THE EMBRYO PROVINCE.

Otago Witness, Issue 253, 4 October 1856, Page 6

THE EMBRYO PROVINCE.

(From the Lyttelton Times.) The manner in which the New Zealand Company's debt is apportioned between the Provinces of the Middle Island by the present Government, is perhaps necessary under the circumstances of the case. At first sight, however, it does not seem to us to be based upon a proper principle. We put out of sight altogether the question of the justice or the injustice of the burthen imposed upon the colony in the shape of • the New Zealand Company's debt. It is allowed on all hands that the assumption of this debt by the Middle Island is a question of expediency, not of justice. No one Province of this Island more than another has any particular right to pay any portion of it. But, by assuming the burthen between us we get rid of the intolerable, because uncertain, contributions towards the purchase of Native lands in the North Island. When the debt, however, is placed upon the shoulders of the Middle - Island, it would appear to us that the only just principle by which to fix the relative proportion of the burthen to be borne by Nelson, Canterbury, and Otago, respectively, would be that of an apportionment in proportion to the extent of acreage in each of these Provinces. What reason is there for placing an equal burthen on the resources of two Provinces, one of which may have twice the means of meeting the imposition that the other has ? The resources of two Provinces may not be developed at the same time, but they will undoubtedly be developed. We have no doubt but that there would be great difficulty in the adjustment of the burthen as we propose, because that Province which is the largest in extent has the least available means for meeting immediate expenses. It is strange, however, that, as far as the debates which have- reached us go, the question does not seem to have been mooted. Some means might possibly have been discovered of getting over this difficulty. Even if, for a term of years, the interest of the debt were to be paid by the three Provinces in equal proportions, could some provision not have been made for finally adjusting the payment of the principal in proportion to the acreage which af- ! fords the means of payment ? J We have been induced to make these remarks by observing the immense extent of land which the Province of Otago, as at present bounded, has for sale, in proportion to the extent of the waste lands boasted of by Nelson and Canterbury. At 1 the southern extremity of the Province of Otago a new settlement is rapidly rising, a settlement as distinct in position, character, and feature, from what is commonly understood by Otago, as any one Province of New Zealand is distinct from another. The settlement of the Bluff is evidently an embryo Province. We know that a large number of the colonists who have founded that settlement have done so in the full hope and confidence that they were founding a separate Province from Otago. And, if local Self-government means anything at all, the Bluff will be a separate Province ere long. It would be more tolerable for the settlers at the Bluff to be governed or misgoverned from a distance by a central Government, with which, at least, they would have some community of feeling, than by a clique encircling a little town which appears to have but little sympathy with the rest of New Zealand, and ■with which the Bluff settlers have as little sympathy. It would be intolerable for the " latter that their funds should be devoted to the mending of the^streets of Dunedin, or to the importation of immigrants to Port ' Chalmers exclusively from the north of the Tweed, according to Captain Cargill's enlightened and liberal scheme. We know that a large number of English settlers around DuUedin do not consider the members for Otago as representing them. We know that they would not represent the Bluff settlers. Now, supposing the Province of Otago to be divided into two,

would it seem fair that each of the Provinces which would thus be formed should only bear half the burthen imposed upon Nelson and Canterbury, although each of them would have nearly the same means in the shape' of land which either of their northern neighbours has ? This is a question which requires consideration.