SIR W. DENISON on NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XX, 12 September 1861, Page 4

SIR W. DENISON on NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

[From the Nelon Examiner, August 14.]

The letter of Sir W. C. Denison to Colonel Gore Browne, whom we must now call our late Governor, which first became known to the public through its appearance among the documents laid before Parliament by the Home Government, has excited much attention, though it has hitherto met with but little comment. It has been reprinted by almost every paper in New Zealand ; which is a tolerably satisfactory evidence of the interest felt in it ; but we have not yet seen any independent notice of its contents, or any attempt to inquire into the principles it advocates and the course of action it recommends. It was once referred to in our House of Representatives, and an attempt made to obtain the letter of our Governor, to which it purported to be the answer. But this was refused, and very properly. The communication was a private and confidential one; and Sir W. C. Denison was guilty of a breach of trust, and of the well understood rules of conduct among gentlemen, when he made any use of it, or even any reference to it, without the consent of the writer. His conduct was still more indefensible if his position is taken into account, inasmuch as the affairs of the public are more important than the concerns of individuals ; the necessity for unreserved communications greater, and the consequences of any act tending to destroy the mutual confidence which should prevail between men holding such responsible posts much more injurious. It seems to us the act of a little mind ; of a man who abounds in his own sense ; who wishes to show to the world that his opinion has been thought worth asking ; and who is evidently under the impression that when given it ought to be decisive of the question . But whilst we reprobate the abuse of confidence, and feel that the circumstances of the case and the whole tone of the letter give anything but a favourable impression of its author ; its views and suggestions may still be well worth our careful consideration. Sir W. C. Denison has had much experience in public affairs, and has gained a character for ability in office, and for that sort of official determination to have his own way which the people at home always support so long as it is successful ; and which he lately showed very conspicuously, although he failed to obtain the approval he looked for, when he sent the troops which were applied for by our Governor, but altered their destination. Let us Bee then what his suggestions amount to. He begins, characteristically enough, by saying he does not think much of the Governor's Advisers ; and although their memoranda on Native Affairs have more than once been highly commended by the Home authorities for their ability and information, he very compendiously for his argument reduces all their propositions to two; one, that they ought to have some voice in native questions ; the other, that England should give us her assistance. Whilst he thus ignores all that is valuable in their suggestions, it cannot be denied that he here hits the blot, the weak point, not of the late Ministry only, but of all our New Zealand public men. All of them, the outs as well as the ins, of whatever political complexion they might be in other respects, have agreed in the desire to secure for themselves the largest possible share in the administration of the affairs of the colony ; whether they concerned the European or native population. This tendency has been lately made matter of accusation against the Stafford Ministry by Mr. Fox. But he and his friends were aB open-mouthed as any upon this scent ; and at the end of last session were especially active and prominent in depriving the Native Council Bill, brought in in accordance with suggestions from home, of its most important provisions ; those which secured its stability and independence. The consequence has been that it has never yet been confirmed ; whilst its establishment in its original form would have deprived the English Secretary of all pretence for calling this "a settlers' war," or for requiring at our hands an amount of contributions which may cripple the colony for years to come. But, taken in the literal acceptation of the words, the settlers, we assert, have a right to say something in native affairs ; and have a right also to call upon the mother country to defend them. Because, although there is no doubt that the Executive did say a good deal in native matters, and a certain degree of jealousy had* already begun to manifest itself between the Ministry and the Native Department, yet the official responsibility still rested with the Governor and those whom he appointed to manage the native affairs under his direction; the responsible Ministers only giving their advice when called upon, as they were in the commencement of the Waitara quarrel. Considering the relations and the intercourse which subsist between the two races in the Northern Island, it would be impossible so to separate their respective interests as to manage and regulate our own affairs without trenching upon the native domain ; and as the Constitution Act placed that under the Governor's exclusive control, they could not do so more inoffensively than by offering whatever suggestions occurred to them as necessary, whether in the form of bill or official memorandum ; it being always understood that the Governor was at liberty to accept or reject their advice, without thereby compromising himself generally with his responsible advisers. Sir W. Denison indeed allows that they have not had the management of these questions in their hands ; and also allows their right to look to England ; the only question thus becoming one of degree — To what extent is their claim good ? He puts the question, indeed, but torgets to answer it ; and having already declared that Mr. Richmond's letter had very little in it but the expression of a wish to have " something to say in the discussion of questions having reference to the natives," he sketches out two lines of policy, one of which he, by implication, fathers upon our Ministers, which he designates as impolitic, immoral, and unjust, and likely to lead to all manner of disasters ; the other is to pacify

the land league, do away with all jealousies in future, and be conducive to the best interests of the Government and the people ; this latter of course being his own proposition and the line of policy he recommends for adoption. In his first sketch he follows out the line of argument which has been in such general use here ; making assertions without proof ; and attributing motives and intentions of which there is no evidence, and which have been disclaimed and repudiated over and over again ; whilst it appears to us that the portions of our policy to which his strictures really do apply are not the product of our " home-bred wits " or of colonial manufacture at all, but the direct consequences of following out the instructions received from home. So also the policy he recommends is identified with that favoured by the PhiloMaori party here. The king movement, instead of being discountenanced or even ignored, is to be encouraged and directed; whilst he conveniently passes over almost without notice what Colonel Gore Browne calls its " dangerous element," but what we rather look upon as its real essence and main attraction, the assertion of native independence, and the formation of a national league against us.

But the subject demands and will well repay a closer investigation ; and this letter of Sir William Denison's furnishes us with the means of doing so in a satisfactory manner. It may be looked upon as a summary of the principal objections which have been brought forward to the present management of the natives ; and as a tolerably complete abstract of the recommendations on which it is proposed to base future policy. We are now halting between two opinions ; and the forces on each side are so nearly balanced as to render it very uncertain to which side the victory will finally incline. The attempt to popularize the discussion and make its main features more generally known and understood will not, therefore, we hope, be thought misplaced or without its use.