SEPARATION OT THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF VICTORIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 309, 16 December 1862, Page 5

SEPARATION OT THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF VICTORIA

(lu-om the Argus, December 6th.) Copy of a Despatch from the Right Hon. the Secretary of State, acknowledging the receipt of a Petition from certain Inhabitants of the Western Portion of the Colony, praying for Separation. (Presented to boih Houses of Parliament by His Excellency's command.)

Dowling-street, Sept. 20, 18G2. Sir—l have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No, (J3, of the 23rd June, enclosing a petition from certain inhabitants of the western portion of the colony under your government, praying for a separation from Victoria, with a view to its forming, together with the south-eastern district of South Australia, an independent Colonial Government.

I request that you wi'l inform the petitioners that I have laid, their petition before the Queen, anil that Her Majesty received it very graciously. You will inform them at the same time that by various acts of Parliament, and in particular by the nets Ist. -and 2nd Victoria, cap. 60, and 13th and 14th Victoria, cap. 59, the territories out of which it is proposed to form a new colony are declared to belong, or recognised as belonging, to the existing colonies of Victoria and South Australia. That Her Majesty has no power to alter the distribution of a territory-o made, and that, even had Her Majesty possessed that power, I should not have been able to recommend that it should have been exercised without either the concurrence of the Victorian and South Australian Legislatures, or the proof of an intolerable hardship amounting to political necessity for separation. You Arill further observe to them that, under present circumstances, the inhabitants of any districts which are considered to be hardly used would, in my I opinion, act wisely in dismissing from their minds all expectation of effecting a dismemberment of the colony, and in applying themselves to secure a remedy for their grievances through the ordinary constitutional methods which, iv a free country, are open to them as-to all other men of sense and energy; and that I have no doubt that by a wise choice of representatives, by a fair appeal to public opinion, an<i, if necessary, by securing themselves enlarged powers oj local self-government, any district of Victoria has in its hands the power of protecting itself from injustice. I have, &c, (Signed) Newcastle. Governor Sir Henry Barkly, X.C.8., &c. General Liberty in Modern Italy.—You have only to walk into the railway-station at Turin or Genoa to be agreeab y struck by the freedom which prevails there —none of those closed and barricaded suites tfattentc in which one is pennelup; none of those ridiculous regulations which prohibit the delivery of tickets after a fixed hour; none of those employes who are always finding fault, pushing, hurrying, and scolding, and whose principal business seems to be to humiliate and irritate that last employe of all, known by the name of traveller. I hope I may be forgiven for having cited, to the honor of the administration of Piedmont, a circumstance so trivial in itself, and the significance and importance of which may seem to be over rated; but 1 know nothing which offers a more faithful picture, or is a more unmistakeable sign of the general liberty of a people, than the liberty which they enjoy in the common concerns of life, and which is brought home to them by practical daily experience.— Reminiscences of the Life of Count Cavdur. By W. Oe La Riva.

Tea..—The following will interest house-keepers: —" Hyson " means " before the rains," or " flourishing spring," that is, early in the spring; hence it is often called "Young Hyson." "Hyson skin" is composed of the refuse of other kinds, the native term for which, is "tea skins." Refuse of still coarser descriptions, containing mauy stems, is called " tea bones," •' Bohea "is the the neme of the hills in the region where it is collected. " Pekoe'" means; " white hairs," tbe down of tender leaves. " Powchong," "folded plant.'' "Souchong," " small plant-" " Twankay " is the name of a small river in the region whence it is brought. " Congou is from a term signifying "labor," from the care required in its preparation.