[From the Nelson Examiner, September 4.]

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

[From the Nelson Examiner, September 4.]

Although it is merely an act of common justice to defend our Provincial Governments against accusations which they really do not deserve, we are not Quixotic enough to undertake their cause generally, or endeavour to make out in their favour that all the other objections to their proceedings are equally unfounded. They are evidently in bad rupute in England : all we contend for is that they shall not be held responsible for acts with which they have had nothing to i do, or condemned for faults which are not theirs but other people's. But Earl Grey has evidently been no incurious observer of matters which the actors in them had little idea would have so wide a notoriety. He tells us that he has long been watching the progress of what is usually called representative, but what he prefers to call party government, in these and the neighbouring colonies ; and he sums up the results in a very few words. They are "burlesques," which he is thoroughly "ashamed" of. They are in reality not responsible Governments, but the reverse; Governments by party; "which was the most irresponsible that could exist." We have little doubt that, if he had been called upon to prove these assertions, lie was prepared with a good stock of instances in proof; and would have surprised the members of the Upper House who had not studied the subject so closely, with a narration of the three years' illegal expenditure at "Wellington, the disgraceful Otago business, and the queer doings at both Auckland and Canterbury. But this was not needed. Whilst Lord Lyttelton thought that " the Constitution of New Zealand was not erroneous in principle" the Duke of Newcastle expressly declared that he " disapproved " of it ; and gave his reasons. He did not, however, fall into Earl Grey's mistake about the interference of the Provincial Councils with Maori affairs, although he did not correct it ; he merely pointed out that the Constitution Act gave the exclusive management of the natives to the Governor, whilst it really left him without the power of independent action, by making the consent of the General Assembly necessary before he -could incur any expenditure. For this reason, a Bill had been brought into Parliament to appoint an independent Native Council. This had

met with so much opposition that it had been withdrawn ; although the colonists had been so far from thinking it likely to be injurious, that they had adopted its principle and introduced ' a, similar Bill themselves. In this statement, however, the Duke was scarcely so explicit or so correct as he might have been. The English Bill was opposed principally by members of the House of Commons we'll-knoAvn to be in frequent communication with our own politicians ; and the New Zealand Bill was only suffered to pass by Mr. Fox and his friends after the proposed Council had been deprived of all real influence- or authority, by giving it a consultative voice only ; and reserving the final decision upon all its recommendations, not to the Governor, but to the Executive Council for the time being. That Act has never yet been confirmed in England ; and we do not think we should be far wrong in thinking that it never will be confirmed. We should now probably have many more to agree with us than we did Avhen we first ventured the opinion that our representatives in the Assembly, on both sides of the house, fell into a most grievous error in not availing themselves of the opportunity thus afforded them by the Home Government. Against all probability, they would persist in thinking that they might retain the management of native affairs entirely in their own hands, and leave to the British Government the task of supporting their policy, and bearing the burden of whatever consequences might result from it. We are now finding out our mistake ; and yet so far are we from drawing back or retracing our steps, that we know some members are already prepared to support a loan, if called for, even to tho extent of a million of money. It is time that we should open our eyes to our true position ; that we should ask what real interest we have in supporting either of our political parties in grasping at powers which they are unable to wield ; and in interfering where, at all events for some time to come, they will have no real influence ; where their advice will only be followed so long as it recommends what has been already decided upon, and where even that semblance of power will have to be dearly purchased at the expense of their constituents' interests. We have now a last opportunity of disclaiming and repudiating a responsibility which is not ours. We should have been more careful than we have been not to allow the shadow of a pretext for saddling us with its liabilities ; yet we have so far committed ourselves that the war is called a " settlers' war," and the movement of the Queen's troops against tribes in open revolt, who disclaim her authority, and defy her power, has been made contingent upon a previous bargain to be struck between her representative and her subjects, the colonists of New Zealand. Have the settlers at Hong Kong or Shanghai been called upon to bear the expense of the war in China, or the inhabitants of the Cape Colony to pay for the maintenance of the foreign legion on their Caffre frontier ? We imagine not ; and yet we see no other difference between their cases and our own, than these ; first, that the local authorities in China were never called into consultation by Lord Elgin ; and next, that the Prime Minister at Cape Town never offered, in case he were entrusted with the conduct of the war, to carry it on to its close with determination and energy. We have alluded to Lord Elgin. -It is well known that his advice to the late Governor, Colonel Gore Browne, was to interfere as little as possible with the party strifes sure to follow upon the inauguration of popular government. But a new order of things has arisen ; a crisis has arrived, which is beyond the powers of our responsible Ministers to meet or to manage : the Home Government has appointed Sir George Grey to take the helm ; if not with extraordinary powers, we may be quite certain with the assurance that he can have them when needed ; and we hope the opportunity will be seized of drawing a broad line of distinction and demarcation between those powers of self-government which we are clearly entitled to, and those attributes of the Imperial Government which we are unable to wield, which do not belong to us, and which, while they flatter the self-esteem or ambition of a few, would prove a Pandora's box of evils to all the rest of the community.