WELLINGTON.

Otago Witness, Issue 420, 17 December 1859, Page 6

WELLINGTON.

A despatch has been forwarded to the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay, by H. J. Tancred, Esq., for the Colonial Secretary, complaining of the competition occasioned by the "Wonga Wonga" running between Wellington and Napier (subsidised in part by the Government of Hawke's Bay,) as it deprived the owners of the "White Swan" of a great part of the traffic between the two places, and suggesting that the subsidy for the ' Wonga Wonga ' be withdrawn."

The policy of the General Government is to split up the colony into numberless petty Provinces. These petty Provinces will soon find that their expenses are very different to what they led themselves to anticipate. Like Hawke's Bay, they may at first imagine that the whole machinery of Government can be carried on for a trifling thousand a year, but, like Hawke's Bay, they will soon discover that this is the veriest delusion. Their disappointment will be further increased by finding that they are under the thumb of the General Government for postal and other communication, and can be punished in a variety of ways if they run counter to their wishes. So far as the Ministry are concerned, what is the plain English of Mr. Tancred's letter but a threat to Hawke's Bay to remove the White Swan if the Wellington steamer is encouraged, and another of the many attempts made to cripple contumacious Wellington. To excite the Provinces to regard their present provincial institutions with disgust is the grand object of the Stafford Ministry. This done and a Central Government, at a remote corner of the colony, is the inevitable result. — Independent.