NEW ZEALAND.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 177, 24 February 1868, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND.

(FHOM THE ATTSTRALJISIAjU*.) We see that the Home Government has declined to accede at present to a petition for the division of the New Zealand settlements into two distinct, colonies. But New Zealand is increasing so fast in population and importance, the country has such extraordinary natural resources, and their development is proceeding with so much energy, that the separation of the islands and the formation of at least two distinct colonial governments must soon come to pass. It is a matter which a little further time will render inevitable, with a view to the due attention to local interests. The situation, however, is not considered quite ripe, and, as has been repeatedly shown in reference to Australia, the authorities in England are slow to sanction the formation of new colonies by the process of dismemberment, until the absolute necessity is clear, and until the elements of promise in the districts calling for separation have attained a certain growth. Young communities pass through so many social phases—undergo so many changes, and so rapidly, before the bases of their future progress are defined or assured —are so unlike to-day what they were yesterday, or will be to-morrow —that the premature gift of self-government might soon be a cause of internal confusion. It is this consideration which influences Downing street, not any narrow view of the cost of additional and colonial establishments, for whatever can promote the welfare of her dependencies must, of course, serve England also. And the majority of the New Zealand settlements have not yet emerged from the pioneer stage. Their expansion is all within a remarkably brief period—due to events so recent as the gold discoveries in the South, and the opening in the North of new fields for the emigrant by the termination of the Maori wars. The great Middle Island, in particular, was almost unknown seven or eight years ago. The few settlements were scarcely progressing, though there was no native tribes in that quarter to interfere with the enterprise of the stranger. Canterbury was languishing, Otago was still obscure, and the entire West Coast was a blank, uninhabited, and even unexplored. But the discovery of gold has already wrought, its abrupt and magical change. The digger is in the glen and the forest, flocks and herds have spread out over hill and plain, busy towns have arisen even on the bleak and lately desolate West Coast, and the mountains, tall as the Alps of Europe, are no longer an obstacle to the hardy explorer. All this change—the work of the day — is still actively carried on. Otago is now the most populous province, and Dunedin the most important town ; but of late the increase of population is more rapid in the provinces of Canterbury and Nelson, because of the Westland gold-diggings; and in the midst of so much growth and transition it is impossible to foresee where population and commerce will inainly centre, what localities will be busiest and most important, at the end of the next halfdozen years. How recently New Zealand has risen into public attention is indicated by the circumstance, that the islands have not yet received any proper distinctive names. Nay, the middle one is sometimes known as the South Island, and more correctly, too, there are only the two great islands of the group. It is curious that countries which are hourly referred to, which are as large as England and Scotland, and are of so much consequence and promise, should be still without convenient and euphonious appellations—the native nameß, unlike native names in general, being in this instance too lengthy and inharmonious for familiar use.

A little further time, "with progress at the existing rapid rate, cannot fail to bring about that separation of New Zealand into two great colonies which is for the present postponed. The diiference in the circumstances of the islands has hitherto furnished the strongest arguments for the request. While the Middle Island is the gold country, the Northern one has been the land of Maori wars, the aboriginal population being almost entirely resident within its shores; and it was a complaint of the Middle Island colonists that they had to bear a share of the taxation for these periodical contests in which they had no local interest. But the Colonial Office not unreasonably doubted the prevalence of this sentiment, when it was recollected that before the commencement of the late hostilities the party in the General Legislature which was favorable to war was mainly composed of the representatives returned by the Middle Island. Of twenty-nine mem-

bers belongiug to the North eleven were of the war, and eighteen in the peace party ; whereas out of twenty. four members belonging to the Middle Island only nine were in favor of peace, while fifteen were for war. It is evident therefore, that—contrary to the popular impression iu England—, the colonists who lived in the Maori neighborhood, and might expect to profit by the confiscation of native territory, were really those who were most adverse to the commencement of hostilities, however vigorously they wished them to be prosecuted when they had once actually begun. Another argument against a single government was the inconvenience of the position of the capital at the extreme North when population had begun to accumulate at the opposite extremity ; and to remedy this the Colonial Office shifted the head-quarters from Auckland, the principal city, to Wellington, on the dividing straits, as a more central site. But whenever the islands are separated, the seat of Government for the northern one will revert to Auckland, which, by its situation on an isthmus, and the vicinity of navigable rivers, has opportunities of coast communication with the interior, which Wellington does not enjoy. So it is that the recent movement has its main support in Auckland and Otaero, the cheif settlements respectively of the two islands, and which, therefore, in case of separation, would each become head-quarters of colonial Government. Aud the belief in Downing street that the wish on the subject is not equally general and strong throughout New Zealand has, of course, weakened the effect of the petition. "But the subdivision of each and all of the Australian colonies which are most territorially extensive is only the work of a little time. South Australia—now no longer South Australia, but stretching across to the Indian Ocean—will be subdivided. So will Queensland. Riverina, too, will in due course obtain her wish for a Legislature of her own. The localisation of government will follow maturer growth ; and within the bounds of the present half-dozen communities of the Australian group there will yet be a score of distinct colonies in fraternal confederacy, rivals only in the race of a peaceful -progress. Nowhere will such developments come to pass more quickly than in New Zealand. Her fine climate, her noble mountains, sustaining an abundant distribution of water, her navigable rivers, and the variety of her vegetable and mineral resources, are all guarantees of the near approach of a great future for the islands, now that the utilisation of those gifts of nature is so energetically advancing.