NABOTH'S VINEYARD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 872, 30 August 1866, Page 4

NABOTH'S VINEYARD.

HAYEK'S :;BAT AND. AXTGEEiAiND.

(IVoiri the HduiTce'a August:2's.) Thß; questibii of the :annexation to .ETawke's Bay of the district situated 'between JEast, P.ape.ond. the if ahia peninsula, and the Poverty: I?ay district, is/we.find; exciting, considerable attend tiori. throughout; the.colony., It is,'Wp. believfe, : no;w ; recognised thatithe matter is: Wt.'one affecting only: the future of; Hawk.e'i. Bay, ..but that,,in the 'settled ment of this.jqueatibtiy large interests afflicting: the whpie colony arb deeply concerned.

The. native .question and i.tn attendant expense; ia' the bugbear of the cplpnyj especially of the South •.. and Southern 'politicians- who' Have most .clde'ely' enV quired into. the conduct! of' affairs in the Northern island .duririg ; past, years, have arrived.at tli'.e cpnclueiori: that the "province whose -gorernriiqiit' has. shewn, the leait .ability to deal ■with the native difficulty, has been the proYinpe of Auckland. Again,. Auckland's financial position is one of absolute bankruptcy j and. if she continue: to exist at all as a. province or a government she can oniy do bo at the expenses of the rest of the colony. It. was thp3e .cprisuiferations; we believe; which influenced the thinking men of the Southern Island in rejectingthe late proposals for separation.. 1 They saw clearly, enough that separation to Auckland meant, the maihtenahfio of that province by the south, and the handing over to her those native: affairs vrhiph ihe had clearly ahe wn her incapacity to direot.

It was these c inclusions which caused the rejection of the demand for separation; and it is to sirmlar poriplusions that, the proposed .annexation to Hawke'i Bay of that, part Pf the province of Auckland, -which, is nominally situated within its boundaries but is altogether outside its control, is receiving that attention from the representative* which its importance desire's. A .comparison between the position which Hawke'aßay has taken during the past two years, in relation to native affair* and the settlement of the difficulties of the colony, and that taken by Auckland, is iii itself sufficient" to justify and mike politic, the proposed change, even though it were not rendered doubly necessary by the unanimous ypice and prayer of the people who.inhabit the district in question. But, apart from considerations such as theseslarge as must be their influence in the settlement of the question—there is another ppintwhich will not be loafc eight of by the t.anqy men of the South, and that is, the question of expense. Any proposal to be acceptable to the South, must free it from pecuniary liability for the future, and the settlement of the Korthern Island is the only certain guarantee, that can be given. Once settle the Northern Island; people the rich plains between Wanganui and iaranaki pa the West Cpast, and the maay ferv tile district* between the flourishing settlement of Wairpa, in Hawke's Bay, and Auckland, on the east: and not till then, will the South be relieved of that drain upon her which the present state of things entails.

The next question is—How is this f-ettlem.ent to be. effected ? Let us take tha'fc side of the country in which we are more immediately interested. A.glance at tlie map of the North Island will shew- an enoi> mous territqiy Nominally included within ilia bounr dairies of Auckland. Let us mark the minute points where settlement has been, effected ; see. what remain* to be done; and. then enquire how Auckland—bankrupt as she unquestionably is, and. unequal to the maintenance even of existing eettferaenti without assistance from the rest of the colony— 13 to proceed with the colonization and settlement of those large tracts which ara nominally hers .? liow is: ehe to represij outrage in and govern district? so remote from Queen-street ag Poverty Bay, when she has literally to beg 'from the re3t of the colony a subsidy to enable her to hold settlements so contiguous as the Waikato,. which not she but the colony ha* settled. There can but be ono conclusion arrived at by any one who considers the question, and that conclusion is that Auckland is unequal to what is required of her.

But will Hawke's Bay succeed where Auckland will fail? And why? Xhe answer to this is that, unlike Auckland, Hawke's Bay 13 in a sound financial condition—is prosperous and that she has, dnring the past two years, not pnlr proved her ability to administer native, affairs within her own territory, but has, in her own interest and ;^^bx«lxfir...Qß' r nJoc.il who are now praying to be placsd under her government—not merely preserve! tho psaee within her own limits,, but put down completely, effectively, arid with credit to herself and the jolo'ny, an insure recti.in in. tho most thickly populated part of tho province of Auckland, one which threatened the most serious consequences to the. cjlony at large.

Hawke'e Bay has, at any rate, proroi herself equal to the government of the district which now seeks to be annexed to her, aud has, in this reepact, given the best possible guarantee for the future. Further, we can state with confidence that the province will be prepared to undertake the colonization of the Bast Coast, without assistance from the colony—that she will undertake all the liabilities that fairly rest upon that district, whether fpr the expenditure- incurred in suppressing tho late insurrection, or in compensating the eettleis who have suffered by it; in short, that she will recoup to the colony the same of inoney that the East Coast insurrection has cost it. Bβ it understood, however; that by the tprm ''East Coast" we mean only that portion of it which hits been under the control of the Hawfc&'s Bay government, Wβ do not refer to Oppfciki and Taurariga, and the operations at those places, w' v ich, : to biir mind, are strong evidences of the utter incapability Of the Auckland government and; its leader, Mr Whitaterj to administer the affaire of native-dis--tricts,

Our reader* will understand, that; as a inatter. of course, the Hawke'e Bay representatives—in yrhose hands will really reat tho adjustment of the terms on which Poverty Bay will be annexed to this province —will require that confiscation of the land of the natives who have taken part in. the late, rebellion, shall , be enforced. Indeed, neither Hawkp's Bay nor the General Government itself could undertake liabiJitieg :such;a« those we have referred to, without thr were done.

Wβ: have thus sketched briefly, considering the 'largeness of thesubject, what appears to us to :bp the present poiition of , tho annexation question. Wα. conclude in the hope that, before many weeks are over, we snail be able to congratulate the public of . this province on the annexation of Poverty Bay and. the_ opening of a more exfended sphere of usefulness to its.publio seen, no less than we shall the East Coast settlers tippn the prospoct dawning on them of good gpyernment.. The past career of Hawke's Bay has already raised it from the position of a dependency to l?e spoken of and; treated throughout: the colony of New Zealand as one of the most important of. its.provinces and most, creditable of its Provincial Governments. VVp hate full hope that the future will not belie the.past.. |