SEPARATION OF THE NORTHERN FROM THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 48, 29 May 1862, Page 6 (Supplement)

SEPARATION OF THE NORTHERN FROM THE MIDDLE ISLAND.

Of all the public questions which will occupy the attention of the General Assembly at its next session, the one of the most general interest is that of the proposed separation of the Colony of New Zealand into two independent colonies ; one to embrace the Northern Island, the other the Middle and the Southern Islands. Although the native war has given greater importance and urgency to this subject, it is very far from having originated it. The progress of the settlement of these islands, speaking generally, has been from the north to the south ; and the seat of Government having been originally fixed at the northern extremity of the Northern Island, the consequence naturally was that the inconveniences arising from the remoteness of the capital have been more clearly preceived and more loudly complained of every year. And with complaints came 6ll gS es l| ons of remedies, such as the removal of the capital to a more central position, or, in opposition, to that, the division of the colony into two independent Governments. We have been very cautious in expressing any opinion upon the latter of these two propositions ; because, while we think the general arguments are adverse to its adoption, we by no means deny that particular circumstances may arise which would render it almost our duty 'strenuously to advocate its acceptance. Perhaps the most prominent of all the general arguments, that which is most readily caught at by the separatists, which is most plausible and most hackneyed, is, that the “ material or commercial interests” of the inhabitants of the two large islands are heterogeneous and opposed to each other. The North, Island in this way of looking at the question, is considered or assumed to be exclusively commercial, the Middle Island exclusively pastoral: the North Island, ns containing a population in which

the native or Maori element greatly preponderates the Southern as exclusively peopled by settlers of European extraction ; and so on. Nevertheless we believe these arguments would be found on sufficient examination, to bo very far from affording any conclusive testimony in favour of separation, at all events when set against the prospective evils of such a division, evils which might be expected to arise, if not in this generation, in those which at no very remote period will follow it. The mere commercial or material interests, we think, are not so very diverse in the two islands as it is customary to assume. In the Middle Island, the Provinces of Marlborough, Canterbury, and Otago, are distinguishing by their large extents of sheep-pasture lands, and the pastoral interests there are doubtless of great importance. In the province of Nelson, those interests there are confined principally to the Amuri district and to a few patches of pasture on the western side of the island. But Nelson as a whole will in a few years probably-, be considered at least as much dependent upon its mineral produce as its pastoral. In the Northern Island again, the Provinces of Wellington and Hawke’s Bay are almost exclusively pastoral, their only exports of any importance consisting of wool. In these provinces, as well, as in Auckland, any arrangements for the leasing of Maori lauds, which must soon be made, will greatly increase the amount of the pastoral exports. So that in tins particular, the very one in respect of which the diversity of the interests of the north and south is most insisted upon, the two islands are obviously not so very dissimilar. And if Auckland and Wellington have been rather notable for the superior amount of their Customs Revenue, this has already ceased to be a distinguishing circumstance of the Northern Island; for the Customs Revenue, and therefore the mercantile interests of Otago, already exceed those of Auckland while the commerce of Canterbury, Nelson, and Invercagill will certainly, in the aggregate, far exceed that of Wellington, New Plymouth, and Hawke’s Bay before many years have" passed. It does not, appear, that there is any such difference in the mercantile interests, of the two islands as to render a separate Government for each either necessary or desirable. But even if the difference in question did exist, it is very far from certain that the interest of commerce would be better looked after and secured by an exclusively or principally commercial Legislature, or the interests of aggriculturc or pasture be better provided for by a Legislature exclusively or principally agricultural or pastoral. Nor does the fact of identity of place or locality, in the material interests to be legislated for and the meetings of the Legislature, at all necessarily imply either wiser, more liberal, or more success'ful legislation. But these are some of the political bearings of the general question, which our present limits will not allow us to enter into the consideration of. The diversity arising from the presence or absence of a native population is undoubtedly what has re-opened this separation question at present. But it is first to be considered that the native po. pulation is at this moment not very much larger, probably not a fourth larger, than the European population even of the Northern Island, and that in another ten years it is more than probable that the proportions will be exactly reversed. There is no manner of doubt, however much the fact may be regretted by some, or looked upon with indifference by others —whose natural feelings of regret for such an occurrence have been blunted by the rancorous abuse of the European settlers indulged in by such blind bigots, self-satisfied slanderers, and mystified dupes as Cannon Stowell, for instance—-there is no possibility of doubt, we say, that the native race is fast diminishing, and before very many years will altogether dissappear. So that in any great political measures, the results of which will exercise an influence for good or evil for centuries, the position of the natives should not be the main or paramount consideration. But, setting this aside, it is only necessary to affirm that, were the native population brought into the proper relation towards a British Government, that in which they should undoubtedly stand, this argument for separation might bo as easily disposed of as the other. There is no abstract necessity at all for any difference, either in the laws made the mode of making them, or the mode of administering them, for the natives or for the Europeans. The two races have the same passions, much the same sense of right and wrong, quite equal acuteness in the perception of their immediate interests an average of intelligence the same in each case. There is nothing in the nature of things to prevent their all being governed by laws made in one Legislature and living under one and the same constitution. But there is one tremendous difference (the fruit of policy or no policy, not at all necessary or inevitable) between the two races, namely, that the European race knows and acknowledges the power of the law, and therefore obeys it. The law for the latter must be timid, suggestive, shrinkingly complacent, and soothingly accommodating; however bold, stern, dictatorial, decisively expressive, and oven vengefully retributive it may be for the former. While these opposite relations can he maintained towards the British Government by the two races, the two islands must also stand in antagonism. Constitutional and administrative arrangements must be established in the North, which could have no place, moaning, or toleration in the South. Continual irritations, heartburnings, collisions between the two races, and all the confusions consequent thereupon, must be taken into circulation in any schemes for the Government of the Northern Island, which the Southern Island, will naturally wish to keep clear of. Nor will the South be at all willing to share tuc aim CApBiiSG WiilGu this state of things will lead to. Had the British Government determined to assert and maintain the paramount authority of the law and the Queen, then the Middle Island would cheerfully have borne its proportion of any reasonable share of the general expenditure incurred that the mother country would have saddled on iho colony. But if it appear that a. state of chronic disturbance, or uneasy quiet, maintained alone by the intimidation of thousands of bayonets on the one hand, and the equally costly cajolery of salaries, and presents, and native offices on the other, is to be

established as the normal condition of the Northern Island, out of which indeed large pecuniary profits may be gained by its inhabitants, while the southern settlers will have an equal share of the disgrace, and perhaps even the larger share of the pecuniary buudens, then the cry for separation will grow louder, and not be stilled till Cook Strait marks the boundary of two independent colonies, within the limits of what were once the united Islands of New Zealand. —Nelson Examiner, April