ANTI-SEPARATION AT HAWKERS BAY.

North Otago Times, Volume IV, Issue 54, 2 March 1865, Page 1 (Supplement)

ANTI-SEPARATION AT HAWKERS BAY.

The meeting of Tuesday, the 14th ult., was remarkably well attended and orderly. The following is the petition to Her Majesty, which has been prepared by the committee. It will be sent round for signature this and following days: — " To the Queen's most gracious majesTt. "The Petition of your Majesty's faithful subjects, inhabitants of Hawke's Bay, in the colony of New Zealand, U IIUNBLT SHLWETH, "That your Petitioners emphatically deprecate the exertions which are being 1 made towards the dismemberment of the colony of New Zealand, by an attempt to obtain the severance of the Province of Auckland from the rest of the Colony under a separate Constitution. "That your Petitioners are of opinion that any division or disintegration of the colony of New Zealand would seriously augment the cost of its Government:— wonld undermine its credit— would tend to materiallj' impair the peace, order and good government of the colony — and would consequently be highly injurious to its be=t interests. " That your Petitioners are convinced that it is absolutely essential to the welfare of both race'* of its inhabitants, that New Zealand be preserved as. one colony, whole and undivided, and that any attempt to tamper with its present Constitution would enevitably either prolong the present dissensions or provoke further disturbances among its aboriginal inhabitants;, and thus destroy the earnest hope of the colonists of forming one great and prosperous community, destined to become one of the brightest ornaments of the British crown. "Your Petitioners therefore humbly pray that Your Majesty will be,graciously pleased to withhold your assent to any measure which may have for ha object the dismemberment of the colony, or the alteration ,or suspension Oof ttie present Constitution of New; Zealand." — Herald.