NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 1532, 5 October 1867, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

We republish a letter addressed to the "Times"by Mr William Fox, who from his intimate acquaintance with New Zealand politics is well qualified to give an opinion on the subject of which his letter treats:— TO THE EDITOIt OE THE " TIMES. H Sir, —Temporary absence from home has prevented my noticing the important debate in the House of Lords on the removal of troops from New Zealand, which occurred on the 15th inst., but I trust that the lapse of a week will not have obliterated all interest on the subject, and that you will allow mc the opportunity of making a few remarks on the subject from a colonist's point of view. The general impression left on the mind of the reader of the debate in question, and particularly of Lord De Grey's speech, must be that the Colonial Governtnent, either apart from or acting in unison with the Governor, has been the cause of tho detention of the Imperial troops in the colony. It is due to the colonists that it should be known that this is not the case. As far back as December, 186*, resolutions were passed by both Houses of Assembly almost unanimously, requesting

the Imperial Government to re move tho whole of t!so iroona" without delay. «i m «o that period they had been detained by the Governor on his own responsibility, without, if not actually against, the express advice 0 f two successive Ministries, and f MQ colonists liavo had -absolutely notlnV whatever to do with the matter. Tho Colonial Government never consented to retain any portion of the troops on the terms proposed hy Mr Cardwell • and it has been owing in no way to its action or advice that they have been retained by the Governor." Why, then should Lord Do Grey complain that tho colony had not paid a single shilling on account of the troops ? to Another reason why the Colonial Government demurs to this and other charges which tho Imperial Government seeks to impose upon it is the fact that, owing to tho bitter quarrels between Sir George Grey and the successive generals in command, about matters over which the Colonial G-or. ernmeut had no control, the troops* during the poriod of their detention' and for a long time before they were ordered home, were absolutely of little or no use to the colony. Nay, m 0 their inaction and mismanagement involved the waste of very f ar „ 0 colonial expenditure incurred in support of the Queen's troops, br the maintenance of a colonial force amounting to nearly 5000 men, who during all the period" referred to'wero almost as useless as the Quee n > 8 troops, all owing to the discreditable quarrels between the officers of the Imperial Government If Lord De Grey had dismissed one of his footmen, who still persisted in remaining in his Lordship's house, and when there spent his time in perpetual combats with the butler, would his Lordship have considered himself bound to pay him wages for the period after the dismissal? The demand made on the colony to pay for tho troops whose removal it had requested seems to us colonists exactly parallel.' But let it not be supposed that tho colony has not borue its fair share of the cost of the war, so long as the troops remained with its consent or by its desire. Eesponding to the call of the Duke of Newcastle, when he sent the troops, it at once organised its Militia, enrolled a standing force of nearly #000 men, and has since paid a military expenditureof from £3,000,000 to £4,000,000 sterling, in support of the operations of the Imperial forces. No colony, I will venture to say, h&s ever in analagous circumstances, in proportion to its population and resources, borne so large a share of the burden of its defence against either internal or external disturbances. The little that can be gathered from his Grace the Duke of Buckingham's remarks is extremely unsatisfactory, particularly the hint which he gives of renewing the commutation of tho capitation money for a fixed sum of £/5Q,000 a year to be paid " for securing certain ends." The end hitherto secured by the payment of this Native civil list by the colony has been'in ow way or other the maintenance of th j interference of the Colonial-office in the government of the Natives. Lord Carnarvon is correct in stating flmt the Duke of Newcastle relieved the colony from this interference; but he is wrong in saying that Mr Cardwell followed the Duke's policy. Mr Cardwell reversed it, and told the Governor that so long as Imperial troops remained in the colony he was to act on his own judgment whenever he differed from his colonial advisers. It was to get rid of this interference that tho Assembly in 1864 passed the resolutions referred to, requesting the immediate removal of the troops. If his. Grace the Secretary for the Colonies hopes to retain the right of interference by giving the colony a regiment on] these terms, he has made a mistake. The colony will on nticonsideration consent to the renewal of the right of interference in Native affairs by the Home Government. To the exercise of such interference it unanimously attributes all the Native. difficulties, and so long as .it is maintained the colony will have the corresponding right to demand military protection. There is, however, little fear of the colony accepting any such proposal, and if the detention of a regiment depends upon it^:it will hot be detained. Sir George Grey has always mam" fested a large amount of faith in " big battalions," and was not the man to denude himself of troops if he could help it. I think, however, he might have, been compelled to doit without the step taken by Lord Car* narvon. Anything, the Governor's recall, or any other strong measure, would have been better than the provocation to conflict between the civil and military authorities which endued as the natural consequence of the transfer of power from the former to the latter. Stung by the implied slight, Sir George Grey at once threw himself into open opposition, and while forced to admit the General's power to remove the troops from the colony, "8 defied him to take the necessary steps of moving them in the colony. The General was check-mated, referred the matter home, and retired into a position of sulky inactivity, which involved the waste of a great expenditure and the suspension of all active operations. But this was not the worst result. The " demoralization" of the force in a technical sense had j been bad enough before. It now became far worse. The quarrel had been a single combat between the Governor and the General. It -now became what the Americans call ttfre& fight. Encouraged by Lord Carnarvon's action, every officer who could nib a pen and had the use of official stationery for nothing, every colonel who was tired of the war, aud every commissary and doputy-cornmissary-general rushed into foolscap, and the Governor and his Ministry became involved .in hot controversy with all sorts of military antagonists. The Governor might well have exclaimed, " Little dogs and all, Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart—see, they bark at mc." The disorganization between the two services, civil and military, became complete, as any onQ