“OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US.”

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 180, 19 June 1869, Page 5

“OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US.”

The following appeared recently in the Wellington Evening Post, and although its perusal will not be pleasant to all our readers, it is well that we should occasionally see what others say about us. We are assured by those who ought to know, that the statement generally is true in point of fact, but that the inferences are extreme. We need not say we differ with the writer about the alleged “robbery ” of the Nelson and Wellington Provinces, believing just the contrary. Nor do we think it is at all likely that Marlborough will bo re-annexed to Nelson.

“ Strongly Provincial as we are, wc yet fully coincide in the wisdom of the decision to shut up shop which the Marlborough Provincial Council has arrived at. Its difficulties are so hopelessly chronic that there scarcely seems any other than one of two courses open to it; either to fling itself into the arms of the General Government, or be reunited to Nelson. If Nelson is willing to have Marlborough re-annexed to it, that would be by far the preferable course ; but, considering the circumstances attending the separation and constitution into a province, it seems to us to bo manifestly unjust to oblige Nelson to take back this prodigal district into its keeping, should Nelson object to do so. “ Marlborough was the most unfortunate creation of Mr. Stafford’s New Provinces Act. The object of that act was to destroy the power and prestige of the original Provinces, and it did its work very successfully. The creation of the three new Provinces of Hawke, Southland, and Marlborough was the least of the evil it produced. The bankruptcy of Southland, the collapse of Marlborough, and the causes which produced these effects arc all bad enough in themselves ; but they are trifling compared with the greater evil which has been caused by the uncertainty with which every policy for development has labored under, consequent on the threat of separation which districts were able to hold out continually. But Hawke and Southland separated legitimately, and always had a prospect of revenue Not so with Marlborough. A precise provision was included in the New Provinces Act specially to tempt .Marlborough to separate. It could not comply with the terms and provisions which were thought essential for the rest of New Zealand, and they were, in the tyranny of Mr Stafford’s power, dispensed with in Marlborough’s favor by Act. Notwithstanding all the inducements hold out, to get the requisite number of signatures was a work of great difficulty. It was seen that the peculiar position of its harbor, and the smallness of its population was not favorable to direct trade, and that but little Customs revenue could possibly accrue. Customs revenue was a thing of little moment then in the eyes of the separationists. They had plenty of land—their land revenue was sufficient for everything. The petition for creating the district into a province was signed very slowly. Its promoters were nearly a year before they obtained the requisite number of signatures ; and without permitting Nelson the slightest opportunity of objecting to the genuineness of the signatures, the order in Council proclaiming Marlborough a province was made and gazetted. At the time this haste was strongly condemned, because there could be little doubt that had the signatures been submitted to a scrutiny, as was urged they should be, many would have been found to have been those of electors who had died or gone away during the many months the petition was being hawked about for signature. Nearly everything connected with the birth of Marlborough was hurried and disreputable. It was really th j offspring of bitter partisanship of the then Stafford Government, and after a miserable life of ten years has now laid itself down to- die at the door of the present Ministry—one still more inimical to provincialism than was the Stafford-llich-mond-Whitaker Ministry, who called it into being. Marlborough has been a perpetual hotbed of extreme political faction. It has even had its two Superintendents at the same time, each claiming to be lawfully in possession, and each hurling defiance at the other. It would have died two years since, had it not been for the act of spoilation which Mr. Stafford’s Ministry committed in 18G7, when the Wellington and Nelson Provinces were robbed of £6,000 each; the £12,000 being handed over to Marborough as compensation for dutiable

goods consumed there, but imported by the merchants of the two larger Provinces! Marlborough, if now dead, will be “ un-

wept” and “unhonored,” but the notoriety of its factious existence will redeem it from the triple woe—it will not be allowed to depart 1 unsung.’

“ What is to be done with Marlborough, the ensuing session of the General Assembly will probably decide. It can scarcely be made into a Itoad .Board or County, as it has no land revenue ; the best thing will probably be to re-annex it to kelson, if Xelson will kindly take charge of it.”