LATEST FROM WELLINGTON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 56, 24 July 1862, Page 3

LATEST FROM WELLINGTON.

By the schooner Surprise, which arrived in port last evening, after a passage of eight days from Wellington, we have papers to the 12th instant. The Triton had arrived from London. She brought two red deer, a present from Prince Albert to the Province. The Gil Bias was in Wellington undergoing repair from damage received on the 24th June. The White Swan was a total wreck, having parted before and abaft the engine-room in 4J fathoms of water. The Governor arrived in Wellington on the 11th instant, and was formally to open the Assembly on the 14th, although it met on the 7th, since which date little or nothing had been done. The steamer Queen -was, we are informed, to take the place of the While Swan, and may he looked for daily, when we shall doubtless be placed in possession of the Governor’s speech. In the meantime the following from the Advertiser will, no doubt be eagerly read ; (From the New Zealand Advertiser , July 12.) The long absence of Sir George Grey, who sailed in H. M. S. Harrier, Captain Sir Malcolm Me.Gregor, for Wellington, on the Ist inst., has been productive of serious inconvenience. The General Assembly, which was prorogued from the 26th ult., at first to the 30th ult., and then to the 7th inst., at which date most of the members had arrived, has continued to meet, pro forma, on each sitting day, but, with the exception of Ministers laying on the table certain papers, nothing has been done, and it appears that nothing can be done without the presence of His Excellency. In the meantime, to satisfy the natural curiosity of members and the public, a semi-official outline of the speech which it is intended His Excellency shall deliver, has been published; the four most noticeable topics of which may thus be classed :—The cost and success of the new Native policy, and the obstruction consequent thereon to the progress of colonization in the North Island. 2. The organization of a Militia and Volunteer force. 3. The proposal to effect an administrative division of the General Government, by the location of a portion of General Executive in the Middle Island. 4. The military expenditure consequent on the Taranaki insurrection. 1. The Native Policy. —Sir George Grey is to refer to the mass of printed documents to be laid upon the table, as indicating what his (dans for Native government are—what measures he proposes in order to continue the attachment of the already friendly ? and to restore the confidence of those who have been unhappily alienated. The printed documents here alluded to have not yet, we understand, been supplied to the whole of the members, nor has the Press been furnished with copies, on the ground that the numbers printed were not sufficient to admit of a circulation out of the House. The measures here referred to consist of three bills. The first is intituled -e A Bill for settling a provision, out of the revenues of the colony, for the better government of tbe Native (query, aboriginal) inhabitants thereof.” The Fox ministry propose, that out of the revenues of the colony there shall be paid annually, in addition to all other sums required or made payable by any Act or Acts of the General Assembly, such sums of money as the Governor in Council shall direct for administering justice, ccc,, in native districts. The second Bill is to authorise the Government to raise a loan of <£loo,ooo, to be applied as the Governor in Council shall direct, in making and maintaining roads, bridges, and

other public works in native districts ; to be charged to the Provinces in which the money is expended. When Captain Rhodes asked, in the Provincial Council, for a sum of <£soo tp be put on the Estimates, for the making of a bridle track from Manawatu to Ahurirg the members of the Governmext objected, .on the ground that it was impolitic to make roads through native lands, and an amendment was actually carried to the effect that this sum should not be expended for this purpose until the lands through which it passed were purchased. Mr. Fitzherbert—the Fox Ministry’s “great gun” in the General Assembly—said, that for the Government to make roads through unpmrchased lands would be to make a rod for their own backs ; yet we find that the Fox Ministry not only propose to borrow money to make roads in native districts, but to saddle the Province with the cost. We shall be curious to know how Captain Rhodes will treat this proposal of the Genei’al Government, after the way his proposal was treated by the Provincial Government. He is one of our members who can afford to act in an independent manner, and to refuse to be made a tool of by the powers that be. The third Bill is intituled “ An Act regulating the disposal of Native lands,” and is without question the most important of the three. The Governor is empowered to make regulations, on the recommendation of the Native proprietors, for the sale or letting of their lands, or for partitioning them among themselves. In such regulations provision may be made for raising a revenue out of the land sold, to be expended in surveys, public works, churches, schools, mills, “or other buildings, grass-seed, or agricultural implements, and generally fur such purposes of local advancement of the Native inhabitants as may be thought fit. Clearly, if such a Bill as this is passed into law the colonization of the North Island must be necessarily obstructed. Why not declare at once that the further colonization of this island shall cease ? The new policy, if carried out in its integrity, can bring almost no other result. It is impossible that a majority of the members of the General Assembly can support such a policy as this. 2. The Militia and Volunteer Force. —'1 he Governor, we are told, will refer to the encouragement which should be given to the organization of Militia and Volunteer forces ; or, in other words, and more probably, he will refer to the Bill prepared by the Fox Ministry, empowering him to call together, arm, and array a force composed of Volunteers from both races, who are to continue in the force so long a time as shall from time to time be fixed and determined by the Governor. Ibis is to say, it is proposed to raise, not a Militia force, but a standing army by the voluntary enlistment of Natives and Europeans, which is to be placed under the provisions of the Mutiny Act, and which is to be armed, trained, and lodged at the cost of the colony, towards which the Assembly will be asked to vote, permanently/, <£30,000 a year for pay, and <£lo,ooo for ban-rack accommodation. We doubt whether any, but the veriest creatures of the powers that be, can be found, either in or out of the House, to sanction such a proposition. 3. The division of the Government.—Another of the precious schemes of the present Ministry, to which the Governor is to refer, is the proposition to effect an admistrative separation of the General Government, without creating, as desired by the Separationists a second Legislature. This they intend to do by the location of some of the members of the Executive in the Middle Island, with their permanent official heads, clerks, porters, and hangers-on. Well may Sir. Gillies —the leading member of the Separation Legue—confess that he had no confidence in such a scheme. “ Every one knows,” said he, “ how difficult it was to get men to work harmoniously when they were together, and how much more difficult it would be if they were separated from each other.” Such half-measures are not likely to satisfy any one ; and if the Fox Ministry does not fall to the ground between the two stools, Wellington must. We do not believe, however, that it will meet with the support of a single member of the House who is not obliged to vote black was white to keep the present Ministry in office. 4:, Tip. Taranaki I Var. —Hie Governor is to call the attention of the House to certain correspondence between the Colonial and Ini perial Governments with reference to this subject, and ask it to state its views on the pecuniary question relative to the- late military engagements at Taranaki. Wc were under the impress! in that the House had alia a ly stated its views on this matter. The war in Taranaki was an Imperial war, waged by her Majesty’s Representative for Imperial

purposes, with the military cost of which the Colony had nothing whatever to do, nor with its piosecution and mismanagement, except to suher from it. The Duke of Newcastle expressly tells Sir George Grey not to make peace until die rebels sue for it, and in deciding upon the conditions he is to take particular care, thut neither the Governor’s own mission, nor the cessation of hostilities when it arrives, shall carry with it in the eyes of the natives any appearance of weakness or alarm. “It would be better,”says he, “even to prolong the war, with all its evils, than to end it without producing in the Native mind such a conviction of our strength as may render peace, not temporary and precarious, but well-grounded and lasting.” The'sentiments here quoted, and which have never before been published, will meet the approval of every colonist in New Zealand. His Grace goes on to say, “ If the Maories acquire that conviction, and if they find themselves treated by the Government with as much fairness and consideration as they received before, much will have been done to secure the future welfare and harmony of the two races which inhabit New Zealand.” It is precisely because the Maories did not acquire that conviction, that the welfare and harmony of the two races has not been secured ; but a Colonial Minister who would write thus could have had no serious intention to impose any portion of the cost of the w r ar upon the colony. They might write despatches to that effect; but they are only written to lay before Parliament—not to be acted upon.