NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

Otago Witness, Issue 941, 11 December 1869, Page 1

NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

The New Zealand question acorns to have become a favourite topic with English newspnpor writers during the dull time* which succeed tho parliamentary session. Tho variety of opinions advanced as to what England and what the colony should do in the present state of our affairs, and the remarkably various grounds on which these opinions wero based, would fornf an amusing study for an idle man. Only an idle man could proQt by the investigation. Tho views and argument of the majority of these writers are valueless, whether as suggestions for the future, or— in the cue of that portion of the pww which

professes to favour the colony^4lssßMP advocacy of our -cause. They serye to indicate' an important fact, — that public attention I '"has been' strongly 1 drawn to the subject. Beyond this, so much 1 talk about New Zealand jat, a village street corner would riot be more vapid. and ineffectual. "It- must' be confessed, however,* 'that ' the ingenuity which has been displayed ; in the invention of reasons as to why New Zealand has 1 fallen into trouble; and ought— 'or ought not— to' be helped^ is really remarkable.' ' We can < only regret that the practical results -of this ingenuity are so profitless. ■ ' One of the latest, ' and certainly one of the most remarkable, of these inventions is to be found in the columns of the Spectator, a journal which we have hitherto credited with being well informed in regard to the affairs of New Zealand. This journal gravely informs us that the Constitution 'imposed' on the colony by England ' gives the provincial authorities the proceeds of the land sales, and that * the provincialism sedulously planted and fostered by the Imperial policy, has been, and is, the greatest of all impediments to a policy of centralised strength and financial self-reli-ance.' No one who has read the Constitution Act would have made the first of these assertions. The other would equally have been avoided by any one who really knew what has been passing in the colony. The "colonists of New' Zealand who reside in the provinces not directly affected by the war, are virtually accused of refusing aid to their fellow settlers. ' This provincialism is raised into a difficulty of the most urgent kind, now that England herself has set the example of washing her hands of the troubles of the colony.' We need hardly say that this • urgent difficulty* has not yet presented itself to the view of colonial statesmen. We hear of it now for the first time. Strangers to the facts of the case will carry away but one impression from the article we refer to, viz., that the people of the Middle Islaud pf New Zealand have been playing tho same game towards their fellow colonists in the North as the Imperial Government has been playing towards tho colony. There is not, and never has I been, the slightest foundationer such an accusation against us. No cfoubt the suggestion of the late Government that another war loan should be raised met with general opposition in this Island. So also the absurd and extravagant manner in which that Government was carrying on the war, was widely disapproved. In these cases, however, the sentiments of Middle Island colonists were quite in unison with those of their fellow-settlers in the sister island. The result has amply proved the correctness of tho opinions then expressed. No ono, now, sees any need of a war loan of a million and a half, or believes that tho land fund of this Island is needed to assist in the colonisation of tho othor. None but a few crotchety and disappointed men will now venture to nffirm that the opposition of Middlo Island politicians to tho Stafford Government was not amply warranted, or that its hucccss has not boen a signally fortunate thing for tho colony. All this might have been known to tho writer in the Spectator. Yet, for tho sako cf pointing a bitter paragraph against tho policy of Downing atrcob, ho unhesitatingly accuses tho peoplo of this Island of endeavouring to repudiate their sharo of the burdens of tho colony, and speaks of our having thiw raised ( a difficulty of th,s rooafc urgent k ji\<V The. injustice* of the accusation is as great as its absurdity, which is itsolf on a par with that of tho grave assertion that the local ad ministration of the territorial revonue is a disastrous mittchiof ' imposed* on tho colony by tho Imperial Government. Yob the journal which makes these assertions and iulinuations was tbo first, and has beon the boldest, of the advocates of

►rfeiw , Zealand,,, as j against the" p/pUcjr of the. Imperial Cabinet., It is ■fortunate .that ,the^ colony is ,ahouj&, to )be .represented a r t, home by men who _. are, rather better informed. , ■, , . Wlien it .first took up f the. case of, 'New >< Zealand'- »the, Spectator , was--^ , froth at home and in the colonysupposed to be the; mouth-piece of ih&ji active .but disappointed politician , Sir George Grey. That, it dr,ew,some of its earlier inspirations from that quarter, can, hardly be doubted. ; If so it must have broken loose from a tutelage whi ch would, » at least, Lave kept it; moderately correct as to its facts. No one can possibly know better than Sir George Grey that .the, peculiar constitution of tt New Zealand was hatched on the spot j, and that, the Imperial Government was , but a passive instrument .when it ' imposed' the Provincial system upon/U9, Sir George Grey might himselfperhaps be justly accused of having , ,'. sedulously; , planted and fostered ' the system. His action when leaving the colony after his first term of office leads to- the belief that he contemplated as probable . even fuller developments of the system than it, has ever yet attained. He therefore; we may presume, would be one of the last to countenance a charge against the Imperial Government of fostering provinoialism to the hurt of the colony. Who indeed, that knows the history and present condition of New Zealand, can doubt , that such strength as she possesses with which to front the many .difficult ties of the hour, she, qw feß;f e8; c^fly, to that provincial system which we are now informed is proving a 'difficulty of the ; fmbst urgent kindi' Can we point to any' better refutation of the charge than the fact that it has been the advent of the provincial party to power which has been the signal tea! a return of peace, and the herald of a new period of progress and prosperity I The provincial system has its evils, but no colonist of New Zealand, in how^ ever little favour he may hold it, he* ' lievea that the designation of tfie laficf fund to purely local purposes fcone of them.