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Daily Southern Cross, Volume VI, Issue 429, 8 August 1851, Page 3

" Where fkg&ne person or body of men seize into , „ their; h^p*jj&£he power io the last'resort there ii ' properly naponger « Government, bat what Aristotle and hi* fqllowert call the abate and corruption of one." — S-wirr. Si», — W^e live in strange times ! — Hia Excellency ma waa pleaaed on the 18th of June last— -a day prolific of Great men, but now more than ever memorable — to declare that " in hit opinion it was highly unbecoming in one occupying inch an elevated position at the Lieut.-Gorernor, to pan a grave censure upon hia (Sir George's) administration ; and he there* ;ifore felt bound to defend himself, and to act himself $Hght with the public." Strangely elated and excited by thit engagement! on the same field ere the smoke has well nigh patted off, he calls for a feu tie joie and species of sham fight, which toon degenerates into a violent crusade against certain personages, not present to defend tiiemielves, no less in reality than Her moat sacred Majesty Queen Victoria, the Le* glalaturc of Great Britain, and a picked band of England's best. Whether the public generally will join with some in fear and admiration of what has been called the great man's •» impartiality and independence" or " feel themselves bound" to step forward, throw np thtir caps, and cry " God save the Queen" with indignant protest against this unbecoming exhibition of presumption, remains to be seen : at all events, there shall be no mistake abonthe facts, and people shall judge whether it is honest to insinuate that " force" and extortion (wrong contributions) are being retorted to by any connected with the Canterbury Settlement, and this, too, ''contrary to the intentions of the Home Government and of Parliament " In consequence of tat* satisfaction and interest felt by Lord Grey — as shewn in my last letter — and the universal interest Uktn in England in any plan which should induce respectable classes to tnrn their thoughts upon the Waste Lands of New Zealand, Her Majesty, by her Letters Patent dated the 13th of November, 1849, was pleased to inoorj orate the Association " for founding, &c, a settlement of colonists, being wholly members of the Established Church," and " for providing effectually for their establishment and welfare," &c. ; the Letters Patent expressing the views of Her Majesty and her a&rise/s, at follows : ■ "And whereas the said Association have reason to believe lhat the proposed undertaking would be of great benefit and service to our loving subjects in general, and would tend to the furtherance of immigration into our said colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies, and to the extension of the influence and privileges of the Church of England as by Law established ; and we have been accordingly besought by the said Association to grant to them and to those who shall hereafter become members of the aaid Association, our Royal Charter of Incorporation for the purposes and objects aforesaid : Now know ye, - thai we, being desirous 4f encouraging a design so laudable and 1 salutary, of our especial grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have willed, granted, constituted and declared, and do by these presents, for Us, our heirs and succeisors, will, grant, constitute and declare," &C. And the Charter then proceeds to constitute them as one body, politic and corporate, &c. The site was then selected, as I have shewn, with a view to perfect isolation, and to this end the questionable claim of a French company, the Nanto Bordelaise, was investigated, and with the aid of his Excellency ma and Lord Grey, bought up— the former by, his. Civil Secretary writing to Mr. Fox, the Agent of the New Zealand Company, on the 27th April, 1849:— ''As you and Mr. Thomas appear to regard it as essential that the assent ,of the GoTernor -in-Chief •nd that of the Bishop should be given to the site which you have selected, if his Lordship raises no objection to the site, with which his Excellency is unacquainted, hit Excellency will not hesitate to give hit muerit to it." Thjß Association in their instructions to Captain Thomas had said that such assent was " absolutely necessary before determining and proceeding with the survey ;" and it was accordingly given, though not without an attempt, as I have shewn, to divert the settlement into a site where the captious and eviWdispOied might have found some real cause of objection and censure on the ground of intrusion and interference with existing interests. When all this was done and a Bishop- Designate chosen, meetings were held in London and throughout the length and breadth of Eugland, at which the plans and principles of the Association were manful'y announced and fully di»oufjto4js and at U*t, after the dissolution of the New; Zealand Company, the British Parliament deliberately passes an Act (13 & 14 Vie. j c. 70) confirming all the powers and privileges of i the Astociation, in order to provide for their exercise and enjoyment under this further solemn sanction. Throughout all these proceedings, and canvassed as the scheme waa in public and by the Press, though some may have objected to it as an extension of the Waken eld principle, and prophesied the entire ruin of the first lettlersj air appreciated their zeal and sincerity evea to pity : and no one was found of any denominationjfffliciently illiberal, bigoted, or hardy to question// mwh lests deny their right (whatever the nfixed^piotives) to go forth with their wives and children and settle in the wilderness— there to practice, without interference, their religion according to the forms of their forefathers. It was felt to be a new era in colonization, and that men of all classes —ay, and women, accustomed to the highest refinements of life— were ready in numbers to risk the chance of its failure as a means of existence, and proceed across the waste of waters. 16,000 miles, . even to the ends of the earth, under the protection and guidance of this solemn principle. The movement could not but be acknowledged aa a reality, and all wished them " God speed I*' It has been reserved for the individnal entrusted with her Majesty's commission as the Uoveroor»in. Chief of these* Islands, who was bound by his oath

of office and sense of duty, and his own written pledge, " to do hit utmost to «ecure the prosperity «nd advancement of the New Settlement, at what ever point it might be located," openly to attack, in the moit unmeasured termi, the whole scheme of .the Asssociation and the very principle! of its supporters, at opposed to Christianity. " I cannot frame * bill of indictment against a whole people," was the emphatic saying of a^trury great man ; but His Excellency ma feels no such difficulty, even though it criminate, with more than technical epithets, Queen, Lords and Commons of the Empire. The man to whom is entrusted " the peace, order *nd good goTernment" of this part of her Majesty's dominions, has deliberately and with something approaching to 'malice aforethought,' cast amongst us the most bitter apple of discord ; and it depends now entirely on the good sense and the real Christian spirit of the people of these Islands, whether he shall be disappointed in his intentions ; and we shall escape being launched into the endless and wasting conflict of polemical warfare. On thii ground, though a Churchman I have abitained from saying anything on the merits of the»e charges, and it is to be hoped that their discussion, if not aToided altogether, may be at least postponed, until we have something more than mete rumour » and ill remembered private communication*, — upon which hit Excellency ostensibly,and most improperly grounds his proceedings —to allege as cause for alarm , which clearly up to that moment had no previous existence in the minds of his hearers. On one point all must be agreed— 'he immediate necessity (or ascertaining the exact limits' of tbe authority which, in this and other matters, has the audacity to venture upon more than pertains to Prerogative itself, and t united effort to secure the community from such aggressions in future^ — Writers oo juris, rudence huve defined prerogative to be " a pre-eminent riejht of executive discretion vested in the Sovereign Power for the benefit of tbe people." but Sovereign Power iUelf is a negative one ; neither debaiing in Parliament nor proposing new laws. Tbe Governor-in-Chief of New Zealand his a delegated authority from her Majesty under the Act of 1840, to make laws jointly with the Legislative Council for the peace, order, and good Government of any colony or colonies founded by her Majesty's Letters Patent j and under the Act and Instructions of 1846, he has a sole authority, in like manner delegated, for the Government and civil administration of the affairs of the colony according to law to enacted. True, he has the power to propose laws, but no where can there be found authority to denounce simple settlements, or whple provinces, in the absence of any measure affecting them, then pending before the Legislative Council, much less a colony or settlement based on a principle deliberately and specially affirmed by the same authority from which he derives his own, viz : the Queen's Letters Patent and an Act of the Impe rial Legislature. Rank him as high as a Regent, and hit duty will be found to be " to submit quietly to the limitations of power ordained by the constituting body." Treat him as a Minister of State, he cannot have absolute power transferred to him, and " he should be extremely attentive to the orders of the Sovereign power, and will be protected in performing its strict commands." Tn short, he is "to be judged by his design and attention to the Imperial orders." Now, how utterly opposed all this is to the recent conduct of hii Excellency ma. will be evident to the lowest comprehension— his speech being, that of one commissioned to overturn, rather than of the appointed guardian and protector of the ioterests of the new colony. Surely, if those who have so ably advocated the rights of the Aborigines, were justified in speaking out plainly and boldly when, it was /eared that an attempt was about to be made to deal with the rights and : property of the natives of New Zealand upon principles directly opposed to those on which this colony was founded, there is equal necessity, and it it equally the duty of all to protest against, not mere wordt, but the acts and deeds of those in authority affecting seriously the Interests and welfare of our fellow countrymen, because directly opposed to those laws and principles, under which, when they ventured themselves, their families, and pro* perties, to tKeie distant Islands, as British colonists, they considered, and were assured by the solemn Acts of the Imperial authorities, they should enjoy " peace, order, and good Government." It cannot be tolerated that the riling fortunes of this country shall continue much longer in the hands of one who evidently has lost the respect and confidence of all classes, and there*!* little reason to doubt but that, like Jacobus Yon P v ffenburgh, his Excellency ma, will soon find himself addressed, in language slightly alered for the occasion, by some future Peter the Headstrong of the Colonial Office, " Harkee, Sirrah," cried he, " though by your own' account you are the greatest, most upright, and honourable man in the whole of her Majesty's dominions, yet do you lie under the misfortune of being horribly traduced "and immeasurably despised. Now, though it if certainly hard to punish a man for bis misfortunes, and though it is very possible you are totally innocent of the crimes laid to your charge ; yet as Heaven, doubtless, for some wise purpose, sees fit at present to withhold all proofs of your innocence, far be it from me to counteract its ■overeign will. Besides, I cannot consent to trust the welfare of any of her Majesty's people to a Governor whom they despise, and thoroughly distrust. Retire, therefore, my friend, from the irksome toils and cares of public life, with this comforting rrfloc tion— that if guilty, you are but enjoying your just reward, and if innocent, you are not the first great and good man who has moat wrongfully been slan dered and maltreated in this wicked world. — Iv tbe meantime let me never see your face again, for I have a horrible antipathy to the countenances of unfortunate great men, like yourself." Your's, &c, A Nxw Zdaland Colonist.