The Nelson Eveing Mail. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1876.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XL, Issue 195, 9 August 1876, Page 2

The Nelson Eyeing Mail. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1876.

After perusing and re-perusing Sir G. Grey's separation resolutions and his speech, or as much of it as has come to hand, in moving them, we cannot but wonder more than ever what could have induced him to bring them forward. Prom what; he said on the occasion we can gather no clue whatever to the motive power which urged him on to so reduce his status in the House and in the. eyes ofthe people of the colony. The liberties of the people and the opportunities of self-govern-ment that should be granted to them have formed the substance of his battle cry, raised so often and in terms so monotonous as to become absolutely wearisome, And yet in the face of this he proposes to establish a system of centralism in its worst form. The Middle Island is that with which we have most to do, and in the management of whose affairs we take the greatest interest, and what do we find it is proposed to do with it ? To hand it oyer to be dealt with as shall seem best to the two largest and most powerful provinces. . The three dwarfs Nelson, Marlborough, and Westland, are to be placed at the mercy of the two giants Otago and Canterbury. Very nice for the giants, but what about the dwarfs? It is not difficult to predict how they would fare. Another objection, by no means a trivial one, is the difficulty that would be found to exist in securing two sets of representatives, one for the Colonial Parliament in Wellington and another for the Island Parliament at Christchurch, although on the other hand it might be argued that it would not much matter whether the three smaller districts above mentioned were or were not represented in the latter, as in every case where their interests clashed in the slightest degree with those of Otago and Canterbury the former would be bound to go to the wall. What would follow if these resolutions were carried has been very well put by the Post, which says : — " The more we look at these proposals the les3 we like them. They mean something akin to the revival of provincialism, with enlarged areas and increased powers. In some sort the proposals imply going back to provincialism, as it was when first called into existence, with the difference that there are to be two provinces instead of nine. When the provincial system was first created, the powers and functions of the General Government and the General Assembly were strictly limited to dea'ing with certain specified subjects, while everything else was left td the control of the Provincial Councils. That system was gradually changed, and year by year the General Government took upon itself more and more of the functions of the provinces, until it became evideni. that the time had come when it would be advisable to abolish the latter altogether. Under Sir George Grey's proposals, the colony would have ' many of the evils of provincialism repeated. The local Government at Auckland, having the affairs of the whole North Island to look after, would leave all the districts remote from it to pine and starve under neglect. It was the blot of the provincial system that while the centres of population were cherished and pampered, the out-lying districts were subjected to -hardship and injustice. What chance of fair treatment would laranaki, Wanganui, and Hawke's Bay have from a Local Government with its headquarters at Auckland. Wellington wo did certainly still be the seat of the Colonial Government, but one bereft of a main share of its powers. With the Local Government would rest nearly all the real powers, iiie same reasoning applies to the proposal to establish a Local Government for the Middle island at Christchurch. Nelson, Marlborough, and Westland would get the worst of it under such an arrangement. We say that these absurd, impracticable, and ireipedient proposals should be strenuously resisted. That they will be defeated, there is no doubt at all, but if the friends of the real unity of the colony are prompt to o-gamse and act, that defeat may be made a complete and crushing one."