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New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 10, 4 December 1863, Page 3

The Provinces of New Zealand are ruled by a form of Government which, for cumbrous complexity, stands, perhaps,' altogether unrivalled amongst the Governments of the civilized world, and when we consider the slow action consequent on such an arrangement we cannot wonder tnat unfortunate victims of some public blunder should occasionally be jostled backwards and forwards between General and Provincial Governments, till t.heir anathemas upon cut and dried paper constitutions find vent in public. It has been said that when all the lands in any Province arc held under Crown Grants the vocation o? the Provincial Governments will be gone, and they may without injury be snuffed out, but it appears t-o us to be a question worthy of the consideration of the people of this Province ■whether that time might not advantageously be anticipated. . Probably wo shall protest against the removal of tho scat ot Government from Auckland to the neighbourhood of Cook's Straits, and possibly pur protest will he in vain. Well, what then P Why then go in lor soparation, so every ono seems to say. In Case, then, our request for separation should be granted' let us ask for it in a ionn that will at all eyents get rid of some of the ills we know of, for wo may be turo that in separation as in all other change.? we will import some ills we know not of.

We started by noticing a present ill we know •'liother is, e.qwune; at present it costs moro ]'. r individual to govern the colonists of Xc.v Zealand than to rule Great Britain, and what, is even stranger stil!, just as our population has increased so has the cost of government risen

V??' °' the colonists. Right honourable Ministers, when they in embryo courted the sweet voices of the electors, alluded in no measured terms to our costly government, but when lullv Hedged found it more difficult to act than it had been to talk.. Honourable Members on independent, benches still draw comparisons to our disadvantage in the matter of cheap efficient government, but take care to leave the real responsibility on the Executive. If then, while these talk, expensive confusion goes on clashing with no real check, the time may be at hand %\ henitw ill be the duty of the people themselves to lay the axe te. the overgrown double-stem'd tree w hose unprtuied branches are more apt to get into peoples way than to bear fruit; whose uiitvmimed roots and suckers are drawing an undue share of the strength of the soil. How is it to be done?

Taranaki and Tlawke's Bay have not objected to join the Cook's Straits centre, so Auckland in applying <7/ nttitxc for separation may as well at. once taee the idea of standing alone, and it' properly gone about., such would be the best liind of separation, for Auckland can gain nothing by being tied to one or two small provinces, while alone she has nothing to fear in the nice, it only she be not too heavily weighted ; and this briugs us to the point we have been aiming at all along, which is, that in all petitions l'or separation a request should be strongly embodied. A Governor granted, the oflicc of Superintendent should be done away with, one legislature with a responsible executive being ample provision tor the government of the eoionv of Northern New Zealand, at present known as the Province of Auckland.

The leading statesman of New Zealand says that the removal of the seat of Government from Auckland will be in ell'ect the formation of three General Governments, which will make in fact a total of twelve governments sucking at the vitals of this poor young colony. Is it possible she can ever arrive at a vigorous maturity under such an atrocious system ? At ail events now being the time for Auckland to say to the Imperial authorities what she needs, let her say unhesitatingly, Give us one government; the remaining provinces of ]N*ew Zealand are welcome to apportion the other eleven as best suits them. *