[From the Nelson Examiner, August 31.]

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

[From the Nelson Examiner, August 31.]

The opinions of a man like Earl Grey, who long ago, as Lord Howick, made himself conspicuous for his interest in New Zealand, and was chairman of the wellknown committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the whole subject of its colonization, cannot be treated with indifference or pass unnoticed. They are the opinions of a statesman of known ability and of great influence ; of one who has already been Colonial Minister, and is not unlikely, in the present balanced state of political parties, to hold that post again. Whether, therefore, we agree with or dissent from his conclusions, we are bound to examine them ; for they may exercise a considerable influence upon our future position, either for evil or for good. The recommendation of Sir George Grey as Governor, which seems to have been the noble earl's principal object, had been anticipated by the Ministry, which took that opportunity of announcing his appointment ; but his other remarks require a careful examination. He speaks evidently with a Philo-Maori bias ; but it is plain that the question is now becoming, better understood in England ; and instead of assuming the confident tone which marked the speeches of Sir J. Trelawny and Mr. Selwyn in the Commons, he only doubts whether the Waitara purchase was a clear case to go to war upon, or a politic case upon which to bring matters to an issue. But he does not vouch for the Maori disposition as some of their thorough going advocates do here ; he allows that they have for years been becoming more and more disaffected, and affirms that the cause is to be found solely in our altered form of government. He therefore proposes that we should at once go back to the old state of things, and that the Constitution Act should be temporarily suspended. Now, whilst we partially agree in his premises, we entirely dissent from his conclusion. Although the altered form of our government has undoubtedly had some such effect as he infers, we think he much exaggerates its influence, and is decidedly one sided in shutting out all the other causes which have contributed to raise the natives' jealousy and excite their I fears. They, like almost all the rest of the | world, have an innate respect for power; and, like all Eastern peoples and uncivilized tribes, willingly submit to authority, and have little desire for change. "When, therefore, they suddenly saw those whom they had been accustomed to apply to for assistance and depend upon for counsel deprived of all power, and found themselves referred to others, taken, as it it must have seemed to them, almost at random from the general mass ; when they heard it the boast of those around them, whose equals they held themselves to be, that this was their doing; and when they were told that these new authorities had no power to interfere in their affairs, and no funds to administer for their benefit, we cannot feel surprised that they lost their respect for the old rulers, without transferring it to the new. But whilst we allow thus much, and believe that the change produced a certain diminution of our prestige, and lessened the native attachment to our chiefs and their confidence in us, we do not believe that they resented it as depriving them of liberties they formerly enjoyed, or of a share in a system of government that they were thoroughly at a loss to understand. The revenue was collected as it always had been, and voted by a Council after discussion ; and unless we can believe them to understand the theory of the British Constitution better than nine foreigners out of ten

on the Continent of Europe, and all the differences between an elective and a nominated Council, which we have been so carefully instructed in, we must believe that the great contrast to their view between the old sj'stem and the new must have been the plain facts that there was now much more talking and quarrelling than formerly, perpetual change, and no moi*e blankets or sugar for themselves. But other causes were at work to create disaffection. Our visible increase in numbers, and our large purchases of land, had already excited alarm ; and their fears were played upon, and they were instigated to -hostility by " disaffected Europeans." The Duke ofNewcastle declared there were proofs that agitation had been carried on, emissaries sent round, subscriptions raised, a native flag designed, an attempt made to levy customs ; " all with the view of persuading the natives that the Governor of New Zealand had conceived a secret plan to exterminate them by degrees, and seize their whole lands for the common use of the British settlers." With this information before us, we can now understand the effect produced upon the native mind by the dark saying "your path lies between my legs," and the refusal to explain it. Add to this the undisguised hostility of the leading clergy to the Government, their published remonstrances, industriously circulated far and wide, " their partial advocacy of native rights," and the very intemperate and indefensible language of some among them, " who, without the talent and ability, and in some respects the [judgment," of their chief, " certainly played a very mischievous part in these transactions," and we shall find sufficient reason for doubting whether representative institutions deserve all the odium of producing the present wide-spread disaffection and disturbances. The change doubtless unsettled and disturbed the native mind, for they could not comprehend its nature or bearings ; and it gave the opportunity to designing men of rousing the latent jealousies and suspicions of tribes just emerging from barbarism, singularly bold, independent, and sensitive: but to call it the sole cause or even the principal reason of the present state of things, is not only an exaggeration, but an untruth. Still less can the Provincial Governments be accused of helping to produce this result. With all their faults and all their defects, and these we have always proclaimed very openly, with this they most assuredly had nothing to do. The address from the Taranaki Council, of which so much has been said, produced no greater effect than the resolutions of a public meeting would have done, if so much ; and it as unjust and unfair to accuse them as'it is to cast unfounded imputations upon the whole public press of New Zealand because, on a few occasions, intemperate expreasions were used in papers of little repute or circulation, shortly afterwards discontinued for want of supporters, and which only maintained a brief existence by the notice taken of their nonsensical effusions. If, therefore, our Constitution is to be taken into dock to repair its defects and render it more effective for future service, we, the residents of the colony, who from actual experience know more about it than any one else possibly can, must take care that it is not utterly condemned and dismantled for faults that do not really attach to it ; but that it may be gently handled, "as if they loved it," by men who recollect that we are Englishmen as well as themselves; and that while our peculiar position and situation on the outside border of the Empire, arid intermixed with a race of half-civilized barbarians, may call for exceptional measures, these should be such only as are fairly proved to be necessary, temporary in their operation, and confined to those parts where the necessity really exists.