THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 38, 28 December 1863, Page 3

THE SEAT OF GOVERNMENT.

It was not to bo expected that- Pailiament could ho »r. session tor .six weeks without tvvbijj to do some :nUchief. Tilt; action of the As-emhiy in reference to tin: change ol' tlic seat of Government may l-o looked upon as a sot oil' against tbo amount of steady work it has had to perform. Wo siuccrely hope that nothing will conn: of it. The remission of the que.-,-tion to a Commission to be sulecicd by the Governors ot' the Australian Colonies will probably have the effect of (ju:u<hmg the whole affair. Tho delay thus occasioned, anil the still futher delay which will bo necessitated by a reference to tho Imperial Government. whieli we presume must be mode before so important a step as a change in the seat of govcinmnit of tin l colony can he! taken, will afford time k r the people to take the matter into their ov.ii hand::, it will atford time also still further to dev.-lope lhat, pr"pcTider.'inoo ill counsels of the eolonv which in ol; raining by her increase in wealth and population. If the project ix jrone on with, it will K> discovered, a.-, scon as the change is made, tliat tin.' c;u!i.avour tn eiicat us of our rights has not succeeded, thatagitation. has just begun instead of being nipped in tin: bud ; that, the whole affair has been a waste of lime, and that the work will have to be. done over again. A\ e have no desire to see New Zealand divided into iWO colonies; \v.- have maintidiie.l incessant lv in tnesu coluiuns tiiat it is not division hut union wo se 'k—the union of the nine existing provinces into tv. n. We believe Hint a transference of the ecat of government to Wellington, which is the undoubted a::u of tho.-e v.-ho have niovoi in this matter, will bo injurious to 1 lie prospects of the colony, if it is to U: the oiilv modification id' existing arrangement:;. If it is put forward as a panacea for the evils we are labouring under, we can only say thai, the men who have proposed it as such know nothing of our requirements, or have no desire to meet them. This is merely an attempt, to injure Auckland for the benefit 1 of Wellington, which will prove as futile as it is j ic nlish. It may be mi open question whether Wellington ought not to have been originally ndopte'd na the metropolis of New Zealand. But fho time for dis-eus-ing this has long gone by. The chattgo can lie of no particular use to any one now, and would be 1.0 such benefit to Wellington as her citizens suppose, 'file presence of a vice-it gal court and centixil departmental offices of Government in a eitv may add to her dignity, hut will never of itself prove, a source of wealth and prosperity. Will Albany eclipse Now York because it is tiie capital of iho " Knipiio State i*" Has the dignity of Harii.sberg iiivn of any avail for her, if she h is had any emulation to rival tho subject city of Philadelphia, wliich has taken to itself onolourtii i'l tiic population and half the commerce of the Slato'r llarrisburg remains u village, whilst the populat ion of Philadelphia is counted by hundreds of thousandslt is ;t matter of indifference to us where the seat of government may be. A central position may bo advantageous, but geographical considerations are far from being the only elements of the question. Whilst tlio Maori remains amongst us, an uncivilised, dissatisfied, and therefore troublesome integer in the community, the exigency of military affairs nmy be more urgent than any other. But for the present it is impossible to govern Xow Zealand properly from one centre. This dillicultv has been aggravated by ten years of the Provincial system. One centre is too few, ni:ie are too ninny. If we have not a change in this respect, Mow Zealand is steadily disintegrating. The time has not arrived, and may indeed bo far off yet, when one seat of government will sufliee for us. I;i the meantime it is certain that, this Island coil be advantageously united into a single province, with full jxiwein of self-government, irunicip.il institutions of a liberal and .''utiicirnt character being provided for all our principal towns and cities, the necessity tor those abortions, the Provincial Gi)vcrnment.s, will be lit an end. For one Government and one li ■gislature wc shall be able to provide the requisite quota ot competent men, wliich we cannot, do for our present cumbrous governmental and legislatorial institutions. Wo shall have taken a grand step towards future unity, and have found in the, meantime a way out of innumerable diilicuities, and a remedy lor innumerable grievances. The idea that tiie removnl of the scat of the General Government to Wellington will provide this way or this remedy is, as we have said, of itself a proof tliat our difficulties and grievances are .not yet understood, even by many of our own representatives. Major Kichardson, .Mr. Cargill, and Mr. Reynolds, have, nn doubt, acted conscientiously, but they hav.;;Gtogether missed the mark of our necessities, and failed to read tho signs of tiie times. They have been playing into the hands of men who desire nothing better than the ultimate disruption of the colouv into half-a-dozen or more petty states—the ultra-provincial school of onr ! would-be statesmen, narrow-minded and bigoted, and ; behind tho uge. We have said that this Island must be constituted into one Province, with such full powers of sell-e'i-vci'iimcnt as will provide lbr its many wants, without taking from the central government its sovereignty, and its control of such matters as concern the colony as u whole. We have no hesitation in doe-la.'-ing our belief that this is 1 ho desire of a vast majority of the population of the Island, and that, under present circumstances, nothing less, and nothing diilereiit will be accepted as satisfactory. The action ol tho Assembly is a clinching proof of the truth of our statement, that the gentlemen who lately called themselves flic Separation Committee of were incompetent to grasp the subject of which they hnd taken charge. After mouths of cogitation they wen l unable to define a policy or imiku known what it is that we want. The proposition which formed part of the ministerial programme when Mr. Whitaker accepted the reins of otlice wus, as a tentative and experimental one. decidedly good, and, if honestly carried out, would bat e been found practicable and useful. We never looked I upon it as the ultimate settlement ot the question, bur as the first step in the right direction. But the terms in which this, new quack medicine for all the ills that ail us has been brought forward, e,early shmt that it is looked upon as a tinal and complete settlement of the difucultv- We reject it utterly, and warn its authors (hat it can only csaspera e those who know what we need and are dctcimm. u rt Ktnm Mil effectual mid radieal reiorm of the Const iTliu bmrbtvir of that word " Separation lias SSCJtSfW«"*' understand its meaning. Once more wc repeal that it is union, not division, thai Ave seek ; not the disruption of the General Government, but the uci- / truc-iiovi and final abolishment of the existing IVoJ vim'ml-n-dtem. —OtciQQ December 5,