SPIRIT OF THE PRESS ON COLONIAL POLITICS.

Southland Times, Issue 667, 8 May 1867, Page 2

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS ON COLONIAL POLITICS.

(From the " Lyttelton Times," April 26.) The address delivered by Mr Moorhouse at Hokitika to the constituency ■which returns him to the General Assembly, will attract very general attention throughout the other provinces as well as in Canterbury. It contains a brief review of some of the leading events in the politics of New Zealand for several years past. Mr Moorhouse refers with pardonable satisfaction to the views he had long ago expressed as to the right method of treating the _ Natives of the North Island ; and he does full justice to the foresight evinced by Mr Fitz-G-eraldin the position he took up against the commencement of the late native war. Many of our readers will recollect the late famous meeting in the Music Hall, at which Mr Fitzgerald delivered his speech upon native policy, and found himself in a minority, which included Mr Moorhouse and a few other public men, bnt which was utterly insignificant in point of numbers. The majority was led off by Mr "Weld, then a comparative ! stranger to the general public of Christchurch, His views were supported by Mr Travers, and by Mr Francis Jollie in a peculiarly truculent speech. It must be allowed that Mr Weld shewed as much chivalry in hi 3 advocacy of help to the colonists of the North Island as he afterwards did in his . policy of selfreliance. But in suppprting his views of aiding the North Island the colonists of the Middle Island . have been twitted with almost forcing on the native war and all its costly expenditure : while the selfreliant policy was adopted from the defeated minority. ; ■ \ On the question of Separation, Mr Moorhouse gives a very explicit account of the position he assumed. Either the Middle Island must be relieved from any fresh expenses on account of the native population, or it must compel? relief for itself by final separation from the North Island." The threat of separation was about the -best means of bringing the members for the North Island-to a sense of their true position. Ahdrtjfxere can ba no doubt but it: had this effect; for although the separation party found. $$BBs?e^ IST £#9,9l^ ft fo «Wt«^

that any attempt at continued expenditure of the colonial revenues for purely North Island purposes would have brought the entire public of the Middle Island to one mind upon the subject. The chief interest of Mr Moorhouse's speech concerns the future. He hopes to see the Stamp tax speedily repealed, and the Northern Island paying its own police. The means by which he would provide for the repeal of the Stamp tax is a reduction of expenditure. On all these points he will probably find the, great majority of the public and of the representatives of the Middle Island with him. But it is also probable that many will prefer the reduction of some of the heavier or more generally-felt Customs duties, such as those upon tea and sugar, to the abolition of the Stamp duties. And it deserves mention that however objectionable these last-named duties are, they have rarely been abolished in i any country after they have once been imposed. The Stafford Ministry he considers worthy of all support, unless they should introduce measures having too much of a centralising tendency, or should oppose those very necessary reforms by which expenditure might be reduced and the burdens of taxation lightened. Had we been wise enough to make the administration of Native affairs a local charge some years ago, Mr Moorhouse thinks nearly the whole of the difficulties and expenses in which the colony has been involved would have been spared. The thorough application of the principle of self-reliance to distinct localities or provinces would now be the best means of effecting this end. Regarding the great question of ProTincialism as against- Centralism, Mr Moorhouse fully adopts the resolutions passed durmg their last session by the Provincial Council of Otago, and hopes to see them recognised by the Stafford Ministry as the basis of the future policy of the colony. Taken in conjunction with Dr Featherston's very distinct expressisn of opinion on the same great question, this statement may be looked upon as a guarantee that in the next meeting of the Assembly the ranks of the Provincial party will be well filled and thoroughly united. Circumstances have lately arisen which may tend to fetter the action of the Provincialist party, and which may possibly be made use of to compromise their position. But if they refuse to be led away by any cause of local or personal irritation, their numbers and influence must predominate. The course indicated for them seems to be that of insisting on non-interference with existing institutions. The effective and economical working of these institutions, and a determined opposition to all attempts at constitution-mongering, are objects which will commend themselves to the majority of the members of Assembly as well as to the public out of doors. It is very clear that the pravincialists are not to be taken unawares and at a disadvantage, and it is to be hoped that the Stafford ministry will be content with originating and carrying through the measures which they deem essential for the right government of the country, without unsettling the public mind and perilling their own position by trying to effect organic changes in the constitution. The general wish of the country assuredly is to leave the present Government undisturbed, and to give the colony breathing time to recover from the evil effects produced by the war expenditure and the political changes of the past few years.