The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1865.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 642, 2 December 1865, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1865.

SPECTEMUR AGENDO. " Give every man thine car, Vint few thy voico : Take eacli man's ccnsuro, but ruservo thy judgnont. This above all.—To thine ownself be true ; And it must follow, as tho night tlio day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Tile Axti-Sepauatiox party in tlio South, as represented by that most meddlesomo of dillclanli statesmen 111 New Zealand, .Tames Edward Fitzgerald, are using every endeavour to misrepresent the objects and the result, of Separation, lest the coming Elections for the General Assembly should give a majority in the House to their opponents. Auckland is represented as desirous of Reparation merely lor the purpose of retaining the troops and of throwing the whole cost and responsibility of governing the natives on the mother country, and putting the Seat of Government for the Northern Island back iu Auckland ; while it is sought to put disunion between the Scparntionists of Auckland and Otago by raising a cry that the result of Separation will bo the los 3 to the Middle Island of its laud fund. Now, there is about as much of truth in the one case as in the other. The value of Separation, from an Auckland point of view, rests on far broader grounds than the mere temporary gain to be derived from retaining a few regiments of British troops within the Province. Military expenditure is not an unmixed gain—our ruined country settlers, our languishing agriculture, speak too plainly to the correctness of this assertion. Auckland has everything to gain by maintaining a friendly intercourse and trade with i.he Maoris, far more than in going to war with tlicm, and none know this better than the old settlers themselves iu Auckland. Separation, and Separation only, will enable the two races to live together in harmony. , Once place such men as Mr. Fitzgerald ; without the pale of the Government which administers the affairs of the Northern Island, ! and the chief source ef irritation that has ' driven the Maori to rebellion, and to continue in rebellion, will have been removed. The Auckland element in the future Govcrn- ' ment of the Northern Colony will be quite strong enough to override any [ attempt at mischievous itermcddling and . empirical statemanship on tho part j of Wellington or elsowhero in native • ail'air.s. The truth is the bulk of the Maori race live in this Province, and as the \ peace and consequent prosperity of the Province depend entirely on the tact and managei ment with which native aifairs are conducted, J the settlers very naturally claim the right to t retain this management iu their own hands, j Auckland is not desirous of submitting the r whole cost and responsibility of managing - the native race to the Home Government. I It objects to this state of things on exactly t the same principle as it objects to Middle Island interference ; but if there is to be extraneous interference at all, Auckland would doubtless prefer to submit to that coming from a power like Great Britain, ablo if it brought war about to protect her settlements, than to the interference of a , lew struggling Provinces which have more ) need of assistance themselves than they are ' able to afford assistance in remedying what • their mismanagement might largely"cont tributed to bring about. More than this, with Great Britain alone responsible, Aiickr land could feel s-<-:ire that war with the na- | tives, if brought about, would be so from r blundering mismanagement only, not from ; treachery and design—not from tho desire s to destroy a rival Province, to retard its • colonisation, and render settlement iu it a work of risk and difficulty. It is only, as to a lesser'evil, that Auckland would turn to the British Government to relievo it of the 3 cost and responsibility of the Government of the natives. Her first desire is to undertake that duty herself, as the party most interested in its proper fulfilment. - A glance at the debates of the session of ISCO will show that the vigorous prosecntionists of war in the General Assembly were to be found in those men who reprej seated constituencies south of the Province of Auckland.

With regard to the attempt made to intimidate the electors of the Middle Island and induce them to forego their support to Separation by representing that in doing so they will, bo endangering the safety of the land fund of the Middle Island, is sheer nonsense, The laud fund was secured to the Provinces by the Laud lievenue Appropriation Act of 1850. In this Act it is dearly provided that the money arising from the sale of lands both in the Northern and Middle Islands should belong to the Provinces severally in which it was raised, and not be applied to purposes of Greueral G-overnment. The cost of these latter, which are supposed to bo for the-.benefit of all in equal proportion,it was justly considered, should be borne bv the colonists generally from other /sources,

—such, as taxation. —and not from the land, revenue which was contributed in unequal proportions by the several Provinces. The land i'und, then, is secured to the Provinces by an Act of the very Assembly which Separation bcclcs to destroy, but which, if continued in existence by the putting aside of .Separation, is able at any tiino to repeal the Act which it passed iu 185 G. The Assembly is, of course, quite competent to repeal that which it has itself created, and therefore if anything is to be dreaded by the Middle Island on this Score, it is to bo dreaded only so long as the present constitution of the Colony lasts. We know of course that it may bo said that tho Middle Island representatives are numerically strong enough to prevent a repeal of the Act of LBSG° but tho day may not be far distant, a gold-field on the Thames, for instance, might make all the difference, when this numerical preponderance, pretty evenly balanced at present, might be turned on the other side. Now that tho question has been raised we must bo permitted to say that; good cause can be shown why the Land Fund Appropriation Act of 1850, should be repealed. Virtually tho Assembly has broken faith with the spirit of that Act, in its appropriation of tho proceeds of the lands of \Vaikato to the purposes 'of the General Government. Those lands, not then the property of the Province, might from time to time have become so. The Act of the Assembly of ISG3 prevented tho principal portion of them from ever becoming such. The action, too, of tho General Assembly in ISG2, and again in the last Session, has so altered the position of the Provincial Governments of the North Island with respect to their laud funds that in common fairness the whole arrangement should be reconstructed. By the passing of tho Native Lands Act, tho land revenues of the Provinces of tho Northern Island were seriously interfered with, we may almost s;;y destroyed, while those of tho Middle Island Provinces remained unaffected, and as available as before. The question, indeed, has already been entertained by many within as well as without the Houso, whether the en- . tirely altered circumstances of tho Colony and the strain now placed upon its resources, and tho fact that a very large portion of the most valuable of tho lauds of this Province have been taken for purposes of the General Government, do not warrant the reconsideration of the basis upon which the Land Fund Appropriation Act of 185(5 was passed.