The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 930, 25 September 1869, Page 13

The Otago Witness.

DTJNEDDT, SATURDAY, SEPT. 25, Whilst the agitation for Separation has to all appearances died out for the present in this island, our fellow colonists in Auckland appear to be growing more earnest about it, A general election of .Superintendent and Provincial Council is shortly to take place there, and affords an opportunity for the political ideas of the people to find expression. With occasional exceptions, it is only during the elections that the attention of the mass of the public in any part of New Zealand is directed to general politics. This or that question may excite passing interest, and even occasion great political excitement. This is only momentary, and few beyond the oircle of professional politicians do more than gossip about politics in the interval between one excitement and another. It is fortunate, therefore, that our periodical elections reour at short intervals. The turmoil and the expense they cause are compensated for by the fact that on such occasions we <lo generally hear the voice of the people, and not merely the opinions of those few persons who, generally through accidental circumstances, occupy public positions amongst us. We think it fortunate that these provincial elections have occurred at the present moment in Auckland, and our own neighbour Southland. The recent changes in the Colonial Ministry have been accompanied by an almost total reversal of the general policy of the central Government In many respects this change has been grateful to the people of Otago, and the question how far they may be stable is of no small interest to us. Their stability must depend, not on the verdict of the people of Otago, nor of this or the other province. To be able to judge how long the present regime of moderate Provincialism will last, we must know how far the policy of the present Ministry commands* the approval of the general body of electors of the colony. Next to our own, Auckland is undoubtedly the most important province of New Zealand. In view of the recent success of the Thames goldfield, we are perhaps hardly justified in speaking of Otago as before it in many important respects; although in regard to the solidarity of the community, freehold settlement, and Governmental organisation, there is as yet no comparison between the two provinces. The political ideas of the people of Auckland must always bo influential. One of the candidates for the Superintondency has lately undertaken to expound them, and amongst the more prominent of the points he has spoken out upon is this question of Separation, or, as he himself phrases it, Northern Independence. It is highly instructive to note the form which this Separation theory tokos amongat our fellow-colonists in the North. In the South, wo say that it is necessary to us because wo are virtually ruled fiom the North and for tho North. Mr Ellis tells his Auckland audience that tho independence of the North is necessary to free it from Middle Island legislation and political dogma, and from a ' centralising Ministry* composed of Southern men. Without discussing the grounds and origin of these two different opinions, we should like to draw attention to one vory simple deduction from tho fact that they co-exist. They prove to a certainty that there is still as Uttie homogeneity as ever in the circumstances and requirements of the two Islands. They prove that if these two communities wero not held to*

gether by force, by the Constitution of the colony, they -would very quickly separate. And the question at once presents itself, on what grounds of State expediency should .this cohesion, ■which depends on a binding force from -without, be maintained 1 Some persons are ready with answers to this question but they are all of a vague and sentimental character. No practical busi-ness-like reason for it has ever been advanced. It was almost, we may say, by chance that it came to be; and nothing but its own inertia, the difficulty of moving it out of the way now that it is well set down upon our backs, coupled with that conservative tendency which, in spite of recent progress towards democracy, is a characteristic of our race, prolongs its existence. People here complain of the centralizing tendencies of North Island men, and their desire, as it is conceived of here, to retain the link that binds our political destinies to theirs, for the sake of the revenue we contribute for defence purposes. This Auckland candidate for a Superintendental chair talks about the oppressive influence of Southern ideas tipon the legislation of the country, and of a centralizing Southern Ministry. Both cannot be rig-ht, and in point of fact both are wrong. Who are the men. whose personal influence is ever exercised in favour of union and centralization, and to whom Separation is a bugbear 1 They are not exclusively Northern or Southern men, but they are almost exclusively of the earlier race of colonists. These men came here when the colony was insignificant in wealth and population, when to hang together was its only chance of progress. Their ideas, formed during the days of small things have undergone no modification. No one can watch the signs of the times, the development of opinion especially amongst the newer race of colonists both in the North and the South, without coming to the conclusion that a political Separation ia the ultimate destiny of the two islands, and that its date is by no means very remote. Equally do we reach the same conviction when we observe who are the men that are strong for union and who are they to whom Separation is a welcome idea.