"The Press” In 1864

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30536, 3 September 1964, Page 16

"The Press” In 1864

September 3 THE GOVERNOR ALONE Thus it was that the South, which had everything to lose and nothing to gain, and the North which could not but gain immeasurably more than it lost, were induced to unite in a policy of war, under the cry of upholding the authority of law and the supremacy of the Crown. But who at that time foresaw all the consequences of that policy? And now this last indignity has been added to crown the sum total of the misfortunes of the Colony. The constituttional power of the Ministers and of the Assembly is set aside, and amidst the wreck of our credit, and the bankruptcy of our finances, with the law suspended.

and our civil rights enjoyed only at the permission of our ministers; amidst outrages on private property, and the abandonment of public rights, one form alone rises into prominent view; one power only seems to be left in the State—a Governor with the power of a despot, acting under the instructtions of a Government at the other side of the world, and with ten thousand men at his disposal to enforce them. Surely if men ever fed up to the very lips in dirt, it is the Ministers who now hold office in Auckland. Where now are their wranglings with the Governor which have been the talk of the publie press? With what infinite gusto must that wily and treacherous Pro-Consul have watched the progress of a policy

by which these shallowpated men were delivering themselves into his power? To all their other crimes this-is added, that they have reduced the colony to the contemptible- position of being compelled to submit in silence to such despatches as that of Mr Cardwell’s. And perhaps the most distressing result of the whole is the unconscious manner in which they have ministered to .Sir G. Grey’s game: for Sir George Grey, with his usual skill and luck combined, will go home triumphant In the aspect of the world the colonists will be branded as bloodthirsty and avaricious monsters; Sir G. Grey will be canonised as the Angel of Peace. What a ludicrous instance of the fickleness of the judgments of men.