EARL GREY ON NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XX, 12 September 1861, Page 3

EARL GREY ON NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

[From the Nelson Examiner, August 28.] The English mail brings us this month but little news of much political interest. In America the two hostile parties are drawing nearer, and cannot be long without coming into serious collision with each other; whilst the Northern States, to judge from the tone of the newspapers, are in a high state of indignation with both England and France, but especially with the former, for proclaiming a strict neutrality. In Europe things remain much as they did ; except that even Mr. Cobden, just returned from France, can find no plausible excuse for the extraordinary preparations which France is making both by land and sea ; and acknowledges we cannot but regard them with doubt, and keep ourselves ready to meet any emergency that may arise. To this colony, however, the intelligence thus conveyed is of more than usual interest, for it gives an account of a debate in the House of Lords, respecting New Zealand affairs, which leaves no doubt as to the light in which they are regarded at home. The discussion arose upon a bill for legalizing the separation df the provinces ; as it appears that the technical objections formerly raised to that Act had some - legal force, and required such a remedy. But Earl Grey took the opportunity to go into an examination of the whole question. He was followed by Lord Lyttelton, and by the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary for the Colonies ; and whilst differing in opinion upon some points, they all in the main seem to have arrived at the same conclusions. If Earl Grey was more unreserved in his expressions, and went further in his recommendations as to the course which ought now to be followed, the Colonial Minister, with the usual official caution not to commit himself, left much to be inferred by his silence upon some of the questions thus raised, and expressed his entire concurrence upon others. Thus both are agreed in condemning the disposition on the part of our representatives to interfere with the Governor in the management of the natives, and in pointing out that the introduction of representative institutions deprived him of all power of independent action, inasmuch as it left him absolutely without funds to carry out any plans without first submitting them to the Assembly ; but Earl Grey confuses this action of the General Assembly with that of the Provincial Councils and their antagonism to the General Government ; and roundly proposed a suspension of the Constitution for three years, iin order to leave Sir George Grey quite unfettered. The Minister could not agree to this proposal ; but whilst he pointed out that all the debates of the General Assembly had been conducted with singular forbearance towards the natives, and with every disposition to promote their interests, as well as with very remarkable ability and moderation, he agreed in much that had been said about "the Provincial Councils, and the elective character of the Superintendents." " It was a great misfortune that the Superintendents were not only independent of the Supreme Government, but were frequently antagonistic to it ; and he could not help thinking that if the Provincial Legislatures had been confined more to municipal duties, and if their presidents had been nominated by the Governor in Chief, that would have been a great improvement upon the system adopted in 1852." On both sides the impression manifestly was that the Maoris had had too little government, and that the colonists had had too much; but while Earl Grey proposed to put an end to our Constitution altogether, at least for the present, the Duke of Newcastle confined himself to expressing his dislike of certain parts of it, and intimated that he means to wait for further advices from the colony before taking any decisive action. There are, however, notable differences to be observed in the views taken by the different speakers. Earl Grey's remarks are evidently tinged with a partiality for the Philo-Maori party ; he quotes their reasons, and gives them a certain authority ; but shortly after he declares them to be inadequate to account for all the circumstances, and propounds a theory of his own. He began by saying that as the Government were sending out large reinforcements to New Zealand, still he hoped they would not confine themselves to the use of force, as if their only object was to destroy the native race, but would also, by judicious measures of conciliation, try if it were not still possible to gain their confidence and to win them back to submission. He thought the Maoris were not alone or even principally to blame, and that it had been both impolitic and unjust to make any purchase of land of the ownership of which there was the least shadow of doubt, and, still worse, to assert our claims by force. He quoted the Bishop of New Zealand, Sir William Martin, Mr. Swainson, and Mr. Fox, to show that the validity of the purchase was not altogether clear. After dilating upon this subject at some length, Earl Grey goes on to acknowledge that this Waitara purchase was less the cause than the pretence for the war. This, he considered, was to be attributed solely to the adoption of the representative form of government ; which offended the Maoris and deprived the Executive of their confidence and their respect. He praised Sir George Grey for suspending the Constitution Act of 1846, and dated the me of disaffection to British rule

1 and all the subsequent troubles to the intro- ', duction of the Constitution Act of 1852, and the manner in which it had been carried ' out. But we feel bound to say that most of his objections are such as would occur rather to the mind of an educated Englishman than to that of a half reclaimed savage.

The same objections have been made here ; but they have been made for the natives and not by them. That which, to our minds, has the greatest show of reason, is the remark that the change lowered us in the eyes of the natives, because it lowered the authority and lessened the power of our Chief, the Governor ; and seeing authority transferred so rapidly from one set of men to another, they lost all confidence in its stability and all respect for its action. For, says he, " the Executive Council were the mere delegates of the Assembly." The noble Earl finally arrives at the conclusion that representative government, or government by means of party feeling and party interests, was unsuited to a young colony, and particularly to one where there were two races of such different habits, modes of thinking, and advance in civilization. He ended by giving his advice, therefore, that the Constitution Act should be suspended, and that before it was again brought into oparation it should be submitted to a thorough examination and amended in all those points where experience had shown its errors and its defects; the grand mistake being the absence of the controlling power formerly exercised by the Governor over his Executive, the loss of his independent action over the natives, and the constant struggle between the General and the Provincial Governments ; these latter, from their constitution, being enabled with impunity to disregard and set at defiance any directions from head-quarters which were not in every respect exactly in accord with their own wishes.

The Duke of Newcastle, as we have already said, whilst he declined the kill or cure style of treatment thus boldly put forth, agreed in much that had been said, particularly respecting the defects in the Provincial Governments ; but this is a subject of so great interest to us, and, from what we can gather, so likely to become the subject of practical alterations, that it will require a closer examination of the arguments, and a mOre careful comparison of the points of agreement and difference between the speakers, than would be necessary in cases where the results did not, in Bacon's words, come so closely home to " men's own business and bosoms."