charlotte Sound ? This, at all events, would be one step towards the preservation of the Middle Island land fund. The Government seated in the South would be more under Southern influences, and Southern men and Southern interests would be more fairly represented both in the Executive and Legislature.

We have never seen the claims of Nelson to be the residence of the General Executive more ably or clearly stated, than in the columns of the Lyttelton Times. It was there shown that nature had not conferred upon Blind Bay any position geographically with reference to other Districts which made her a natural centre for Provincial administration, but that in point of fact, the Southern shores of Cook Strait consisted of different Bays, each with its own area of available land, each a settlement within itself, severed from all the others by barriers which, after all the efforts of steam and road making, still remain formidable partitionwalls, and create communities with separate interests. It was shown that while thus unfitted for Provincialism on a large scale, there was probably no spot in New Zealand which combined so many advantages, and had so many recommeudationa for the seat of Govern*

ment, and that while destined to be broken up into communities, each with its own organization for local management, it was clearly the policy of Nelson to submit to what was inevitable, finding, for reduced political importance, as a Province, compensation in her very strong claims to be the Washington of New Zealand.

There is no point of New Zealand with which the remainder of the colony could communicate more readily than with Nelson. It

is nearer to Auckland than Wellington is, and nearer to Taranaki. It is open to the whole Northern shore of Cook Strait, to Wanganui, and the other thriving settlements there. It is only .twelve hours' steaming from Wellington. From Lyttelton it is not more than thirty hours' steaming ; while with the whole of the Middle Island, there is communication by land. At the present moment, the journey over land from Nelson to Christchurch, may be, accomplished, without fatiguing either horse or rider, in five days. The road of course admits of improvement, and we are glad to say is being much improved. But, such as it is at present, it cannot be a very bad road, when we inform our readers, that within the last ten days, a Nelson gentleman, upwards of seventy years of age, rode the whole way without dismounting once, save for rest at night, and accomplished the journey we believe in six days. The tranquillity of the climate of Nelson is greatly in its favour. Thanks to the mildness of its skies, nearly the whole of Blind Bay is a harbour, while within the port itself, large vessels lie alongside the jetty, and discharge their cargoes into trucks, without those delays, annoyances, and risks which they encounter in more boisterous ports. Nor ! is the political tranquillity of the place of less importance. The General Executive, if placed in Nelson, would be master of the situation, aid' might feel itself on its own territory, and without a rival. But in Wellington it would be different. To borrow a simile from marerial things, it might almost as well sit down co carry on public business by the boiling springs and cascades of Rotomahana. Provincial politics would certainly keep up a constant >upply of hot water in Wellington ; steam and loise would not be wanting ; nor the frequent projection of abundant quantities of mud. The iccessibility of Nelson to the Australian coloties is another argument in her favour: spreading out the arms of her bay to the lorth-west, she looks as if almost intended by lature to welcome and receive ships coming Prom Australia. Along the whole western coast of the Northern Island there is no refuge in bad weather; and even when the sea is smooth, the bar harbours of Manukau, Hokianga, and Kaipara cannot be entered without apprehension and skilful seamanship. But how often does it happen that a ship scudding before a gale with close-reefed topsails turns round the Sandspit into Blind Bay. Before she has advanced many miles, the gale moI derates, then dies away, and she glides tranquilly into sunshine and beautiful weather. Or, should the gale continue and the weather threaten, she has before her two of the finest harbours in New Zealand, Port Hardy and ! Croixelles.

Even looked at from the point of view of possible native disturbances, Nelson has its advantages. For a military force might be kept there in reserve, and without exciting jealousy or apprehension in the native mind, and might easily be carried across and landed in any part of the Northern Island. As far back as July, 1857, we find the Governor, in a paper printed among the proceedings of the House of Representatives, thus expressing himself:— "lf his advisers desire, the Governor will instruct the officer commanding the troops to station two companies at Nelson, with a due proportion of officers, it being clearly understood that proper barrack accommodation is provided for them, without expense to her Majesty's Government. Troops stationed at Nelson being -more readily available for services in the North, than when at Wellington, a detachment may remain there permanently, unless unforeseen circumstances should render their presence necessary elsewhere." The Governor thus testifies to the fitness of Nelson as a depot for troops. But mark this, ye farmers of the Waimea and Motueka, who cannot sell your oats and your barley; mark this, ye shopkeepers and men of business, whose shelves are covered with goods that you cannot dispose of, and whose bills are overdue and cannot be paid; mark this, all you who complain of the dulness of the times, and there is no doubt that the times are dull : we might have had troops here two years ago; and would not our position have been better now ? Two hundred soldiers would have brought into Nelson an expenditure of at least 3620,000 a-year in various ways, and the presence of a military force here would have added to our importance, would have added to •our revenue, and would have materially strengthened our position on any such questions as that which we have how under consideration, the question, namely, of the seat of Government. But our Provincial authorities did not like soldiers : like a bull, they had a horror of red cloth. They did not like golddiggings. They did not like machinery. They did not like capital. They liked quiet, and they liked quakerism and political quackery > and they liked to be tot alone,

and they liked quarter-day. And so the finest chances that any Province in New Zealand had, have slipped through our fingers, and the penalties of our_ folly now visit us in embarrassment and stagnation. Yet, notwithstanding this, we shall probably be invited by the Superintendent when the Council meets, to join him in felicitations upon the state of our revenue, and to vote that all is right, when we are living upon our capital instead of our income.

We shall sum up in a very few words. We regard theagitationfor theseparation of thecolony as perfectly idle, at the present time at all events. We consider one of the pressing requirements of the colony to be the removal of the seat of Government to a central place. We see no place better suited for it than Nelaon or Queen Charlotte Sound. We would give a Lieuten-ant-Governor to the North Island, resident in Auckland, if it should be thought that native questions absolutely required such au appointment. But the Governor of the Colony, and the chief Executive officers, should reside in the centre. Justice and the fair distribution of political influence require this. As to the land-fund of the Middle Island, we believe it would be made more safe by bringing the Government south. But the interest of Nelson in theland-fundquestfonis comparatively small. For it admits of being argued whether she would gain most by the maintenance or the reversal of the financial scheme. As one of the Provinces of the Middle Island, however, we should always like to see her preserve a good understanding with her sisters; and, if treated with fairness and consideration, we believe that Canterbury and Otago might regard her as a natural ally, and always reckon upon her support. *