The New Zealand Herald AUCKLAND, MONDAY, JULY 23, 1866. AUCKLAND'S POLICY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 839, 23 July 1866, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald

AUCKLAND, MONDAY, JULY 23, 1866. AUCKLAND'S POLICY.

SPECTKMUK AGENDO. " Give every m;m thine cr\r, but lew thy voice : Take each uinn's censure, but reserve*thy judgraant. Tliie above nil, —To thine own self he true A i.U it must follow, ns tl-.c tin- day, Thou cms: not then be falso to any mar-.."

The steamer which arrived from "Wellington on Saturday, left Unit port on t.he morning of the 17 ih. Bad her passage been delayed a few hours, until after the commencement of that day's silling of the House, we should have been enabled to have placed before our readers to-day, the exact terms of the resolution relative to the formal ion of a separate government for Auckland, which for some days previously had been catrerly looked for from Mr. "Whitaker by the Assembly. "We may now state that on tho 17lh it was intended to give nolicc of a resolution to the following effect, that the Government of the Province of Auckland should consist of

a Lieutenant-Governor and Executive, with a Provincial Assembly, instead of consisting of a Superintendent and Provincial Council as now; the interference of tho General Assembly being limited to some half-dozen or so of subjects.—The subject of tho resolution, it was intended, should come ou for discussion during the present week, probably to-morrow. It would seem, therefore, that our members are not prepared, in the present temper of the House or position of the parties, to venture upon the more comprehensive question of actual Separation. The division list on such a question could be counted to a single vote before even the discussion of the matter commenced, and it may be found that our representatives have chosen the wiser and better course for Auckland, for the meantime at least, in adhering to the terms of some such resolution as that alluded to above. Much, very much, of course, depends upon tho actual amount of power with which our future Provincial Assembly shall be endowed, and whether those half a dozen or so oi subjects to which tho interference of the General Assembly is to be limited shall be found to ! include amongst them the management of Native affairs. "We can scarcely think that such can be intended, for it is the unlimited liability consequent on such interference that the majority of tho Middle Island men are anxious to get rid of, and to effect which.. end they would doubtless hand over a good round annual sum together with the native management and its consequent pecuniary responsibilities. Speculation, iievertheless, upon the subject, however tempting, is useless, knowing so little as we do of the details of the proposed scheme.

Tho reports, if we may call them so, of the debates as yet to hand, -will bo found in another part of to-day's issue. They contain little of interest if we except that of Mr. Dillon Bell's motion. The published reports of tho proceedings of the present stolon, nc they nppenr in tho "Wellington' ,

papers, are the most meagre and unsatisfactory that we have ever seen attempted in any journals. That they are so miserably reported is most discreditable to the Press of Wellington, and shows, as straws point the direction of the wind, the general inconvenience and extra expense which the removal of the seat of Government to Wellington has put the. colony. When the Assembly was held in Auckland the local journals gave full, correct, and comprehensive reportsof the several debates, nor dreamt for one moment of looking to the government for assistance in the extra expense entailed upon them in so doing. They not only did so in the last, but in every previous session of the Assembly, with the exception, of course, of that of ISG2, held in Wellington. The two Wellington papers—-journals we cannot call them—refuse to' give intelligible and comprehensive reports, unless subsidized by by the Crovernment to the exteut of £1,500 for the session. A committee, appointed by the House, with Mr. Fitzgerald as chair-man had prepared a report in favour of granting such subsidy. The nuestion of the adoption c.v rejection of this report was to come under discussion ou the 17th, and will, we learn, be strongly opposed by many. Certainly this is the most barefaced attempt we have yet heard of; an attempt on the part of private individuals to dip their hands into the public chest, and we trustthat the Assembly will keep Mr. Stafford up to his principles of "retrenchment." If the Wellington papers are to Plulippise, let it be Philips' money which shall cause them to do so. In the present overburdened state of the finances of the colony, the public can ill afford to pay the price of Wellington journalists ; and ' if the members of the G-enei-al Assembly aie so anxious to see themselves in print, let them themselves subsidise from their own pockets the Wellington papers; or, if they wish to have their speeches reported free ot cost, let them send them up to the Auckland journals, and we will publish them for no- ; thing. The attempt of the metropolitan papers to claim a subsidy for doing the ordinary duties of a public journal is a reflection r upon the credit of the whole press of New Zealand. We shall, we suppose, if this demand be granted, next hear of these journals asking for a subsidy for reporting the races, pr the Supreme and Police Courts in Wellington.