WELLINGTON.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 5, Issue 278, 3 May 1862, Page 3

WELLINGTON.

The opening speech of the Superintendent, as recorded in our " Extra " of yesterday morning, was delivered on Friday the 25th inst. As on former occasions, it is a lengthy and an able paper. Apart from the information of a local nature which it communicates, its reference to topics of a more general character may be said to be of colonial interest. "We find, amongst other matters of importance, that His Honor has been appointed by the Governor to perform the duties hitherto devolving on an officer of the Land Purchase Department, and that he is sanguine of being able shortly to effect purchases from the natives. This is a new view of the position of the provinces of the Northern Island — one from which a hint might perhaps be taken by our local government to the ultimate advantage of this Province. We subjoin that part of His Honor's address which touches upon the present .position ' of the Colony and upon other subjects in which this province is interested, directly or indirectly. We include the reference to the search of gold, as the vigorous steps taken by the Wellington Government may not improbably, at some future time, exercise an important influence upon the fortunes of Hawke's Bay. We go so far in this matter, indeed, as to suggest that the Superintendent of Wellington should be communicated with as to the terms upon which this province could participate in the researches of the competent geologist who has been written for to England. . It will be seen that the Superintendent, with reference to the debt between the two provinces, proposes submitting a Bill to the House of Representatives, appointing Commissioners with full powers to settle finally this vexed question. In your last Session you passed an address to the representatives of this Province in the General Assembly, in which, after thanking them for the course they had pursued in reference to the Taranaki war, you urged them "to use their utmost exertions to obtain the establishment of such a wise, humane, and equitable policy by the Genei'al Government towards the aboriginal inhabitants of these Islands, as would ensure the continuance of j peaceful relations between the two races, and the future prosperity of the Colony." . It will Bcaroely be expected that I should open this Session , without . offering my heartfelt congratulations upon the changes that have taken place since we last met — upon our having escaped the dangers that then impended over us, and upon the prospect there is of your hopes being fullyrealised. Though at the time you voted the address a truce had been arranged between the Government and the Natives, still no change had taken place either, hx the , policy or intentions ' of the then. Governor . and his advisers. Thej? agreed to a sub: penß^n;of. .arms/in a;irioioent; of .panio,, "and, only, waited^

Imperial Government, to. make an aggressive movement, which must at once have brought on a general war — a war which, according to their own admissions, must have swept away the bard earned fruits of twenty years colonization, and could only have been brought to a close by the extermination of the Native race. The dangers to which you, in common with the whole population of this Island, were then exposed will be only fully understood and appreciated when the correspondence between the late Governor and the Home Government, and the resolutions of the Secret Committees of the two Houses, have been made public. But, nevertheless, when you remember that the war was commenced when there was only a force of a few hundred men at the disposal of the Government — that even when the force (military and naval) had been augmented to above 5000, the Governor and his ministers found themselves too weak to fire "that shot at the Waikato country which was to be a signal for a general rising of the Natives," — that they still begged and prayed for further reinforcements; and when you further consider that upon your representatives protesting against his striking the blow he was meditating, until at least some sort of protection to the settlers had been provided, the late Governor admitted, that even if he had .20,000 men at his command, he could not do more than defend the three or four centres of population; and that therefore all the settlers beyond the precincts of the garrisoned towns must be prepared to submit to the sacrifice, if not of their lives, at any rate of their properties ; when you bear in. mind such admissions as these, I am amply justified in congratulating you upon this Island having escaped dangers as great as ever threatened any one of England's numerous dependencies. Nor am I less justified in congratulating you upon the prospect there now is, that the hopes you breathed in the address to which I am referring, will be most completely realized. The dismissal of the late Ministry, and the substitution in itß place of one holding entirely different views and advocating a wholly different policy — the recal of Col. Gore Browne, and the re-appointment of Sir George Grey — the man of all others in whom the Natives ever have had, and still have, the greatest confidence — at once changed the whole aspect of affairs. No sooner did these events occur, than a firm conviction seized the minds of both Europeans and Natives that there was an end to the internecine war contemplated by the late administration. How far this conviction has been borne out by subsequent events — the present position of the Colony contrasted with what it was a few months since — the restoration of public confidence — the revival of every branch of industry — the employment of the military, not in war but in making roads — the changed attitude of the Natives, their eager adoption of the institutions of self-govern-ment offered to them — the withdrawal of some of the most influential chiefs from the king confederacy — the confirmed loyalty of many of the most powerful tribes — the unmistakeablo wavering displayed in the ranks of the king's adherent — these and other facts, patent to all, sufficiently testify and declare. My own belief, however, in the establishment of a permanent peace, rests not so much on the change of Ministry, or the re-appointment of Sir George Grey, or the offer to the Natives of the institutions for which they have long been craving and striving after, as upon the simple fact, that His Excellency and his Ministers by their offer to refer the question of the Waitara purchase to arbitration, have had the moral courage to proclaim to the Natives that the same principles of justice which guide men in their private transactions shall be observed between Her Majesty's Government and Her Majesty's subjects — that if wrong has been done even by Her Majesty's Representative, that wrong shall not be persisted in, but as far as possible repaired. Had this avowal not been made, a deep and keen sense of injustice, rankling and festering in the minds of the whole Native population, must have rendered a solution of the Native difficulties well nigh, if not altogether, hopeless. Without that offer of arbitration, Peace was barely possible ; that offer made, to my mind War is barely possible. # # # # The discovery of gold in different districts of this Province has very naturally caused a belief that paying gold fields may yet be discovered, and consequently a desire that no time should be lost in ascertaining how far the impression, is welU founded. You will, therefore, not be surprised that the Government have not hesitated to anticipate your wishes by intimating to Sir R. Murchison that they accepted his offer, conveyed through Mr. Mantell, to select and send out a geologist thoroughly competent to explore the mineral resources of this Province. But in order to avoid any charge of apathy in regard to a matter in which the whole Province manifested so great an interest, the Government gladly availed themselves of the services in the meantime of Mr. J. Coutts Crawford. The reports furnished by that gentleman will show that in the short space of 3 months he explored a great portion of the West Coast territory ; and the information contained in them — both in regard to the geology and the agricultural and pastoral capabilities of the country he traversed — will bear ample testimony to hiß competency for the work he undertook, and to the valuable services he rendered. Though no discovery of available mineral wealth rewarded his explorations, still he has paved the way for the researches of future geologists, and has already indicated the localities in which minerals may most probably be found. You will be gratified to learn that this Province has at last been relieved, both of the heavy expense and of the mischievous obstructiveness of the Land Purchase Department — His Excellency the Governor having been pleased to devolve upon myself, as Superintendent, the duties of purchasing such lands as the natives may from time to time be disposed to alienate. Though fully alive to the responsibilities attached to this appointment, I have not hesitated to accept it, as I conceive that very, great advantages may accrue, especially in the pre*. Bent state of the native mind, from the Superintendent being placed in , close and intimate relations both towards the General Government andi the natives, as the office of Land Purchase Commis-

sioner implies. There will no longer be that; antagoniim between the General and . Provincial Governments, in regard to land purchases, so calculated to impair and destroy the influence of both. The subordinate officers of the Land Purchase Department will no longer be political agents employed for party purposes, to engender distrust of the authorities, and so to foment rather than to adjust disputes with the natives about land. Tbe Superintendent, from the constant and intimate intercourse which will thus be established between him and the natives in every part of the Province, and from the influence which hia office as Land Purchase Commissioner will undoubtedly five him, cannot fail to acquire an accurate nowledge of the feelings, wishes, and requirements of the natives, and thus be enabled to second far more effectually than he otherwise could do, Hia Excellency's Government, in their endeavours to remove existing causes of irritation, and to revive that confidence in the Government which has been so grievously impaired by the proceedings of the late Administration. While on the one hand there will be no solicitation — no teasing — of the natives to part with a single acre of their lands ; jet, on the other, they will know and feel that in the event of their wishing to sell, they will not be subjected to the vexatious delays hitherto occasioned by the necessity of referring every negociation to a distant authority — but the terms of purchase arranged — and the boundaries of the block offered for sale, after due notice, publicly defined and marked out, the purchase will be at once completed. While I am anxious to avoid raising any undue expectations from the change thus made in the Land Purchase Department, I have reason to believe that no long time will elapse before valuable blocks will be freely offered for sale to the Government. With respect to the funds by which purchases are to be effected, I am not in a position to state how much of the Land Purchase Loan remains unexpended ; but I fear that when the accounts are rendered it will be found that of the £27,000 allocated to this Province, the whole, with the exception of a few thousands, has disappeared ; and that some 30 per cent, of the amount has been frittered away in the expenses of the department. As it is impossible to give even an approximate estimate of the sums that may be required, I shall simply ask you to authorise me, by resolution, in the event of other funds not being available, to raise temporary loans from the Banks — an operation which there will be no difficulty in effecting, as the Union has on former occasions made similar advances to a large amount ; and as the New South Wales Bank a short time since, when I hoped that Mr. M'Lean might purchase certain blocks, involving heavy payments, readily consented to place at my disposal whatever amount might be necessary. Such advances, it will be understood, will have to be repaid out of the first proceeds of the sales of the purchased blocks. You are aware that the two Bills, the one repealing the clause of the Land Revenue Appropriation Act of 1858 under which one- sixth of your land revenue was authorised to be retained by the General Government ; the other compelling a refund of the amount so impounded, which were passed by the House of Representatives in 1860, and rejected by the Legislative Council, were again introduced last session, and agreed to by the House of Representatives without a division, bufc that the Legislative again threw them out. It is satisfactory to know that before next session, the Legislative Council will be so far reformed by an addition to its numbers, that it will scarcely be in a position again to defeat the repeated decisions of the House of Representatives on a Money Bill, with which it has constitutionally no right to interfere. In the meanwhile, the present General Govern" ment has advanced to the Province as a nominal loan, the whole amount of the " Reserved Sixths ' ' received up to the 31st October last, on the security of a portion of the land in process of reclamation, and I have no doubt they will continue to band over the accruing sixths as often as we may ask them, especially as under the change just mentioned in the Land Purchase Department, the onus for providing the funds for land purchases will devolve not upon the General but Provincial Government. During the last session of the General Assembly the representatives of Hawke's Bay, and of this Province, after repeated conferences upon the subject of the apportionment of the public debt, agreed to submit the case of their respective Provinces to the Auditor-General, not as an arbitrator, but with the view of obtaining his opinion as to conditions and principles, by which, in the event of an arbitration being agreed to, the arbitrators should be guided, and upon the understanding that the reports should be laid before the Provincial Councils of the two Provinces for their sanction, previous to any further action being taken . in the matter. The Auditor-General, after hearing the statements of the two parties, and fully con* sidering the whole question, ultimately gave it as hia opinion that the permanent debt of the original Province must be taken at the date of separation at £100,000 ; and that the apportionment should be based on population, rather than territory j and accordingly recommended that Hawke'a . Bay'^ should be charged with £25,000 of the £100,000,,, Your representatives at once offered either to adopt the Auditor- General's recommendations, provided the same principle of apportionment was applied to the Land Purchase Loans, or to adopt the territorial basis of apportionment for the £100,000, or, finally, by way of compromise, to accept the sum of £35,000 ; but the Hawke's Bay representatives did not feel themselves justified in agreeing to any of these three proposals. It is under these circumstances that, in redemption of a pledge given to the House of Representatives, I shall submit a bill appointing Commissioners with • full powers to adjust the debt with the Hawke'a Bay Government. Without expressing my entire concurrence in the .conclusion arrived at, , by the Auditor-General, I yet willingly admit that he has so far cleared the way for a settlement, that j, I do not apprehend that there will be any serious difficulty in satisfactorily arranging this vexed, ■question, if the Hawke'a Bay Government is prepared to enter -upon the: proposed i hegotiatioaa in , ! ; -tlxe'Bame"spint ; aß- : we-'d6;v^ ;^;:; '■ Vl= ' '••/:'"