MR. COLENSO and HIS CONSTITUENTS. PUBLIC MEETING.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 8, Issue 704, 28 November 1865, Page 3

MR. COLENSO and HIS CONSTITUENTS. PUBLIC MEETING.

(Concluded from last Herald.)

Me. Colenso, with reference to the fourth topic he intended to touch upon — that of separation, had said that he had left Napier for Wellington determined upon two things, one of which was to oppose separation. But as the session advanced, a series of resolutions was moved by Mr. Thomas Russell, which he would read. [The separation resolutions have already appeared in the Herald upon several occasions.] He (Mr. Colenso) supported those resolutions — for several reasons. First — but this did not weigh very much with him — was the treatment the Auckland members received at the hands of the Government. When he considered that Auckland represented two-thirds of the European population of the Northern Island, as well as a large proportion of the native population, he could not but feel indignant at the manner in which its members were snubbed and its interests neglected. With l'cference to the debate upon separation, what he did say on that occasion he got printed in the Times, and he had to thank the editor of the Herald for reprinting it. On that occasion he told the House that in 1863 "he was against separation : he shrank from it : his word then was (as those would recollect who were then in the House) ' The colony one and undivided !' — and such was the opinion of the constituency he had the honor to represent; as expressed by them (and advocated by himself) in a large public meeting held at Napier some months back." But he now felt, he said, "that to do justice to the Colony and to the North Island in particular, he must vote (if he voted at all) for separation, which, however, he did reluctantly." "Separation," he confessed, " was an ugly thing ; one that could not be urged on its own merits. Of two evils they chose the least." And again, he said, "As to separation, he (Mr. C.) confessed he disliked it; he should vote for it reluctantly ; but he saw no other way out of their enormous

growing evils. Through separation the Northern Island would look after her own peculiar interests, and the Southern Island after hers, — and both work for the best." This was an argument that weighed much with him in voting for separation. If it were possible for ministers to be all Northern Island men--at all events to deal with Northern Island questions — the native question would be settled at a much earlier period than if taken in hand by persons who knew nothing about it. Separation was what they in Hawke's Bay had fought for uni flinchingly some years ago. They did so because they saw their share of the revenue squandered in another place and because they had not good government. That was surely the case when Middle Island men took the management of Northern Island, particularly of native, interests. Northern Island men knew little of Middle Island interests — of its telegraphs, gold fields, railways, and what not — and still less did Middle Island men know of Northern Island interests. He had often said to southern members, — Do interfere less with native questions, which are matters of life and death to us, but little or nothing to you. In Australia, all knew what had been done in the .matter of separation, although in the memory ,of many' present no such, thing as separation had been heard of. When Victoria separated from New South Wales, that separation was not so easily justified as would be separation between the Northern and Middle Island at the present time. The distance between Sydney and Melbourne was less than between Auckland and Canterbury, and at the time of separation, a stnge .coach ran between the two cities. Adelaide, Tasmania, and Queensland also separated from the parent colony, and, now, Riverina was about to follow the example. So that, with such precedents as these, separation was not so great a matter as it appeared at first sight; No man, at one time, opposed separation more than he did. He oppose?! it till he could no longer resist his own conscience. The debate lasted four nights. It was well known the motion would not be carried ; but, supposing it had, it could not become law. There was no power within the colony to effect separation; it would all have to be done at home by the Imperial Parliament. He would now read part of a series of resolutions which had been tabled by Mr. Macandrew, from which it would be gathered what some members thought of doing. Those resolutions were of great importance, but had not, so far as he had seen, appeared in any newspaper: — In order to the more economical administration of the Government, and the preservation of the unity of the Colony, it is expedient : (1.) That "The' New Provinces Act, 1858," be repealed, and those Provinces which have been dismembered by said Act he restored to their original limits. (2.) ThattheProvinceof Taranaki tie abolished, and the territory therein comprised be added to the Province of Auckland. (3.) That the Chief Executive Departments of the General Government be reduced to three— to I wit : the Colonial Secretary, Colonial Treasurer, and Attorney-General, and thnt the PostmasterGeneral, Native Minister, aud Defeuce Minister be dispensed with. (4.) That the administration of Native affairs within the various Provinces and the future charges connected therewith be delegated to, and borne by, the Provincial Goverumeut of such Provinces respectively ; and that all lands heretofore, or which may be hereafter confiscated, shall be administered by and for the benefit of the Province within which such lands may be situated. — From these it would seem that, the citation of new provinces having been checked by the repeal of the New Provinces Act, it was proposed that the original provinces should be restored to their original limits — Hawke's Bay to Wellington, Southland to Otago, Marlborough to Nelson. And no doubt this could be done ; log rolling would do it. Otago, Nelson, and Wellington would join to secure the re-annex-ation of the detached provinces. Auckland would also join, the annexation of Taranaki to that province being the sop given it. Canterbury would also join, to save the gold fields of the West Coast, and also Timaru, from being detached from it. A large section of the House was therefore ready to support those resolutions. It so happened that they were tabled at the fag end of the session, and that their consideration was staved ofFtill next parliament. It was a deep-laid scheme, carefully concocted, and he greatly feared that, next session, the resolutions would be carried. He now came to another head of his subject — the moral and political wants of the colony. Wha,t the colony wanted was peace and good government, to obtain which was the problem to be solved before prosperity would again dawn I upon New Zealand. A peace not inglorious but upon a sound secure foundation, such as would ensure its being lasting. What was meant by good government ? It could be expressed in one or two words : a desire to develope the resources of the colony, a determination not to foster one class as against another, . and an administration not costly. That was just what New Zealand wanted. He had now a few words to say upon the future, and not a far off future either. He had not intended to say anything on this subject, but he did so because, almost immediately, the electors would be called upon to exercise their right of returning a member to the new parliament. Ministers were bound to call the Assembly together before June next, and the Governor's last words — in his prorogation address — were the following : — It is my intention to dissolve this Parliament, and to call another without unnecessary delay. I earnestly trust that'tho exercise by the several constituencies of the high functions which will devolve upon them, will result in the happiness of all classes of Her Majesty's subjects in tho Colony, — Tho writs, therefore, might quite possibly arrive by next steamer, and it was for the electors to do their duty when called upon by selecting as their representative the man best fitted for the position He would not proceed further but for a certain requisition he had heard much about and which he believed to be a discourteous act towards a member who was then in' his seat, working for the constituency. He was a man and had feelings in common with other men. When twitted in the House about sitting there without representing any constituency, he felt this — that he had served his constituents faithfully for four years and that they had never complained of him in any way ; that if they wanted him to resign they should have asked him to do si* — they should

have asked before he wont to fight their battles but not when there — they should not have cried "stinking fish!" He would say again, Be sure to send your very best man — one who will i support your interest against the whole worldi If needed before, when your vote was 1 to ,5,7, how much more now when it is only Ito 70? The Middle Island men had said over and over again that all the educated men came from the south. True, Canterbury returned many educated men, but he did not find they were better politicians for all that. The i tendency, he was sorry to say, was not to return men on account of education or other accomplishments but on account of their belonging to the one interest, that of squatters. He had nothing to say against this class, which numbered many honorable and estimable men, but it was an interest notoriously over represented. An examination of the lists of mein^ bers would shew that more than half the numbers of both houses were of that class. On this point Mr. Mills, lately returned to the English Parliament for Westminster, expresses himself in the following terms: — They could not have a perfect constitution of Government which enabled one class to legislate for its own benefit There ought to be no class feelings. The ' Legislature should be a fair, just, and impartial, umpire or arbitrator, . -r-Those few words formed a text upon which the electors of Napier would do well to ponder. He had already spoken of the requisition ; he had one word more to say about it. When at Wellington he had received letters from electors, in which he was told that some who signed the requisition did so because they had been led to suppose that, before the Assembly broke up, Napier would return two members instead of one ; while' others were led to suppose that the paper they signed, which they did without reading it, had something to do with the annexation of the East Coast. Again, ho had heard that the object of getting Mr. M'Lean returned to the House was that he might be made Native Minister. But if that was the case it could be accomplished in a much shorter way — by what he might term a royal road. If Sir George Grey or Mr. Stafford chose to make Mr. McLean a "lord," he might be Native Minister to-morrow, the same as Colonel Russell was. He would now reply to one or two of the charges that had been made against him in the columns of the Herald — not perhaps by the editor but by other writers. He was charged, for instance, with having presented the petition from Napier without having said a single word about it. This was a strange accusation, seeing that the rules and orders would not permit of any remarks whatever upon the presentation of a petition. It would bo found, however, that the petition was not without effect, as could be ascertained by comparing the first draft of the Native Lands Bill with that Bill as it passed the House, in which, indeed, all that the petitioners sought for was granted. He had been charged also with always talking. No doubt he had something to say upon most subjects that came before the House, but it would be recollected that, every day of the sitting, he heard prayers at the opening and was present at the adjournment. As a matter of course a man who was always there and who made, the business brought before the House his study, may be said to have had a right to speak which many others had not. Another thing he was charged with was that he had sold himself to the Auckland members, by whom he had been promised a seat in the House. Now it was a fact that, up to the time of his voting on the separation question, not one of the Auckland members had spoken to him, much less asked him for his support. And, indeed, up to a late period in the debate on separation he had not himself decided on which side to vote. Afterwards, when they saw the requisition to Mr. McLean, and learned the possible consequences of his vote on the resolutions, they did tell him that he could be returned by more than one constituency in the province of Auckland. But the people of Napier might rest assured that if he could not be returned for his native place (as he might term the town of Napier) he would never be for any other. Something had also been said about his connection with the preparation of a Maori lexicon. He had already said something on this subject, and time would not permit of his now entering more fully into it, but if the committee of the Athenajum would offer no objection, he purposed shortly giving a lecture in the hall upon the subject of the bell which had lately been sent to the Exhibition, and the Polynesian language, in course of which he would advert to the subject of this lexicon. Then it had been said that he opposed the landing of the troops at Opotiki. In this, as in many other things, he had been misrepresented in the reports. He had simply asked in the House what had been done before a shot was fired — whether the law, which required that notice should be given to the chiefs, and that a certain number >of days should elapse before hostilities were commenced, had been complied with in this instance. All those things, appearing as they did in. the principal paper of the province, tended to lower him ; and the electors should not forget that, having only one member in the House, they could not afford to abuse him. And more especially should they abstain from such a course at a time when he was engaged in the field, doing his best for their interests. That was the very thing that General Cameron complained of long ago — that whilst he was fighting in the field, Sir George Grey was abusing him to the Home authorities behind his back. But from charges against him in his public capacity he never shrank ; and when he heard such charges, he could not help thinking of the words of Shakespeare, put into the mouth of Cardinal Wolsey, — If I am Traduced by ignorant tongue.", which neither know My faculties nor person, yet will be The chronicles of my doing ; — let me say, "fid but (he fate of place, and the rough brake That virtue must. go thi'ough. One word more, and he had done. He had now attended during five sessions of the New Zealand Parliament — devoting more than a year of time to his duties. He was always present at the opening aud close of each clay's proceedings ; and, if he did nothing more, he gained the prize for attendance. The electors, however, might be assured of this, that he ever tried to uphold the honour of the province, and never sought to attain his own private ends. He did not think that, as their member, he sat

on the lowest bench in that House ; and feeling that, at least, he had acted conscientiously, he could look back with satisfaction to his past career as their representative. In conclusion he thanked the electors for sending him as their representative in the first place. It was for them to say whether they would return him to the next parliament, but he would ask for no man's vote. In any case he thanked them for past confidence, as Well as for their attendance this evening, and the patient hearing they had given him. Mb. J. M. Stuart said that, before the meeting dismissed, he would move a vote of confidence in Mr. Colenso as their member. He did not agree in toto with the opinions expressed by Mr. Colenso. He (Mr. Stuart) was not a separationist, believing as he did that union was strength ; but they had to thank their member for his attention to their interests, and to the constant attendance he gave at the House. Owing,*indeed, to the absence of the other' member for the province, their interests had sustained a great loss. And why did that member absent himself from his duties in the House ? Why, to attend the Provincial Council. He came up, and, taking advantage of Mr. Colenso being in Wellington, swept all before him. At the time^e Council was adjourned, members were told by the government that it was so adjourned till after the sitting of the General Assembly. At the end of three months, however, the Council sat, although the General Assembly was then in session and matters were in just the same position as they were before. He would conclude by moving: — That this meeting views with satisfaction the exertions employed by Mr. Colenso in the General Assembly, on behalf of the Town of Napier, while representing that town in such Assembly. The Chairman, who did not seem to know what was before the meeting, gave at some length his opinions upon the Weld government and things in general. Mb. H. L. Yates seconded the motion. Me. J. N. Wilson said that, at a largely attended public meeting held in February last, in that very chamber, and at which the hon. gentleman who had called this meeting together was present, a series of resolutions were passed, of which the following was one : — Thnt this meeting is convinced that it is absolutely essential to the welfare of the Colony that it be kept intact as one colony, whole and undivided, The Napier constituency had the reputation of being somewhat eccentric in its doings, but he trusted that, on this question, some consistency would be displayed. Most of those present had signed the anti-separation memorial, and he hoped that by that they would abide. By separation this province would gain nothing. Separation, to ifc, simply meant being swallowed up by the province of Auckland. The feeling of this province, from end to end, was against separation. Indeed, if Hawke's Bay must be merged in one of the larger provinces, then a large majority would infinitely rather be re-annexed to Wellington than made a dependency of Auckland. The latter already, it appeared, cast longing eyes towards Taranaki; it would do the same, no doubt, towards Hawke's Bay; and, Wellington being meanwhile annexed to the Middle Island, this little province would be completely swallowed up by Auckland. Believing that the settlers of. Hawke's Bay were as strongly opposed as ever to separation, he would move as an amendment: — That this meeting is still of the same opinion on the question of separntion as that expressed in a resolution moved by Mr. Colenso himself at a public meeting held in Napier some nine months ago. The amendment was seconded by Mr. Peter Searle. Mr. Wilkinson had not intended to speak on this occasion, but he did think the electors were called upon to protest in some shape or other against the course taken by Mr. Colenso on the question of separation ; and he quite agreed with Mr. Wilson thafc the inhabitants should shew themselves consistent, as a body and as individuals. If on no other gronnd than his separation vote, Mr. Colenso, in his opinion, did not deserve the confidence of the constituency. Mr. Wilkinson here accused Mr. Stuart of blaming Mr. Ormond for absence while he himself was absent throughout last session of the Council. Mr. Stuart replied, stating that he had every reason for supposing that the Council would not meet while the General Assembly was sitting, and therefore thought he was safe in making a voyage to and from Sydney. Mr. Colenso, in reference to the observations of Mr. Wilson, saw clearly that an attempt was being made to damage him by a side wind. If the meeting endorsed such a thing as this they would perform an act of great injustice. Because, during five years of service, in which more than twelve months of his time had been taken up, he had given one vote which was deemed not correct, and which he himself gave reluctantly, were the electors therefore to brand him with a vote of want of confidence ? If such an argument was to be allowed no advance would be made in science — no progress made in the world. People would continue as they were in childhood without advancing in knowledge. If, because he supported a motion at one time he was bound to adhere to it for ever after, he might go in this way to the end of the chapter — making no change with the times. He was not ashamed to confess that he was always changing his mind ; and, on the point at issue, after sitting as an impartial juryman, hearing all that Avas to be said on both sides, he had come to the conclusion that the north should be for the northerners and the south for the southerners. But, supposing him to be wrong, were five years of service to be set aside on account of one single mistake ? The amendment was then put, and some seven or eight hands held up in its favor. For the motion, the chairman said that it was folly to attempt to count them, but the number, so far as we could judge, was some fifteen or sixteen — the great bulk of those present expressing no opinion.'