SIR GEORGE GREY'S DESPATCHES AND OTAGO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 216, 18 August 1862, Page 6

SIR GEORGE GREY'S DESPATCHES AND OTAGO.

(From the Daily Times, August sth.)

Within a few months after the discovery of the Australian gold fields was known at home, a Parliamentary Blue Book was prepared, composed chiefly of the..Despatches ol'ihe Governors of New South Wales and of Victoria, in which the fullest possihlc particulars were given of the'new discoveries. The effect of the publication of these despatches was to send thousands of emigrants to Australia. Newspaper accounts, of nn equally gorgeous nature, from California, had scarcely succeeded in attracting hundreds, where these official despatches sent off thousands of gold seekers to the new country of gold. The very same thing his been done recently. Sir George Douglass' despatches relating the progress of t he British Columbian gold fields have been published, and thousands of emigrants are starting for them. English, capitalists are lavishing capital on the new colony. Companies for carrying emigrants out, and for the formation of new banks, are being established, and in short, British Columbia is receiving highly favorable notice and useful assistance from the home country. In a private letter we received from home last week from an Otago colonist just retunie', he mentions that British Columbia was absorbing immense attention as a field far emigration, whilst Otaijo was comparatively unspoken of.

The explanation of this circumstance comes to us with Sir George Grey's despatches, just published. We have his despatches, consecutively numbered from the date of his arrival in the colony; so that it is right to infer they are all published, and in them we find but one reference—and that of merely a line—to the Otago gold fields. There is scarcely a reference to a single subject, except Native affairs. Not one word of tribute to the immense progress the Middle Island has made, and nothing, as we have said, ol the new industry that has quadrupled the exports of the colony.

It is not for us to enquire how'much of this is due to the absorbing: nature of Native affairs and how much to the hostile spirit with which the Ministry have regarded the progress of the Province of Otago. Had the Ministry even reported to Sir George Grey this progress —had they on their "return from some of their numerous trips to the Province, brought under hi.i notice the astonishing richness of its gold deposit*,—His Kxeelienev would have been bound to have mentioned tiio same in his.despatches to the Home authorities : these would have been published, and Otago would be disputing with British Columbia the tide of English-emigration. Jint whilst Sir George Grey hns been idle the Governor of the neighboring colony has not.

We observe "in a recent able despatch of Sir Henry Barkly on the goldfields of Victoria, a disparaging allusion to the goldfteldsof New Zealand. Thus, even official sources tell against, instead of for Otago ; and the- fostering influence which that Province had a right to expect should be exercised in its behalf by the head of the Government, has been wholly wanting. No wonder that its voice has not been heard, and that the many advantages Otago presents as a field for emigration should be unknown in England.

It would not have been difficult for Sir George Grey, were he so inclined, to have painted th<* Otago goldfields in ;i most attractive light. Statistically lie could have shown the large earnings of the miners there; he could have pointed out the astonishing richness of the country yet opened; he could have dwelt oir the suitability of the climate to English emigrants. We observe that nearjy a fourth of the gold exported from Victoria to England this year has been of New Zealand produce, whilst the number of miners employed in procuring it in the latter is about one-twentieth of those engaged in the former. Is it not something more than an omission that thc^e facts have not been presented to the home authorities? ft looks more like a deliberate concealment or suppression, and we charge the Ministry with the responsibility of the same. To them is also due the studied Insult of not making any reference, in the opening Address, to the new industry and the new wealth. We have before said how marked such an omission was, —■ how extraordinary it would be thought at home, that theino-t important event that has occurred to New Zealand since its first colonization, should have been passed unnoticed in the speech from the throne on the opening of the Assembly- In the Census tables lately published, the Registrar observes—"lt may "be remarked that the population of the " single Province of Otago thus estimated "exceeded, m 1861, that of the entire colony "of New Zealand in 18.51 by 3456 souls." Was this a fact that should not have been mentioned at the opening of the House? Should Otago not have received a word of congratulation on its progress?

Mr. Cargill has stated that he is not wedded to his opinions, and that he is alive to the claims of the Province, for which he is elected a Representative. We will ask him for a proof. Let him as soon as he enters the House, ask of the Representatives of the Ministry, whether Sir George Grey had brought under the notice of the Home Government the richness and productiveness of the Gold Fields of Otago. Ft is idle to deny that the facts we have elaborated form fresh links in the line of argument that point to the necessity of the Separation of the two Islands. Otago had special claims to be brought under the notice of the Home Government ; the Middle Island had general claims. It was almost an obvious due to have borne testimony to that progress,—and we challenge Separationist3 or Non-Separationists to say whether had Wellington proved a second Canterbury, and Auckland a second Otago, Sir George Grey would not have dwelt at length and Avith pleasure on the improvement that had occurred during his absence. But neither the Middle Island as a whole, nor Otago as a part, receives, or has received its due at the hands of the existing Government ; and Mr. Stafford, it is said, if he take office, is to pledge himself to make Auck • land his first consideration.

But whilst Sir George Grey has neglected, directly to make any reference to the progress of the Middle Island, he has unconsciously, and with a very different object, supplied most important materials from which to judge the same, and on which to strengthen the argument in favor of Separation. From a return, prepared with the express object of showing that the Native population enjoy an inadequate share of the revenue of the Colony in the amounts appropriated, for Native expenditure, we cull the following highly suggestive items:~

Estimate ov Epropisan Population (exclusive of Military) in the Northern Island iv 1800... 41,15'J Estimate of Native Population in Norilrru Island 53,050 Estimate of European Population in Middle (or Southern) Island in 18iJ0 40,001 Estimate of Native Population in Middle (or Southern) Islaad 2,21 Amotmf of Territorial and Orlinriry -Revenue of IVer,' Z'.'Hlaud. derived from Northern £ Island (hi hit,' 18(iO 100.02-1 Dilto ditto (lnrivvd from Middle (or Southern) Inland .during 18; 3O 274,114 Estimate of Expenditure of General Government In Sa'nrie; to Europeans in Noi them Inland during 18:50. .00,000 Ditto ditto iv Middle Island dining ]rftjf> 10,000 Estimate of Expenditure of Provincial Go-. vi'ninieiiU in Northern Inland during IHi'O 50,000 Ditto ditto fit Middle

Ishntl ihirins 18o*0 .. 41,000 This return was for 18GO, and consequently before the date of the discovery of the Ofago gold fields,and before the extraodina'y progress which the Provinces of Canterbury und Southland have lately made. Yet we -find that, with a population of 40,001 Europeans, and 22 ID Natives, in the Southern Island, against 41,1/59 Europeans and 0:j,0.j6 natives iv the Northern [slaud, the territorial and ordinary revenue of the latter was only £190,fj21 against £274,114 from the former—or with less than half the population.nearly half as much attain revenue. The expenditure of the revenue showed for Genera! imJ L'oovincial <x :verun>ent■ purposes for the Northern Island, £100,000, for the Middle Island, £.39,000, Let" Mr. Caiv.ill or the most violent anti-soparationist p-nider over these facts—all antecedent to what in slang phrase is now'being termed the "Now Iniquity ;" let him also consider the enormous contributions that under the direction of the home Government Sir' George Grey is asking from-the colony towards native expenses, an 1 we think even Mr. Cargill will-admit 'that whiht his ■glowing'visions of futiwe '• Empire" are very attractive, sound common sense would dictate a dissolution of the partnership that affects he fortune of one pirtuvr so iujuriotulv.