THE COMING SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 31, 12 April 1862, Page 7

THE COMING SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

[Prom the Nelson Examine)', March 29.] We presume that we shall know before long when and where the General Assembly is next to meet. The organs of public opinion in Auckland have made up their minds, we observe, that the seat of Government is to be once more the place of meeting of the Assembly. But the last session terminated with a distinct understanding, on the part of the Legislature, that ifc was to be at Wellington, and we are not aware of any positive evidence having transpired of an official intention to depart from this understanding. Wellington, no doubt, attaches considerable importance to the circumstance. She has always claimed and put forth pretensions to be considered the metropolis of .New Zealand ; its affairs, during the Governorship of Sir George Grey, were administered from her as a centre ; and if, for a second time since the introduction of representative government, she is to be doomed to disappointment, her leading politicians and her public generally will feel themselves slighted, and they are not people to pocket a grievance without a considerable amount- of grumbling, and possibly also of showing their teeth. And their feelings on this subject will be none the more tolerable, or the more readily gulped down, when they bear in mind that they had, upon a recent occasion, prepared a grand ovation for Sir George Grey, with a coach jand six horses, cannons for salutes, and [ triumphal arches with themostcomplimentary inscriptions, none of which were called into 1 requisition for the very sufficient reason that | the Governor did not come. For ourselves, we cannot but think it highly fortunate for the Province of Wellington that Sir George Grey did not visit them at the trysted time ; for we have an esprit de corps about us, and sympathise with the colonists of New Zealand generally wherever they may happen to be located, and we certainly cannot believe that it would have redounded to the credit of the colony to have it known and published throughout Christendom, with all the details of the penny-a-liner, that the man who formerly denounced him as a despot utterly devoid of principle, had been seen dragging Sir George Grey about in a carriage and six like the Idol of Juggernaut, loading him to the last stage of nausea with fulsome addresses, and hailing the celebrated author of the celebrated " blood and treasure despatch " as " the greatest benefactor of New Zealand." Such an exhibition as this we do not think would have been calculated to increase the reputation of New Zealand abroad, either for political judgment, consistency, or good taste, and we are glad it is deferred at all events, even though perhaps the horses are to be harnessed, the cannon fired, the triumphal arches decorated, the "ca' me, ca' thee" addresses delivered, and the greasy night-caps thrown into the air on ! some future day. ' It is the duty of man to be thankful for small mercies, and we breathe more freely under the respite. ! There are already indications of a not far distant session. Ministers who have been perambulating the country are beginning to muster at head-quarters. Only yesterday, the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Eox, took his departure from this place for Auckland. Mr. Eeader Wood is at his post, after his attempts at conciliation- in the South. The industrious Mr. Sewell has circulated his programme of intended performances, and we presume that Mr. Ward will be wending his way thither also, after his attempts to revolutionize the steam service of New Zealand by a proposed arrangement, the first step in which is to deprive Nelson of the direct communication in one bottom with Sydney, and to place her at the bottom instead of the top of the list, as regards the receipt and despatch of letters. The Appropriation Act expires in about three months. The £10,000 voted for native purposes will probably be all spent very soon, if it is not yet gone, and thus " onward as we roll, surgit amari aliqibid" to the Ministry of the day, the stern necessity of meeting the Legislature, to account for past performances, and ask for the supplies for future wants. Meet where and when, it will, the next session can hardly fail to be one of the most absorbing interest to the colony that has ever occurred, because we take it that questions must necessarily be discussed involving principles and results affecting us in our most vital interests. Up to the present time there has been but little indication of the deep feeling which pervades the colony, more particularly in this island. The events of last year were of so exciting a character, that, when war's . alarms were suspended, men's minds by reaction gladly adopted an interval of repose, and between the departure of Governor Browne and the present time so little information has been accorded to the colony of the intentions and acts of the Government (or rather we should say of the Governor) with regard to the all absorbing question, the treatment of the recalcitrant natives, that public judgment has been suspended, and more accurate information waited for. The quiescence of the colony, indeed, in its present painful position is a remarkable fact, and might mislead persons at a distance. But those who are best informed know that it is but a tacit and often a sullen acquiescence in a course of proceedings, the true nature of which we are not acquainted with, but which, in the meantime, is submitted to without overt remonstrance, owing to a variety of causes, some of a creditable, others of a more selfish character. A new captain has been placed in the ship, without ihe request either of the principal owners or the crew. The old captain, who was carrying on to the satisfaction of the gz*eat majority on board, has been removed. The new man has a reputation for seamanship : but he shows no charts, and does not say what port he is bound to first. He may possibly prove a thorough seaman, and take the ship into a safe harbour : but his first proceedings are suspicious. In the meantime, however, the crew feel that it would be unfair not to give him a reasonable chance. They are in troubled j

waters, and there are rocks and sand-banks around them, and it is desirable that they and the captain should work together ; but at the very first opportunity they Avill require him to show his charts, for the ship belongs more to them than to him, and they are not going- to submit, after they have pushed so far through the channel, to any going round upon the other tack, preferring to steer boldly through the remaining dangers which intervene between them and a safe bar b our, to backing out through the shoals and dangers that have bothered them so long, and launching out again into a tempestuous and unknown ocean, dangerous to navigation, fatal, possibly, to the ship. Thus, may the condition of the colony at the present moment be allegorically described; and if we were to pitrsue the allegory, comparing the colony and settlers to a ship and her living freight, the native difficulties to the shoals and quicksands by which that ship is surrounded, and the Governor to the captain, we would add that, while the crew are not prepared and do not think it right at the very outset to embarrass the captain by asking for his credentials and commission, or questioning their validity, still they have made up their minds that no long interval must elapse before they have a final settlement of the question how far the captain is to be independent of them, and by whom the working hands of the ship are to be paid. Or, to drop allegory, few more important questions will be handled by the General Assembly, at its next meeting, than the respective spheres of duty and responsibility of the Colonial and Imperial authorities with regard to Maori matters. An attempt was made, when Governor Browne came to the colony, to approach some sort of definition of this question, and memoranda were agreed to, in 1856, which were frequently referred to, which are the only standard to fall back upon (if, indeed, standard any thing can be called, by which nothing is fixed or regulated) , and which have been as often departed from as not. It was a compact, in fact, that would work when both parties were agreed, and things went smoothly. It was a rope that stood well, so long as no heavy strain was put upon it. But the times are different now. Governor, Ministers, and Colony — none of them know who is responsible, or -where are the limits of authority and responsibility. Is the Colony to find funds for Maori purposes, to be administered by an agent of the Imperial Government, who comes like a bird of passage, whose great object may be said to be to make a name for himself ; to leave behind him the reputation of a colony pacified, and thus reach a higher round on the ladder that leads to title and distinction ? This is the question from the colonial point of view. Is the Imperial Government, says John Bull, on the other hand ? to be at the whole cost of defending a set of greedy, unprincipled colonists, " the vagabonds of the empire" {vide the Eev. Mr. Stowell), from the retaliation of a set of poor, oppressed natives, whom they plunder and maltreat ? This is the question which is put to himself by the respectable gentleman in black clothes, who mixes strong evangelical principles with some knowledge of political economy ; and this is the question, stripped of its integuments of delusion, which will have to be settled one way or other. There has already been a certain ventilation of specifics. More than one political Holloway has puffed his infallible pill, and references have been made to the analogies of other countries and other coloured races. But this must not be lost sight of. In the eyes of John Bull, the evangelical John in particular, the Maori stands on a pedestal quite as high as that of his Caucasian brother. His intellectual faculties are as large. His moral faculties, some of the New Zealand clergy would say, are larger. His position, consequently, must have no character of subordination about it. Eor him, your Indian Councils, which watch over the interests of a race admittedly inferior, are out of the question. He is to be fused into the citizenship of the colony, and your arrangements, from the very beginning, must contemplate this ultimate result.