SIR JAMBS FERGUSSON IN REPLY TO SIR GEORGDE GREY.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 19, 19 November 1874, Page 3

SIR JAMBS FERGUSSON IN REPLY TO SIR GEORGDE GREY.

The '* Times' publishes the reply of Sir James Fergusson td the petition from Sir George Grey. It is as follows :— -" Sir,— l am directed' by the Governor to acknowledge his receipt, through the Hon. tbe Colonial Secretary, of a petition to His Excellency sigaed by you, and forwarder! by the Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, together with n copy of a letter addressed hy you to Hia Honor. His Excellency does not deem it necessary to reply through that channel. The' prayer of your petition is that His Excellency will at once summon the General Assembly of New Zealand to meet with the least possible delay • and further, that a copy of your petition be at once transmitted to Her Majesty's Government with a respectful request that it be laid before Parliament, and that His Excellency will immediately send a telegraphic message to Her Majesty's Government, pointing out that at the present time there is no person constitutionally or in point of law qualified to negotiate or communicate with Her Majesty's Government on the subject of the abolition of the Provincial Institutions of the country. It appears to His Excellency that in praying him to summon the General Assembly immediately, and transmit your petition to Her Majesty's Government, you propose he should act independently of, if not in opposition to, his responsible advisers, a course which would be justified only by great and exceptional emergencies. The object to be gained by pursuing such a course is in your opinion that the'lmperial Parliament might not be led without due warning to pass an Act which would destroy tbe Complete representative institutions in this Colony. As His Excellency is aware that there is not on the part of the Government of New Zealand any intention to make application to the Imperial Government to propose any such measure to Parliament, or that there is any necessity for so doing to enable the General Assembly iv exercise of its legitimate functions to carry out at its next session by specific legislation the Constitutional changes, which by resolution in its recent session it declared to be advisable, His Excellency hopes that with further information on this point you will be satisfied that the prayer of your petition ought not to be complied with, and tbat it is also needless to make telegraphic communication to Her Majesty's Government of a fact which must be known to tbem, as it might be supposed to have been known to every person in this Colony, tbat there is no person " qualified " if by that expression in your petition is meant accredited to negotiate or communicate with Her Majesty's Government on the abolition of Provincial Institutions. His Excellency is very sensible that your experience is far greater than bis own in duties of Colonial Governor, but it is nevertheless incumbent upon him to act according to his own view of bis duty, and considering^as he does, that to transmit your petition in its present form to Her Majesty's Government, with a request that it be laid before Parliament, would be ia some measure to accept as matters of fact the premises upon which it is based, he is constrained to decline to accept your prayer in this particular. His Excellency desires to assure ybu that regarding as he does, with the gieatest respect and consideration, an expression of opinion on the public affairs of New Zealand by one so highly qualified as yourseli, he will most willingly and promptly transmit any representation you may desire to make directly through bim, as the appointed channel, to Her Majesty or Her Majesty's Government in regard to these affairs. (Signed) " Fkancis A. Hake, " Private Secretary, '' Sir George Grey, X.C.8."