The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1862. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1672, 26 April 1862, Page 3

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1862. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truth's.

“ SEPARATION.” The time of meeting of the General Assembly is fixed for the 26th June, the place, Wellington. There seems, at present at least, pio good ground to believe that any occasion for altering this arrangement will arise. The native question is advancing towards settlement so steadily, and the intelligence from Waikato and other districts is so satisfactory, that we believe the Governor feels no hesitation about being absent from Auckland during the period which the session must occupy. As this was the continue icy which might have affected the fulfilment of the longstanding engagement with Wellington, we may find in the assurance that the thing can now be safely done, compensation for the public loss, and for the present inconvenience to individuals which tho doing of it involves. We have been so long accustomed to regard the assembling of our senators in Auckland as an annual fete , and the session as a period of agreeable excitement, social and political, that, to very many amongst us, the prospect of the winter, wanting these adjuvants are somewhat of the dullest. Herein, indeed, lies our particular grief; we confess ourselves wholly unable to discover a trace of danger to our “ prestige ” as the capital of New Zealand, in the fact that, for once, a session of the General Legislature is about to be held at Wellington. It is due to the South that a formal engagement, so often deferred, should be kept. We feel assured that a repetition of the experiment of a peripatetic parliament, after this its first trial, will not be attempted; and that as with increasing population from end to end of these islands, increased facilities for communication will grow up, each year will lessen the inconveniences which in past times undoubtedly were inseparable from the session of a central Legislature, which required the attendance of members from distant parts of the colony. Wherever the session was held, however, these inconveniences were inevitable, and it must be borne in mind that Auckland, having in right of her extent of population, a larger number of representatives than any of the other Provinces, the gross amount, so to speak, of personal inconvenience to members is less here than it would be at any other locality. Supposing every member to be in his place at the opening of the session at Wellington, sixty-four men must have left theirhomes, whilst if the meeting was being held at Auckland, but forty-six men would be called upon to submit to that inconvenience.

Auckland men having, during the past six or seven years, enjoyed the privilege of seeing the " mountain" come to them, ought not certainly, we think, to make any difficulty now about going, for once, to the "mountain," the more especially as that " party" is said to exhibit a sulky determination not to move. We have heard with much regret, that a kind of agitation to prevent the members of either House, resident in this Province, from proceeding to Wellington, is being got up. It would be a great misfortune if such a movement were even partially successful; every one should be at his post; Auckland, united, can protect her own interests, and exercise also that sway in the Council of the colony to which her population, wealth, and importance entitle her. The man who cannot take his place in the House of Representatives at Wellington should at once resign. In the delirium of sudden prosperity a loud cry for " separation" is heard from Otago; iu.a niggardly terror of "expense" that cry finds an echo farther north. The difference between the amount of Custom's Revenue at Otago and that at this Port is at present a fiscal problem. The European population of this Province including the Military is not less tban 30,000. The population of Otago is about 30,000 also, but we have in addition a large Native population who are large contributors to the revenue. The Customs Revenue collected at Otago is nearly double of that raised here. Now this difference arises from exceptional and temporary causes, —excessive importation for example and want of storage for bonded goods,—or it arises from marvellous powers of consuming dutiable articles on the part of our southern friends. A claim for separation based upon revenue returns inflated temporarily, will by process of time be disposed of; whether or not the capacity of consumption of the people of Otago will be held to be a valid plea for separation we think admits of discussion. The enemies of the unity of the Colony have not been slow to profit by the absurdities of our own Provincial Council in that regard, and Auckland is believed, every where in the South, to have declared in favour of the folly of the day. It will need firmness and determination, on the part of the northern '-isltvnd reyre3entwtiT«s» %9 Wflft Hits suicidaf

disposition, and to have the question considered on higher grounds than any which in the public prints appear yet to have been taken. If a dissolution of partnership be inevitable they must take care that, in the distribution of assets, account shall be taken of the estate of nineteen millions of acres of freehold, almost unencumbered, which, whilst we at great cost and labour are acquiring patches of territory for the use of our immigrants, have brought our southern brothers the riches of which they boast, and have made them apparently forgetful of obligations of which it cannot be considered ungenevous, at least gently, to remind them.