The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5429, 21 August 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 1878.

As illustrating the obstructions which easy-going belief is wont to place in tho way of advancing truth there is an old story of a Brahmin who cursed and broke the microscope which showed him the presence of living animalcules in the water which was his daily drink. We have Brahmins hero, in politics, to whom the exposition of facts is an offence, and we have lotos-eaters, who desire not to be troubled in their indolent belief that all is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. To men in these classes, happily few in number, our demonstration of the dangers which now threaten tho unity of the colony, and the position of this City of Wellington as tho seat of Government, tho commercial centre of the islands, and the great entrepot for the distribution of merchandise, appears to have caused some personal uneasiness. They, like the Brahmin, resent tho proof of tho existence of facts which they would fain ignore. We print to-day a letter from a correspondent, a member of the House of Representatives, whose opportunities of obtaining information are second to none, and whose name, if we were at liberty to disclose it, would give very great weight to tho statements which he makes. We have there indisputable proofs to show that the subject of insular separation is taking the form of a party question, and that, backed by money and by the influence of the present Government, it will be made the “cry” at the next general election, if it should bo found that nothing can be done with the existing Parliament. Wa have already shown from the records of the House of Representatives what, only in the session before the last, were the recorded opinions of five of theseven members of tho present Ministry on the subject of separation and of the maintenance of tho seat of Government at Wellington. We have shown how by administrative action, on the responsibility of the Ministerial heads of several departments and without any direct sanction from the representatives of the people, great changes had been made in the direction of decentralising administration in the departments of Colonial Defence, of Public Works, and of Stores, so as to establish a distinct system for each island. We noted also a semi-official announcement of a new policy which should devote the proceeds of sales of Crown lands to the prosecution of public works in the future, and wo indicated the possibility that local selfishness would be enlisted thus in the work of dismembering the colony; and we showed that only in the South Island, where there was at present a laud revenue, could there be, under the new scheme, any hope of getting a share in such expenditure, or of having large and necessary works carried on. If any additional testimony be needed as to the opinions of Ministers upon the two great points of separation and the seat of Government, it may be obtained abundantly from published documents, many of which are now before us; quotations from them would only encumber the limited space at our disposal in these columns. No one, we presume, doubts the fact that Sir George Grey has never acquiesced, and never will acquiesce in the abolition of Provincialism. No one, or not many, will believe that Mr. Macandkew has lost his old love for Otago, or that the hope which ho expressed in the sincerity of his heart upon a late festive occasion, “ that there is now “a public opinion being engendered “ throughout New Zealand which may “ yet compel the Parliament to restore to “ the people those privileges of which “ they have been deprived—and to re- “ store those Provincial institutions of “ which they have been deprived—not, “ probably, exactly as they wore, but institutions greatly improved, and more “ adapted to the altered circumstances of “the country,” has suffered any abatement. Knowing thus what wo know, seeing what we have seen, and hearing what is now being openly stated in public places, wo should bo wanting in our duty as public journalists if wc attempted to suppress or "lose over patent facts, or failed to give the warning which we have given of possible danger. If what wa have stated be true, as we believe it to bo, that danger will not be averted by sitting with folded hands and muttering “ kismet.” The representatives of the people in this city and province should be up and doing, and the indignation of the public be made to fall upon those who contemplate the wrong, and not upon those who seek to avert it by timely warning and by vigorous action.