SEPARATION.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVIII, Issue 1854, 11 April 1863, Page 7

SEPARATION.

[From the Canterbury Press, March 14].

We iead the articles in the Daily Times from time to time on the subject of Separation as a kind of duty. It is not very amusing literature, and if it could have been said to be original a year ago it has ceased to be so now. A certain excellent parson, on being presented to a living, preached a sermon which deeply moved and delighted his new flock. The fame thereof went abroad, and expectant multitudes came together next Sunday; but the new vicar preached the same sermon over again. A third Sunday came, and a third time the congregation had to listen to the same discourse ; but when a fourth and fifth sabbath passed, and the same words fell on their disappointed ears, the popular indignation rose, and severe remonstrances were addressed to the monotonous preacher. On the following Sunday he commenced in these words: " My christian friends, when you have practised the sermon I have hitherto preached, I will preach you another." The Daily Times, for a similar reason doubtless, repeats the same — we were going to say arguments, but let us call them views— on the subject of dismembering the colony. Those views have had little or no effect out of Otago, and need not, therefore, be repeated or answered. What the Daily Times has failed to effect, tbe miserable pusillanimity of the General Assembly may probably accomplish. One by one the leading men of the Middle Island will abandon a statesmanlike policy, and in despair at seeing a solution of the difficulties of the North, propose to cut the painter and leave the North to get out of the mess as it can.

Mr Moorhouse has stated his opinion broadly. He says—" The present Assembly has noi

settled this question as it might and ought to have done. Auckland and Wellington and Taranaki are living on military expenditure. For that expenditure we, the South, have to pay. They in the North, have a strong interest in maintaining a state of things which is a simple matter of profit to them. We cannot alter matters, so let us leave them to themselves for a while. If they are lelt to themselves that account will be settled."

Now, Mr Moorhouse ought to have remembered two things. Fissi, that the policy of Governor Gore Browne was forced on the count!)' not by the North but by the South.' A majority of the Northern members voted against the war policy, of the Southern members for it. When Mr Moorhouse, therefore says — " it is the. wn and ihe war alone which compels us to separate," he places himself in the awkward position of having it said " Yon were the principal parties to the war yourselves, and therefore you cannot, in honor, plead the war as the excuse f»r your desertion of us,"

Secondly, Mr Moorhouse should remember that the policy of last session, which crippled the whole Government of the colony; which handed its finances over to tLe arbitrary caprice of the Governor; which opened our Middle Island Treasury to the North, and invited its plunder ; by which the Assembly formally abandoned its control over the Executive in Native matters— that all this was not a Northern but a Middle Island policy. Who were the men who supported it? The whole of the Nelson men— Weld, and Wilson, and Jollie, from Canterbury ; Richardson, from Otago ; and Bell, from Southland. Is it honorable — is it just — is it statesmanlike— to turn round and say, " Notwithstanding that was our deed, we will make it the occasion of deserting you — we forced you into that mess against your will, and now we will desert yon in thescrape?" That is a fair answer, not to all the arguments which may be used in favor of Separation but to the reasons which Mr Moorhouse has stated as those which have alone influenced him to change his opinion,

| But Mr Moorhouse says— and we have heard the same from others — " I only desire to see a temporary separation. I deprrcnte dismemberment," That is to say, I wish to say to in) poor relation — "Go out of doois, my poor friend, you are in sad difficulties just now; should you ever become well to do in the world, why we can come together again, but at present you are a troublesome and expensive connection." What a singular fancy to come into the head of a politician; what reasonable expectation can any one bare of a le-nnion of two colonies within many generations, especially after a separation such as this would be ofthe nature of a most cowardly desertion ? Divorced states have as little an inclination to re-unite as divorced individuals. The two, once separated, would grow up more and more apart every year, wiih diverging laws, interests, political sympathies, and objects.

We should very much like to hear any of these gentlemen who talk of separation tell us plainly what they mean. Do they mean a separate Governor, Parliament, Treasury and Justiciary? or do they mean a separation of certain departments of government with some common tie still remaining ? Are any matters to be legislated for in common, or is the whole legislative power to be entirely distin"» * y..ti) we know what is wanted" it is difficult t» measure the strength of our objection ta the pi«— •-• No one eau dispute the truth of the position which Mr Moorhouse has assarted. The im ports of the Northern Islaud depend very largely on the 6000 or 7000 troops now quartered there. The expenditure of the miliUry constitutes of course a very important item in the income ofthe Northern Island. This is patent to all the world. This immense standing army is earing up the fat of the land ; and a very large part of the cost of maintaining it falls upon the Middle Island, which does not reap any direct advantage from its presence. We are in the condition of a firm which is lead into great expense by the necessities of a branch house; there are two courses open to it— to dissolve al' connection with the branch, or to alter its management. It is worth while considering which is the most eligible course in our case. We set aside for the moment which is the most honorable and statesmanlike course. We deal practically, for a moment, with the question which is the most eligible— the most attainable ? In order to effect separation there must be a very unanimous movement on the part of the Middle Island. Is that unanimity readily attainable ? Next there must be an act of Imperial Parliament passed in the face of the strenuous opposition of a great part of the coI loHy. Will that be easily obtained ? We do not say it can't be done : no doubt it cat. : but it will take time. Judging from the examples of Victoria and Queensland, it will take much longer than its most sauguine supporters imagine. Aud it will take not only time, but great trouble, and probably much political warfare not of the pleasantest kind Let us ask ourselves these two questions. Will not the greatest part of the difficulties which we wish to escape have solved themselves before the remedy arrives ? And would uot the same unauimity and exertion whioh alone can achieve separation, have accomplished those other results which will vender separation unnecessary ? Mr Moorhouse relies simply ou this one view— -the north are living at our charge, and have no interest in stopping these Native difficulties.' Let them bear the burden and they will settle the difficulties much better than we shall. How will he answer the argument, that we have largely helped to make these difficulties, and we are bound iv honor to help to settle them ? And how are we to get over the opposition to Separation which will be raised by every consistent politician who bas taken a part in the Northern question ? Separation involves the idea of the unanimous or very general desire, on the part at least of one side, for independent existence. But look at the elements into which the colony is at present divided. The whole political sympathies of Nelson— and Nelson be.it remarked is one of the most powerful provinces in the colony, we may say the most powerful in the General Assembly— the whole of its sympathies are with Auckland, not with the South. It is due to Nelson alone that Auckland, which has always beeu deficient in leading men, still retains the seat of Government. Will Nelson join the Separation movement? It has not done so yet. On the other hand, are the elements it is proposed to leave in combination more united than those it is proposed to separate ? Why if there be two communities more violently hostile than any others, they are Auckland and Wellington. The whole sympathies of Welliugton are with the South ; and yet she is to be forced into an alliance which would be hateful to her. With the Middle Island separated, and the Government of the North left at Auckland, Wellington would be effectually extinguished. Wellington will thetefore bring ten votes and a unanimous population to oppose Separation. Canterbury has not yet spoken out on this subject, but, let us speak the rati '

about it, Canterbury will be the easiest perhaps to win over, because Canterbury must inevitably be the new seat of Government. The ' Daily Times' says we are coquetting about the question until this point is settled. That is a mistake: there is no need to coquet at all. If there is to be a new seat of Government it is not likely that we shall repeat the folly we are trying U escape from, of fixing it at one end of a country devoid of internal communications. The question whether this should be the seat of Government, then, will really affect no one's mind here, because it must he so whether we wish it or not. All we have said in arguing this point, and we repp.it it, is this, that Canterbury is far belter off with the General Government at Auckland, and a local Provincial Government spending the laud fund, than she would be with the General Government at Dunedin or Nelson, and no Provincial Government protecting her local interests. For it must be remembeivd tint tlie destruction ofthe Provincial Governments is a part of the scheme of Separation, and much of the support which it will receive will be from that party who hay«? always most bitterly opposed the Provincial institutions.

, However, we revert to the opinion we originally expressed when this movement was set on foot. Separation will, be very mischievous, it wiJl be a great descent from a higher to a lower future ; but it may be forced on us. If the financial arrangements of 1856 are tampered with — and the aid we are now called on to give the North is very like a tampering with them — or if the seat of Government be maintained at Auckland, the union cannot possibly last much longer. In three years hence the Northern Inland will be comparatively an insignificant part of the colony. No man can look at all ahead without coming lo that conclusion. There is no possibility of peopling the North with any tiring like the same rapidity as the South. The Native question and the physical conditions of the country equally fori- id it. The General Government must therefore come down tothe South. .Until a year ago Wellington would have satisfied the conditions of tbe problem ; a year hence it will not do so. The enormous preponderance in wealth and population of the Middle Island will demand the removal of the Government wholly to the Middle Island, most likely to Christchurch. Now it would not take one half the trouble or time to remove the seat of Government to the Middle Island that it will to dismember the colony. And with our financial immunity secured, and the General Government located amongst us, can the supporters of Separation tell us what more they want or can hope for? With tlie Government settled in the Middle Island there must of course, for many years, be a Lieutenant-governor at Auckland ; that has been already allowed hy the Crown, and that would, we believe, entirely satisfy the Auckland people. In our humble opinion the time has arrived when the public of Canterbury should be called on to discuss and consider this question in all its bearings. Would il not he desirable that a public meeting should be called at once, and that all the leading men ofthe Province, especially the Members of the General * "l""\x sbouW ■« called on t,._ -— »•««• »ews? Mr iYioiirliou.-«> , _ declaration the other night places the question on a new footing, but his exposition was meagre to throw light on the subject.