SEPARATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 765, 27 July 1866, Page 1

SEPARATION.

(From the Daily Times, July 53.) The enormous progress which the agitation in favor of Separation has made must be a gratifying reward to its early promoters. When, four years ago, it was taken up in this Province, the harshest vituperation was showered upon the heads of those who, in all good faith, believing they were consulting the interests ot the Colony, threw themselves into the movement. The first Separation League, it was thought, secured for its champion, Mr Dick; but when that gentleman, in 186*2, went up to the Assembly, he met with so little encouragement from those around him, that he modified his proposal to a removal of the seat of Government from Auckland. The following year the Assembly, after a prolonged battle, pronounced in favor of the removal, and then commenced in earnest the strong and undeniable desire for Separation. The question of the removal was not made a Government question. The Government, excepting perhaps Mr Fox, had a strong feeling on the subject, and would willingly enough have staked their official existence upon it ; but it was felt that at a time when the Colony was just overtaken by the dire calamity of n wide-spread Native rebellion, it would

be out of place to allow any other subject to exert that amount of influence -which is supposed to surround a Ministerial question. A strong Government was of the utmost moment at the time, and it was generally conceded that the men in Office were fitted to grapple with the difficulties which had arisen. And so, notwithstanding the warmth of feeling the question of the removal of the seat of Government excited, by common consent no Ministerial crisis arose from it.

But by tbe following year the disagreement between His Excellency the Governor and his advisers rendered a change of Ministers indispensable, and then the paramount party decided to place in office a Government, one of the cardinal points of whose policy was to effect the removal. We have thus ir»inutely referred to the change in the sent of Government, because it would be idle to deny that it had much to do with the feeling which has since grown up in favor of Separation. Grant that it was a selfish ieeling, and that therefore the Separation Movement owes much to selfish motives, its merit is not affected. Few — very few — great questions owe their hold upon the hearts of the people to purely unselfish motives. The interest created in them almost invariably begins in selfishness, but something more is necessary to sustain it. The selfishness of the few must be converted into the patriotism of the many, and then the selfishness is recognised as farsightedness. To resume : when the Auckland seat of Government was doomed, an irresistible determination to secure some measure or Separation was left in its place. The fir-t resolutions brought down aimed at the establishment of the Middle Island into a separate Colony, and the re-converting the North Island into a Crown Colony. The resolutions were lost, and next year the Assembly met at Wellington. In the meanwhile, the desire for Separation had increased. Many Middle Island advocates had come over to join the Northern party in favor of Separation. True and earnest men began to recognise that what seemed chimerical before, was growing into a more or lesa assured certainty. So much importance was attached to the subject that the Government refused to go on with any business till it was settled. A prolonged debate was held upon it, and a not inglorious defeat sustained. Again the year come" round, and the advocates for a | measure of Separation literally crowd the House. Not as a mere matter of convenience, but as one of absolute necessity, the Government are unable to proceed with any business until the question is derided. At least a fortnight of the Session has | been purely wasted to enable the Separation party to agree upon the shape in which they will bring the question forward ; and I if they fail to obtain a majority this Session, it will not be on account of the want !of sufficient members favorable to the principle, but because of their inability to j come to an agreement as to details.

For, as was natural, the Semration question has assumed many different shapes. Those averse to it have come over to some extent, and the ultra-Separationi=ts hive found it necessary to meet them. Th<^ invariable objection of many early Colonists to the destruction of the unity of the Colony has obtained from tho ; e who see in it the best solution of the difficulty, a considerable concession. They are willing to meet midway. They consent to the preservation of the unity, but they ask that unity should not be held to sanctify the evils of which they complain. Let the Colony continue a Colony, they argue, but do not deprive its several parts of the means of working out their own destinies. Inasmuch as a united finance is the substantial bond of what we may be allowed to term a Political and Commercial union, they ask that it be dissolved. For Federal purposes they are willing to see the Colony remain as it is, but they ask for what amounts to a Financial Separation. They urge that unless it be granted the Colony cannot retrieve itself. From the Northern point of view they contend that those mostly interested must know best what should be done, and that the only guarantee for a rigid economy in the future treatment of the Native question is, that the control and the cost should go together. From the Southern point of view it is urged, with equal cogency, that the Middle Island has already suffered immensely from the war, and that it is indispensable to its retrievement that a limit should be set to its further liabilities. Its

possession of immense resources isa> denied, but the Native difficulty ha? already largely trenched upon them and arrested the progress of Colonization ' If those resources are to be developed, they must be no further fettered with the worst of liabilities — an indefinite one. If the work of settlement is to proceed, the inhabitants must be allowed once more to turn their attention to the Colonising arts. For the North and for the Sjufh the organic changes proposed will be equally beneficial ; and let us hope that in a few days the Telegraph will flash us the intelligence that the Assembly has assented to them.