INDIA, THE CAPE, AND NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume III, Issue 69, 6 September 1862, Page 1

INDIA, THE CAPE, AND NEW ZEALAND

Ideas break out like rashes, all over the body at the same time. Twenty years ago there was an emigration rush. Then soon came a constitutional rash, and every colony wanted local self-gdvernmcnt, which, as the ' Saturday Review' well observed, meant a right to govern others when there were any aborigines on the soil. Then the Church caught the fever, and a simultaneous demand for Church Constitutions arose in Canada, in the Cape, in Australia, and in New Zealand; and now in these same dependencies or colonies where natives tiro living side by side with Englishmen, the idea of extending to them what are called Anglo-Saxon Institutions seems to have started up simultaneously without any communication with one another; in tact, the rash is an epidemic, not contagious. We were led into this train of thought by the fact, that in the same week Mr. FitzGerald , was moving his resolutions which proposed to summons at once " the Maori nobility" to seats in the Legislative Council and the Executive Council", and to take steps to have members elected to the House of Representatives, in that same week, we say, newspapers from India were giving accounts of the attempts

that are being made there to establish self-government among the natives. The three forms in which selfgovernment is being conferred on the people of India are politically, in the admission of a few chief men to the Legislative Councils; judicially, in the creation of honorary magistrates, and municipally, in the attempt to form Town Councils in the chief cities. The first part of the experiment has been successful, except in Bombay. The success of the second in Oudh has long been undoubted ; and we learn that in the Punjab the Jaglieerdar magistrates are considered to be doing very well, saving the people long journeys for petty cases. So far as the third form of the experiment, municipal self-government,is concerned that has been as yet, somewhat of a failure, and the reason is not fur to seek. It involves taxation for sanitary and other purposes which the Native cannot appreciate. In the Supreme Government's resolution on the subject in 18G0, the opinion was expressed that municipal institutions are as well adapted to the .Natives of India as to those of England. But, as Mr. McLeod the Punjab Financial Commissioner confesses, municipal organization among the Natives has been limited to small sections of society having common interests. Sir George Clark finda the reason of the failure of the municipal charter of 1850, in itt» "too ostentatiously English character. He would adapt it to the existing state of the feelings of the people, by empowering the Government to decide a* to what improvements should be introduced into any locality, lenviug it to the municipality to carry them out." Now this is exactly what we feel with regard to Sir George Grey's plan, and Mr. FitzGerald'e resolutions. They both go on the just and sound principle that free institutions are as well adapted to the Maori character as to the English, only let us bear in mind Sir George Clerk'e maxim, and let us guard against their being too ostentatiously English; rather lettheGovernment suggest plansbasedupon sound p> inciple, and leave the native Runangato develope them in the manner beet suited to its requirements. The Maori has talent, not genius. He is critical, not organic, or originant. Ho cannot devise a new Constitution suited to his own purposes, but.he can thoroughly weigh the merits and demerits of any proposition submitted to him. So far we have seen the parallel movement id Motive affairs that is being made in India to that which i» being attempted here. Now turn to tho Cape papers, and see the colonial parallel of the former and present scene of Sir George Grey's Government. We extract the following passages from Governor Woodhouse's speech to his Parliament at the Capa, on the 24th April 1862, and the reader will almost fancy himself in Wellington at tho session of the New Zealand Assembly, in July and August, 1862 " A despatch will be laid before you, expressing the unqualified regret with which the Secretary of State received the intelligence that the Legislative Council, in your last session, declined to pass the grant of £10,000 voted by the House of Assembly, Hβ a contribution towards the extra allowances to Her Majesty's forces. Looking at the peculiar circumstances under which the proceeding of the Legislative Council wae adopted, Her Majesty's Government not unreasonably hope that tho Council will now reconsider its decision. Should this hope be disappointed, they will have no alternative,* but to infer that the colonist 8 tee no occasion for the assistance of the Queen* force* in their defence ; and they mu?L be prepared to find measures adopted for withdrawing a suitable portion of the troops from a country where

their maintenance is not thought worth any eof c cration on the part of the colonial authorities- ♦*= * * Invested by Her Majesty's Governments Ith the powers formerly entrusted to my distinsgiiislie=sd predecessor, Sir Gcorga Grey, and anxious totbsvelope to the best of ray ability those plans for the c civilization and advancement of the native tribal ihreicb h<! had so ably initiated, I could not but be coaiiks&sif the difference in our relative positions, crmli - by the withdrawal of the grants from Imperialhrs-nds by which we had been so materially assisted, [Tlii&a is the old story—one can almost fancy it is Governor , * Gore Browne talking.] Turning next to the poAncnof the Colony and the state of parties in botßi llosasce of Parliament, I have gathered that the public mi 2nd has been much agitated, and the transaction of ggeneral business retarded, by discussions on a proposal that the existing Cape Colony should be divit-li i« sto tiro distinct colonies. I have been forced to th ccoiictiilusioi), that the advocates of Separation to some extent shrink from encountering fairly the groat difficulties iuvolved in the execution of their scbrtuie. I have sought in vain to discover how the l. ruo inmtcrests <»fany part of the Colony can be benefited k r its disruption into two inferior and jealous Nomina unities. Others again have advocated the rcmovnl • of the Seat of Government. A proposal 'in-voliiiigj; such great sacrifices, and so large an outlay eftlic public money without any commensurate advances, is not likely to prove generally acceptable. W-o Ife-s left to v? the alternative of assembling the Parli amctit cfor its annual session alternately in the Eastern aiiilWTestern parts of the colony. Ido not deny that at Ik outset come embarrassment might Le experienced frcxin the Session being held at a distance from tlio Public Offices. But it is our business to recograizo lioonestly the inconveniences of our present positions, and the necessity of applying a remedy. I should recommend also, with a view to tk public convenience that a change should be mule in the Presidency of the Legislative Council. itlh-ae time of'the first establishment of representative iusli Stations at the Cope, there may have been good woods' for placing the guidance of the Legislative C onil 1 in the hands of so elevated and learned a funct'ioiy ~ns the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Bmitliranny say without fear of contradiction, that in everytol-lony in which the Chief Justice has been called tapoiit*-o combine the discharge of political or executivediiliocs with those of his high office, time has proved lie inconvenience of the arrangement." It is exceedingly interesting to see «be s several problems being simultaneously worked out sin the different dependencies of the British Empire—. The real use of Downing street would be to» dissisify the records of the different colonies, and lo pqcublish epitomes of colonial and aboriginal txqicricnoce on every subject of importunce that ever occ^iu,