A DICTATOR FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Auckland Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 55, 4 July 1887, Page 4

A DICTATOR FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Wise men have affirmed before now that a beneficent dictator would be the very best form of government. If a man of the highest intelligence

and integrity, incorruptible, and overflowing with the enthusiasm of ; humanity, he should avoid the errors which are inseparable from the rule of an .ill-informed populace J and having supreme authority hi: could at once carry out any measure for the good of his subjects. As | theory, we are not prepared to dispute this ; but as a matter of practice it is simply bunkum. There was war ii heaven, and we should be sorry if trust an angel, much less a fallibi man, with absolute control over tbj liberties of a people. It would appea) however, from the interesting officii document which we have fished git of the Grey collection in tp Free Library, and publish in anotbr column, that New Zealand very rip rowly escaped from such a fate o|y 18 years ago. The proposal madefy .Sir H. Bartle Frere to the Impeja l Government for the appointmentof a dictator having " absolute autjprity for a time, and responsibility fjtimately to the Crown and the Brijsh nation, but during the progress of events only to. God and |hi s own conscience"—is one of the E°st extraordinary we have ever read, pw curious historical document, whichhas come to light after so many y^ rs ) shows how little conception som 1 of the very highest and most fible officers in the Imperial service fiave of colonial feeling. Sir Gprge Grey, for whose consideration as Governor of the colony this preious proposal was no doubt submitted*!! all seriousness, we venture to aayfould i not have perused it without smilig at the notion of colonists who had £* own such a spirit of self-reliance as wS displayed by the settlers of the forth Island of New Zealand, submit|ig to any military despotism. Is i any wonder, however, that the regions between England and her colonie were always on the point of ruptuif until the Home Government recognis f 3 that the colonists could manage thjt'r own affairs better than they co;ld be managed from Downing-strlt; or is it surprising that Crown coloies are still centres of chronic disconteit J