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Separation:

A Letter.

[New Zealand consists mainly of two islands, and for many years there was a party there who greatly desired that they should be separated, and become two distinct Colonies; or that they should be financially separated, and the revenues of each spent within its own bounds. Among these last I was one.]

These are a few thoughts on some of the causes which, as it appears to me, have produced divisions in States and Nations. They are far from being either accomplished or extensive, but the little leisure and the few materials I can bring to my aid are my excuse. I deem some of them, however, not unworthy as subjects for Otagan reflection, and consider them as bearing on our own political situation in some respects.

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1.—The cause which operates always the most powerfully in the dismemberment of States is the intersection of them by natural boundaries. These boundaries are mostly either ranges of mountains, large rivers and lakes, a desert or tract of uninhabitable land, or part of a sea. These are physical disuniting causes. The political disuniting causes are of a secondary character, and owe to the former their existence and variety.

2.—The aid given by mountains in the division of communities of men and their interests into classes and races is apparent from the slightest geographical knowledge. Sweden and Norway were for ages under separate Kings and Governments, owing to the Kolen Mountains. The Alps and Pyrenees are much to blame for France, Italy, and Spain knowing no unity, despite their belonging to the one Latin people. The mountains of Spain and Austria are constantly threatening the dissolution of these powers. The Himalayan Range gives safety and separation to Hindostan.

3.—Rivers and lakes, though less completely than mountain ranges, divide and direct the nations. Thus the River St. Lawrence and its connected lakes in North America divide very nicely the commercial centres of Canada from those of the United States, page 3 and the Mississippi in the latter country those of its Eastern and Western peoples. The Tornea, the Rio Grande, the Danube, and the Guadiana are similarly serviceable. Rivers, however, seem to be more indispensable in the division of a State into separate districts. The Waitaki bounds between the Provinces of Otago and Canterbury, and the Mataura between Otago and Southland.

4.—A waste or desert tract in the heart of a country is an ugly barrier in the way of its unity. Africa, because of the Sahara Desert and others within its borders, can never produce such a power as the United States of America; Arabia can never be otherwise inhabited than but sparsely on her coasts; and the Desert of Gobi in Asia, and the waterless grounds of Central Australia, are equally abhorrent of political unification.

5.—The last and by far the intensest disuniting cause is the intervention of a sea of considerable breadth between the different parts of the State. The old dominions of England comprised a part of France, but the English Channel has long since given to the latter political separation. Denmark formed anciently a part of Scandinavia, but does so no longer. Norway and Denmark then tried to get along together, but could not because of the sea page 4 which divides them. Norway is now in company with Sweden, in a union far from complete. The mountain range, though troublesome, divides nevertheless less strongly than the sea. Why are Scotland and Wales quiet and Ireland in commotion? Because of the want of a dividing line to the first two, and its possession by the last. The living waters, the life-blood of Fenianism, is the narrow Irish Sea.

When a country such as France or Denmark is joined to a continent, or backed by extensive tracts, it is generally successful in its attempts at separation. For it is to the interest of that back country to bring about the separation, in order that it may serve the purpose of an outlet for them the more. Had Ireland been connected with Europe by land she would long ago have split her partnership with the Sassenach.

(The difference of climate which holds in different portions of the globe is certainly a disuniting cause, but not so much so as the others. Under its influence one nation more generally is obliged by means of arms as a secondary cause to yield and be governed by another.)

The human family since the days of Babel has been split into a hundred communities, and such are some of the barriers which nature has declared shall page 5 ever divide them. When a sovereignty consists of sundry islands, even though divided by a small width of sea, and if these islands have an extensive coast line, indented with several bays and harbours, the probability of their .separating rises very high indeed. The thread of their confederacy is likely at all events to be slender. The reason is obvious. On these harbours population seeks and finds seats for its energy and enterprise, and a far greater variety of interests spring up in such a country than in an agricultural or pastoral, and more inland territory. The inhabitants of inland districts in possession of no coast-line have indeed scarce anything to interest them, save the regular return of the seasons. The Government, to be felt equally over all the parts of such a State, must not only be strong, but must be near, and when a sea divides it from its subjects it is incapable of doing them equal justice. Thus, in an island sovereignty the balance of power and interests cannot be easily maintained. The attempt to govern a number of islands from one centre is as the case of a farmer who has a farm divided in two by a broad river. Being resident, and having his steading on one part only, to cultivate the other he must swim his horses and boat his implements over to it, and be put to many considerable inconveniences. It results that he does as to his farm what the people page 6 of New Zealand wish to do as to their country. Separation follows, but not generally before it is sold. The separation of the Middle Island, it is to be hoped, will not fail to come; undoubtedly it too has been preliminarily sold.

6.—1 he results of these disuniting causes are inevitable unless the causes themselves are removed. Anything less will not do. They hold almost all their own against the most brilliant discoveries, and the most prolonged labors which man can afford to bestow on them. The railway, the steam-engine, and the telegraph only slightly break their force. Though the Alps and Pyrenees be pierced and tunnelled, they will still divide different nations. The mainland of Circassia, and of the Ural, will ever weaken the Russian power in the East. A shield is by no means useless though pierced with an arrow. Nor will the telegraph and steamboat be more successful among peoples divided by sea. The submarine railway now spoken of under the British Channel will never unite England and France. The Sahara will divide Africa, and the deserts Australia, though the French dig wells innumerable in the first, and the English do likewise to the last.

7.—The physical causes of disunion being pertinent to the world we inhabit, are unalterable, but page 7 the political causes of it are perhaps less steady, are altogether subordinate to the physical, and belong directly to man himself. It is the result of his political experience and observation, and stands with a thousand others beneath the mantle of earthly interest, and finds embodiment latterly in the vast abyss of pounds, shillings, and pence. Political relations are sometimes a cause of union as well as division, for a country often separates from one neighbour but to join another.

8.—A political cause which frequently disunites a country's people, is the difference of the races which inhabit it. This is partly the cause of the present disturbed state of Ireland. Austria's people are of different races, and they and her mountains cause her Government annoyance. The other day she lost Venetia through this and a physical cause. The Celts of Scotland are scarcely yet on good terms with the Lowlanders, and they would be on much worse ones were it not for the want of a strong natural boundary.

9.—When the interests and aspirations of a part of a State clash directly with or are hampered by those of the other part, a separation sometimes follows. This tended a good deal to separate Holland from Belgium. The late civil war in the United States was produced chiefly from this cause. page 8 —It was to the interest of the Northern States to manufacture goods for the South, and to receive of course in return their productions, and the profit both on their purchase and sale; and to abolish slavery, because of the variety and greatness of the evils and the odium which sprang from it. Slavery besides placed their labour in some respects at a disadvantage, and was utterly and in every way opposed to their genius and policy. It was for the South to see that it bought its goods at the cheapest rate, and sent them directly to the dearest mart, and to retain slavery. The result was the most desperate attempt at separation the world has ever seen. But though the political causes were present and leaned to separation, a powerful physical cause on the side of union was at hand and prevailed. As the late Edward Everett and many more said, in case of their division, Where would they draw the line? Each could only have obtained an absurd and curiously dove-tailed frontier physically bad, and leading to endless future complications. Could the South and its abomination but have had the fortune to be placed across the Rio Grande, and to Western Mexico, or across the Rocky Mountains, with possessions thence to the Pacific, then would that river, those mountains, and those sea-boards, in their plea for separation, have shown good cause.

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10.—Countries are sometimes assisted in disuniting through one of them having difficulties or burdens to contend with unknown to the other, and which while they remain in partnership they are bound equally to bear. Such a burden are the Maories in arms in the North Island of New Zealand on the colonists of the Middle Island.

11.—Countries may become disunited when a strong power seizes on the possession of its neighbour This is a forced or hurried disunion, but generally is mainly caused by a physical circumstance. Sweden lost Finland, because not only was she unsuccessful in war with Russia, but because Finland is physically more in union with Russia than with Sweden. For similar reasons nearly, Nice was united some years ago to France, and partly from the same cause will the Prussian dominions in Europe be enlarged.

When an energetic and effeminate race are neighbours, the separation (as it may be called), if physical causes do not prevent, of the weaker is often brought about. Thus Russia has cut Turkey in slices and appropriated them. Persia and Circassia have also given up to her parts of their territory. But neighbouring peoples are seldom so different in their characters. An advancing race has commonly to go some distance for materials with which to found a possession or dependency.

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12.—The want of good roads or other means of inter-communication in a State gives often great help to its division. A Government, to be effective, should reach easily every part of its dominion, and be easily reached from every part of the same. In Colonies this cause figures importantly. In a group of Islands such as New Zealand, its value is of course added to. The districts nearest the seat of a good Government, receive all its benefits from its insularity Wellington if intended for a capital ought, like Copenhagen, to tower equally on both sides of Cook's Straits.

I do not mean to say but that there are exceptions to these dividing causes. A portion of a State-sometimes cannot separate because of its smallness, its inability to maintain a separate Government, and from fear of neighbouring enemies. The Western side of this Island (the Middle Island of New-Zealand) will be retarded for ages in just desires after division, by the smallness of its available agricultural lands. Its people will also with difficulty agree about anything for their common weal, owing to the numerous divided centres to which they will tend, and this because of the bays and harbours on their coast. Its position will be precisely that of Norway at present. Its future factions may resemble those of ancient Greece. Were Norway capable of page 11 sustaining a larger population, the divided interests which would spring up around its fiords would effectually prevent union with Sweden. But the fear of Russia and poverty give to the alliance its utility. Iceland in its smallness remains a dependency of Denmark. A sovereignty over several adjacent islands is, as has been said, the most apt of all to split asunder. The only exception of any consequence almost to this rule is the empire of Japan. But its entirety has been maintained by several powerful political causes—the absolute character of its Government, the small extent of its external commercial relations, the gross ignorance of its people; and a fourth cause is the wondrously conservative nature of all its institutions, being the impersonation of narrow-mindedness and conceit. The strongest cementing cause of all is its religion. This comprehends everything in the life and concerns of its believers, and constitutes the morals, the economics and the politics, as well as the theology of the nation. I do not see how a group of considerably-sized islands could remain long together under any other system. When that system breaks up, separation will assuredly ensue. The Colonial party of New Zealand might therefore gather many a hint from the Koubas and Mikados of Japan.

But when countries thus become disconnected, page 12 What is the fortune of the seceder? I think almost always good. France, disunited from England, never afterwards regretted the division. Nor did Denmark when separated from Norway and Sweden. Tasmania would thrive no better if united to Victoria. Victoria and New South Wales are both prosperous. The union of the Transvaal Republic with the Cape Colony, could bring no gain to either.

The causes which mark certain boundaries to the provinces or departments of a State, are in principle the same with those that divide the State from its neighbours. Rivers, the smaller mountain ranges, and coasts lined with numerous harbours, are the chief physical causes of division. The size of these Provinces depends politically on several circumstances. In a land thinly peopled, and of considerable extent and suited to pastoral and agricultural purposes, they will be large. In New Zealand, where her coast is extensive and numerous harbours abound on it, the tendency is for each of these harbours to become the centre of a province or community. The States on the north-east coast of North America are small because of her harbours. But to the southward, larger States, as Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, prevail, from the fewness of the inlets. In a country such as New Zealand, where the settlements are seated pretty widely apart on its coasts, no better page 13 form of Government theoretically than that of the present Provinces can be found. They are copied from the Constitution of the United States, and could be proved, I think, to be the only good thing in New Zealand. Her settlements are divided by uninhabited roadless tracts. No intervening population binds them together, nor breaks the force of insulation. White-faced sheep may abound, but white-faced men and women don't; a solitary shepherd is insufficient for the purpose. An institution near at hand, and possessing considerable law and order-giving power, is manifestly wanted in such a case. The Provincial Government undoubtedly meets that case.

I believe that no country that has ever sought and obtained separation from another had better reasons for seeking and obtaining separation than we of the Middle Island from the North Island of New Zealand. If any tie is to be left between them, the slighter such the better. Such a tie is of no use in peace, and after honest reflection I see no use for it in foreign war. Our only means of defence requiring co-operation would be the building a fleet. We have no money to do that. If we had money, and had it built, we should never agree about the port or the position it should lie in, or what it must do in case we are attacked.

We can only defend ourselves, then, by page 14 fortifications and a militia, and the first can be built and the other raised in the Middle Island, with a seat of Government in its centre, as well as if the seat of Government were elsewhere.

Political causes of overpowering moment demand the financial separation of the Islands of New Zealand. Physical causes cry out no less loudly for insular separation. Till both are gained, peace and prosperity shall never reign in our Island.

1866.