THE MIDDLE ISLAND A SEPARATE COLONY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XX, 12 September 1861, Page 4

THE MIDDLE ISLAND A SEPARATE COLONY.

[From the Nelson Examiner, August 24.] The word " separation " is not one to be hastily uttered, or lightly withdrawn. It implies and points to a change in our political relations of no slight significance ; one which, if carried out, would in no very long time produce other modifications, important both as regards our political and our social position. The idea is not by any means a new one. It has presented itself to the minds of some of our Southern politicians on many occasions, when the temporary predominance of the North threatened to make our interests subservient to their own ; and has only escaped *becoming the subject of public discussion and agitation, because the question in dispute was arranged, or the object in view was attained sufficiently without it ; and it was felt that a change so great could hardly be effected without having very strong and sufficient reasons to give in its favour. But the reasons we required have been lately furnished to us, The state of affairs in the North, and the partial and, in our opinion, mistaken view which the Home Government has formed of its own duty and of our liabilities and obligations, as connected with these disturbances, are such as to call loudly on us not only for our protest but our interference. As some stars formerly thought to be single are now universally allowed to be double, and to be probably as widely apart from each other as our earth is from the nearest of them, so these islands of New Zealand have really very distinct characters; although they still seem to be regarded by the observers who view us from the distant station of the Colonial Office as one and indivisible ; one in interest and in feeling, and one in all the measures required for our protection and government. This error has been encouraged by the

rather indiscriminate censures passed upon the colonists in general by some among us who might be supposed to be well acquainted with our state, and with the differences which existed between us, if any such really did exist at all ; and their silence has fostered the error we speak of. And yet so far is this from being the case, so far are we from this identity of interests, or community ol feeling, that, beyond the accident of our juxta-position, the mere fact that we are separated from the North Island by a narrow strait instead of by a voyage of some hundreds of miles, it would be difficult to point out in what respects we agree ; and it would be far easier to prove our differences than to point out our resemblances. We have really no more to do with the questions now absorbing the public mind in the North than the people of Melbourne or Tasmania ; and those two provinces might fairly be taken as types of the sympathies which two contiguous countries inhabited by the same people may have in common, and yet of the quite distinct and separate interests which divide them and require each to have a Government of its own. We are not therefore surprised to hear that the question has been seriously mooted by the Southern members assembled at Auckland, although we know nothing beyond the fact that such is the case, and are not informed as to the result of their deliberations.

In the first place the interference of the Southern members in what they consider a question of domestic policy, has always been strongly objected to by the Northerners, as an interference in a matter where we had no interests at stake, and in judging of which we could not have that intimate acquaintance with the facts and peculiar features of the case which was essential to a right understanding of it ; and this argument was always allowed to have a certain weight ; and was only answered at the time by showing that opinions were as much divided in the North as in the South upon the questions at issue. Next, we shall liberate ourselves from the imputations we labour under oi fomenting war for the sake of robbing the natives of their lands; an accusation which, as regards us, the colonists of the South, is palpably without any ground whatever ; for if the whole Maori race were to be swept from the face of the earth to-morrow, we should be in no wise the gainers ; our only feeling being that right should prevail ; that justice should be done to our own countrymen as well as to the natives ; and that the cause of these latter had been championed with a strong disposition to extenuate or to overlook altogether their deficiencies and unduly to magnify our own. But these representations have had their effect elsewhere ; the war is called a settlers' war ; and is declared to have been produced by a pressure from without acting upon the too easy disposition of the Governor, through the medium of our representatives ; who had it in their power most seriously to cripple him in all his arrangements, in case of his noncompliance with their suggestions . But the truth is that the settlers' case has never been fairly heard on the other side; and if all the annoyances, insults, and overbearing demeanour of the Maoris to which the settlers, and above all others the settlers of Taranaki, have had to put up with for a series of years were to be recounted, the wonder would be, not that the Maoris were at last to be brought to their senses, but that they had been permitted for so many years to maintain this insolent tone of defiance unchecked. It is a rare piece of bravery now to kick at the old lion, whose power is gone ; but when the Governor first declared his intention to let no more murders pass without their fitting punishment,, and no more savage dictation to overbear right by might, there was an universal < expression of satisfaction with the announcement, from one end of New Zealand to the other ; and not a voice was raised in deprecation of so manly and honest a determination. It struck a chord to which all hearts responded ; and if it is now to be departed from, and the sugar and blanket policy be resumed, on the ground that the bolder course is one which will overtask both our means and our strength, let us do dur best to give some show of reason and probability to the argument by withdrawing at once, and thus preventing our numbers and our revenue from swelling returns -which are only used against us, and to which they give an appearance of strength more in appearance than reality. Other reasons might be given ; but these are the chicf — the imputations that are thrown upon us, the want of any sufficient motive for meddling actively with matters in which we have no direct interest, and the burdens which it is in consequence attempted to saddle us with as the penalty for our interference ; and we think these are quite enough to warrant us in asking for a measure which shall separate us as much in form as we are now in interest and in fact.