SIR GEORGE GREY'S GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND.—No. 1.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3058, 15 May 1867, Page 6

SIR GEORGE GREY'S GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND.— No. 1.

Rgsum<s of Sir George Grey's government in New Zealand, in answer to the statement of William Bucldand, as reported at the Otahuhu meeting, April, 1867 :— " That the moment he (Sir George Grey) put his fooS in New Zealand, it was fatal to the prosperity of the country."— Br AN Old Settlek.

To the Editor of the Daily Southern Cross. Sik,— Some time past Mr.Buckland, at the Otahuhu meeting, when speaking od the political position of this province, nob only endeavoured to show the financial difficulties of the Provincial Government, bub very properly entered also into occurrences of the General Government which had tended to produce our embarrassments. In this latter subject be commented in strong terms upon a course of proceedings, by him (Mr. B.) supposed to be purely attributable to Sir G. Grey, although he latterly lays the charge of impeding the sale of the native lands entirely to the Superintendent of Auckland. But differing from Mr. Buckland in my views of the government of Governor Grey in this province, I would now offer, for the consideration of those recently come here, » partial resume" of general occurrences — endeavouring to test, in some measure, the accuracy of such sweeping denunciations, Mr. 8., singularly enough, after extolling the Governor as a very able man with reference to his government, which he had experienced in Adelaide, next says that the moment he (Governor Grey) put his foot in this colony it was fatal for the prosperity of this country ; that he (Mr. Buckland) always voted against responsible Government. Mr. B. then further says : " The native lands were locked up, and they (the natives) were in a state of poverty, and kept in that state, to carry out the Imj erial policy supposed to have been inaugurated by Sir George Grey." I propose to review the two periods — that of before responsible Government (which Mr. B. prefers), and that under responsible Government, which controlled the actions and opinions of the several Governors. Mr. Buckland, of course, does not forget that when Sir Gt. Grey retired from this first period of Government, a large number of the Auckland settlers expressed their satisfaction at the state of the province to which Sir G. Grey had brought it from a paralysed Government, a state of insolvency, a debased currency, a closed Customs, a condition of war, produced by mischievous foreign influence, in the North, and a war of races in the South, originating from an invasion of the natives' rights, and murder by individuals representing a Southern company's settlement. After being about three days in Auckland, Governor Grey personally took the field, and, in both wars, having brought about a peace, addressed himself to the state of the country. When Governor Fitzroy first threatened war, he thought it prudent to conciliate the natives in the North by withdrawing the pre-emption, charge in favour of individuals extinguishing the native title. Some lands were bought, which the natives were willing to sell, near Auckland, but which the Government was not prepared to buy. This land was since called the penny-acre land ; but whether this penny was given in lieu of pre-emption claim or not, I do not know. If it was, then there would appear a good case of satisfaction paid to Government. But at the same time that Governor Fitzroy withdrew the restriction — and unknown to the buyers, who thought they were buying lawfully under his authority — he transmitted his protest home against hii own act. Governor Fitzroy then shut the Customs, and, there being no money, the Government officers were paid in debenture notes at par, which weie sold some as low as 14s. in the pound. Instructions were sent to Governor Grey, with a ship, to proceed to New Zealand while yet in Adelaide, with suchinstructions as they thought necessary to give; and as Governor Grey was there administering the land policy according to the law, he could not controvert the same law upon which his instructions were based. This land policy, then, was not only the Imperial policy, bub the universal rule until disturbed in New Zealand, and which had been referred to Governor Gippn, in Sydney, during Governor HobsDn's time ; who had before settled (as Commissioner) the claims in Canada, and who fixed the rule of prices and the quantity in New Zealand at the same proportioa as New South Wales, viz., 2,460 acres = 4 square miles. This, therefore, was no suggestion nor inauguration of Sir G. Grey, who then knew nothing about the disputes here j but as the officer of the Imperial Government he was obliged to carry out his instructions. I think lam correct in saying it was on his showing that he received further instructions to try the validity of some of the larger increased claims, which had been investigated in the Commissioner's Court. One was tried J the Supreme Court gave a verdict in favour of the individual. The Attorney-General, and not Sir G. Grey, appealed to the Queen's Privy Council, which set aside the verdcfc of the New Zealand Court as contrary to constitutional law, and ordered the record to be erased ; but at the same time directed Governor Grey not to take further prossedings on these claims. Iv all these proceedings Sir George Grey was simply the officer deputed to carry out the orders of the Imperial Government, and the principle, h«d it been

wrong, was enunciated in an early proclamation of Governor Hobsou, that 110 claim would be valid unless by grant from the Crown ; and that former claimants must consider themselves as tenants in occupation, subject to charges to be regulated by the Crown, This constitutional law was tried to be set aside by Wentworth and Wardell, two able English barrister* in New South Wales, and by Geflibrand just previously, the Attorney-General of Van Diemen's Land, on his claim to laud of (now) Victoria. On these occasions a very elaborate c cposition was made by the able lawyers to whom the Crown had submitted the case, whose determinations were summed up in the constitutional law— "thai; no subject could obtain any title, or claim, against the State of which he was a subject ; and, therefore, the State only could extinguish the native title." Now, if this is one of the points in which Mr. Buckland blames Sir George Grey, he will see that, had he wished, he had no power to alter the constitutional law, not only of Great Britain, but of all European powers ; and such alteration could only bo made by the General Legislature of this country, when the lands and the natives should be submitted to their management. Neither have the natives submitted their lands to the law of our General Assembly, to which they are not amenable until they are reduced by acceptance of Crown title. It would seem there are some old settlers who still deny Governor Grey's right, as well as prudence, in taking steps, especially on the penny-acre claims, to restore the force of the State law upon them. Those on the penny-acres had some show of right, because they had no grounds to doubt the power of Governor Fitzroy to set aside the State pre eruption law, and had a right to allege Governor Fitzroy's sanction. But Governor Grey could not recognise any such act, which, by his instructions, he was to remove ; nor do they appear to recognise the fact of Governor Fitzroy's protest against his own aot, which act it would seem had been forced upon him, under the impression that i 1j f would allay present dissatisfaction of natives. It was very natural that Governor Grey should look with great distrust upon those officers who had sought to acquire land under this forced concession, and who, instead of supporting; the Governor, by discountenancing such pres-sure,-bad immediately availed themselves to obtain the, lands near Auckland at a much less figure than other settlers — not only buyers under the Government, at less cost than the old settlers prior to colonisation.. But these penny acre claimants complain that Governor Grey actually set aside their claims upon the score of illegality, and then disposed of the same lands, in common with a larger block, to the New Zealand Company, at ss. per acre, First, we have to remember that if the law had been improperly or, we might say,' unlawfully set aside, it became Governor Grey's first duty to substantiate the declaration of the law, by disallowing their claims, and which, if incompletely done, would, by such accommodation, of any kind, with the relative claimant!, have destroyed the integrity of the law, and left a mere arbitration question, not only with them, but equally so with, any other claimant who might have purchased the larger tracts of country from the natives ; and thus a constitutional law would be abrogated upon an imaginary abstract right, in the few individuals concerned, against the feudal law, as a constitutional and fundamental law. Old Settler.