SEPARATION OF WANGANUI.

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1396, 10 January 1860, Page 3

SEPARATION OF WANGANUI.

AT length the Wanganui Chronicle has delared itself in. favour of this movement. In its last : number it announces a meeting, that was to be held on the sth inst., and says' that . the obstructiveness and rancor b£ the Rowdy party in Welling-, tor}, had become so intolerable, that the time had : arrived for Wanganui to free itself' from tho yoke. Far be it from us •to giVe utterance to any Jeremiads on this determination of our fellow-colo-nists. ? We cannot deny their premiss, and are therefore bound to" admit their conclusion, and much as we regret it on other grounds, we yet feel that there is some reason in the supposition, that in no part of the future of New Zealand will the means of affecting the desire of separation be so entirely in the hands of the people of the district as it is at present. Nor can it be denied that Wanganui — with the Waitotari district on the one hand, and the Manawatu on the other — and what is more to tho purpose, with a population numerous, active, intelligent,and enterprising, possesses every ..requisite for lißinge-nneot-fch© most-flour-'ishihg provinces of New Zealand. Our regret is also lessened by the consciousness ihat the policy upon which the Auckland Government so evidently acted divide et impera will in this instance be signally disappointed. Our friends at Wanganui are much too true-hearted as well as clear sighted, to allow any petty feelings of rivalry to separate the general interests of the Province, as now constituted, and while we expect their present representative in the General Assembly will long continue to hold that position, we are sure that the interests of Wei • lington are as safe as those of Wanganui in his hands. Of one thing, however, we must warn al our reader, the New Provinces Act cannot possibly continue law in its present shape. If the people of New Zealand generally should think it advisable to be divided into small isolated communities, it will speadily be found that there is .no reason whatever for retaining sixty miles; 'pne thousand inhabitants or one hundred and fifty voters as the necessary conditions of separation. Much smaller limits will then be prescribed, and thus " centralism " will become the only possible condition for the government of the colony. We therefore repeat that unless the true friends of provincialism succeed in causing the General Assembly to reasume its own proper functions, by making each intended Province the subject of direct and special legislation, the facilities for separation must be indefinitely increased, and thus our present constitution will practically die of sheer inanition. None we are assured would more regret this than the people of Wanganui, and it is therefore yet to be hoped that although their district has been so maligned and their representatives treated with such contumely in the present session, of the Provincial Council, they will yet feel that the Council is not the exponent of the opinions of people of Wellington, and thus still we may have them in their places, standing as they ever have done " shoulder to shoulder" with the true friends of progress and liberty. We are not ungrateful enough to forget the assistance they have already rendered, and therefore cannot but express a hope that they may see it expedient to remain " one and undivided," but if otherwise, we will be among the foremost to wish them success.