MR. PYKE ON SEPARATION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 350, 19 November 1875, Page 3

MR. PYKE ON SEPARATION.

The'honorable member for Auckland City A\ est need not think that we in :i - the South will be sorry to get rid of that millstone'round our necks which the: North ihaf always "been to us from the very earliest. times of,the Colony. I have- alwaysregarded the..North as the cause of the progress in the Colony, arid I am satisfied that the 'great party, which will take its position in the -councils of this Colony in the future will be that party which, advocates separation. . (Hear, hear.) - lam glad to hear that cheer. '. It ■shows that members from the North are ready to cast; off the unnatural relation .which now" exists.betweeft the islands, and to let Cook Straits divide the two Colonics, which Nature has constituted, and to prevent any more of those things which have taken- place this House .when members from the. South walked out of it on questions relating -to - the North being introduced, saying, " Oh, that is only a North We do not care anything about: it. We know nothing about their concerns vvhile on the other hand, if any question •of vital interest to the South is introduced, the Northern members at once exclaim, "Oh that is an Otago free fight, that, is a Canterbury, free fight ; it is a Nelson free fight; we know nothing- about it. -Let us leave them to fight their own battles." It is perfectly true the North knows nothing whatever about, the wants of the South, andthe South krlows" nothing whatever about the wants of the North-; and. the sooner the two Islands are divided and'placed un-. der separate Governments, with one federal Government to watch-ever the "general interests. of the colony, the better: I look upon the- Abolition as a great triumph for that principle. So long as the provinces ex feted, the narrow .petty principle of Provincialism would never allow; the members-of this House to under-, earnest measures for the benefit of the two islands ;..but now - that we have got. rid of thosednstitutions-—. : , Mr. Macand'r'ew.—-You-have not.

Mr. Pyke.—The honorable.meniber for Port Chalmers says we have not.., I say we • have. They have gone ; they have passed away for- ever ; th'ey are relics of the past, such as inoa?lumU-rs would be glad .in any . cave any where ; they are/gone; tliey are dead ; they are defunct p and • the result will be the" separat:on of these two islands/with a Federal GdVernmeht. dealing only with finance,; -with postal.'jsiTangements/ftelegraph ar-f nmgements, and;i\othing else.. 1 can see no other result^from the -passing of that Bill; and depend'.:upon-it that members of the "Legislature-will come round tr> the 'opinion -'which' fourteen years ago I upheld, that separation is the true and only principle; to carry"' out in this colony.— ' .Hansard.' :