The New Zealand Herald. AUCKALAND, THURSDAY, OCT. 17, 1864. PEACE PROCLAMATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 299, 27 October 1864, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKALAND, THURSDAY, OCT. 17, 1864. PEACE PROCLAMATION.

BPECTEMTO AGENDO. " Oivo GTury man thino oar, hut fow thy voice: Take ca<*h mnn'f* censtire, >iut reßor\'e thy judjrfncnt. This ahovft all.—To thino ovrngelf be true; it must follow, as tho night tho day, Thou canst not then ho false to any roan."

. Wk give below the most remarkable document i which has been issued since llu l bestowal of ' Responsible Government on tlie colony of New Zealand. A proclamation has been issued under i tlie hand of the Governor, to ■which the name of ' no minister appears. Tlie seal of the colony is in the custody of (lie Colonial Secretary, and all i proclamations issued under responsible government are incomplete unless countersigned by a I minister. Nevertheless, on the present-occasion this fundamental principle of responsibility hasbeen broken through ; a \dcase in (he name of his Excellency has been published, and it would ' appear, upon the face of it. that the Governor l and the General are prepared to usiwp the func- ; ti ons of the Government, to oust the Ministry ■ and the people from their legitimate weight in the scale of power, and to administer according to their own will and pleasure the most importJ ant functions of the colonial legislature. The following is the proclamation which was i published yesterday :— ' "A PItOOT.AMATION. " By Mis Excellency Sir Gt:odot: Giity. T* night Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Path. Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand and its Dependencies and "Vice-Admiral of the same. See.. Ac., Ac. . "The Governor having been authorised to ! extend, upon certain conditions. Her Majesty's clemency to those tribes who have been engaged in the present unhappy rebellion : Now. therefore, T, Sir Geonre Grey, the Governor of the Colony of New Zealand, do hereby notify and proclaim that I will, in her Majesty's name, and on licr behalf, grant, a Pardon to all such persons implicated in the [Rebellion, as may come in 011 or before the ]Oth day of December next, take the Oath of Allegiance, and make the cession of such territory as may in each instance be lixed by the Governor and the LieutenantGeneral Commanding Her Majesty's Forces in New Zealand. "All tl lose persons who have been engaged in the rebellion who may desire to return within any part of the ceded territory, or within the limits of any European settlement, will be re. quired to deliver up any arms or ammunition in their possession. The pardon promised in this Proclamation will not be extended to any person who may have icon ( ngaged in the murder of— " Samuel Shaw. Samuel Ford, [Robert Passmore, Parker. Pofe. Dr. Hope. Lieut. Tragelt, and soldiers (4th May. 1803), [Robert Patterson, Michael Meredith. Frederic].' [Richard Meredith. William Cory Scott, [Robert "Watson, Hugh M'Lean, Sylvester Calvert, Charles Cooper, Willam John Jackson, Margaret Fahey, Job .Hamlin. [Richard Trust, Nicholas Trust, ■fas. Droonigould, Henry Crann, Hugh Corbyn Harris, Sarten. John I!urford, Gaffney (an Artilleryman). Richard [Rrown. Ephraim Coad, William Cutlield "King. John Jlawkin." " Given under my hand, at the Government House, at Auckland, and issued under the seal of the Colony of New Zealand, this 25th day of October, in the year of our Lord on thousand eight hundred and sixtyfour. "G. Grey. "By His Excellency's command. " God SAVE THE Queen !" Nojv, before discussing the demerits of this extraordinary document, we must take exception to its legality. It is a direct infringement on the Constitution. It is itself as illegal as the attempt of Charles the First to impose taxmoney on the shipping of England. If the .British Government, for to them alone the Governor and the General are responsible, had intended to take this matter in tlicir own hands, and to have acted independently of, nay, in direct opposition to the will of the New Zealand Legislature, their legal course would have first been to hute obtained from the British Purlin-

•TOcht' a suspension f bf tk'e. iZfcaland -Cou.'j stitutioii, . Until .tiiat/suspension. ; has , teen I: legally obtained, an/, & c ts, sucli as .the'j>rieseiit : one, taken.in opposition to/its;fbrms ! and enaefcmerits* are-essentially null and void, are, in fact, ~ ultra vires as far ss Ihe power of the Imperial Ministry, which is itself but the servant of the British House of Commons, is concerned. It remains to he seen iu what light the New Zealand Legislature will look upon this invasion of their rights and privileges. Of one thing we are certain, that in the support of those rights tlicy will have with them the roice of the Colonists to a man. But if We loolc at the substance of the proclamation, we shiill find that it is iu itself a farcethat it is unworkable. Who, we ask, arc. to e'e'cle this laud ? . Is it likely that Ai,i the individual owners of this Iqnd \vul come in to please the Governor, and'thus moke a good and clear title : to the land ? We think it is for from likely that such will be the case, and yet it is absolutely necessary toobtain a cessionat all, that every claimant shall come iu. But let us suppose even that the}' do so,' that all rebel claimants come in, what, even tlieu, is to become of the claims of the friendly Natives intermixed throughout the "ceded block, under the " cession." We boldly adirm that no title van bo made by this Jarre oj cession, even though ever sO fully carried out and assisted by the iictioh of the jVatiVes themselves, for if a 'single rebel refuse to come in then must the Government confiscate thai man's land or allow him to go scot free.. We do not believe that this scheme is likely to be favorably received, even among the Natives themselves. We do not hesitate at least to assert that it will not convert one rebe into a peaceable and faithful subject. A portion of the Maoris, very likely, may make it serve their turn, as they have ever done when they could get his Excellency to agree to " a talk." They will come in for the sake of obtaining breathing time, a lid in the hope of seeing the country lulled into a false feeling of security —or to obtain time to plant and to procure more guns and ammunition, but we must remember that the acceptance of such terms is not, nor will it be considered by them as any evidence of defeat, and is no guarantee that the very man who cedes today may not take back his land to-morrow, when he thinks he Lax an opportunity of doiny xo with impunity. Settle the war oil the foundution of this cession, withdraw the greater part of the troops, and before six months have passed the colonists and the Maoris will have entei'ed on a war of extermination, and the interference of England to prevent it will make good the old couplet of Hudibras, with respect to the consequence of interference in quarrels. Wltal security indeed have we iutlie guarantee oE" peace and future order likely to result ram such a " Cession." Have we notli te larce of the Kawau parole before our eyes—the perjured faith, the broken pledges of two hundred of the principal chiefs of Waikato—not tutuiis, slaves, supposed to be unconstrained by a feeling of honor, but the so-called chivalry ol Maoridom. And yet these men at the very time when they solemnly gave their parole, not to leave the Kawau without the permission ol the Government, had already, according totlieii own confessions since made, sketched out in their minds the plan of escape which they subsequently carried out. With such an example before us, what trust shall we place in Maori pi . ? For i tmustbe remembered that while theproclamation seems to contain all that could be desired as to the giving up of arms, it really does not do so. 31 is Excellency will not, we suppose, indeed he could not if ho would, demand the cession of any land beyond the lines already held by the troops. Within these lines art large tracts of lands held by neutral tribes, wlic do not of course come within the meaning of the proclamation at all. On the boundary and beyond this line is the country of the Ngatimaniapotos and others who luvvt been in arms against us. What do those rebels care for permission to come to reside inside the lines ? Will they not rather prefer to live on their own territory outside the lines, to accept the amnesty, and to retain their arws ? Arc they not- shrewd enough to see this bearing oi the second paragraph of the Proclamation: Are there not those \vho will point it out tc them if they arc not? Or again, supposing that the rebels possess no territory beyond the lines, what is to prevent them from coming in, taking the oath of allegiance, receiving (lie pardon and cither taking up their residence in the neutral territory, within the lines or in the uneeded territory beyond them, in either r«e rctainine/ poxxexsiou oj'- their arms. The surrender of arms is not made a condition ol the pardon, but only of the future place of residence. Thus the rebels now in anus against us may avail themselves of the free pardon without the surrender of a single stand of arms ! The proclamation entails the necessity of inaction until the tenth of December. What then if its fruit'have then been found to have turned to ashes on the lips of the Governor? Auotliei season will have been lost. The Maori will have beeomc strengthened and more determinedly prepared ; and the enormous expenditure ol maintaining an army' of 10.000 men will be still going 011, and above all, the time will have passed when the troops can be spared to remain in New Zealand. Certainly, if Imperial inaction causes this unnecessary expenditure, it cannot be wondered at if the colony refuses to pay £"<IO,OOO pel annum for regiments which might have done their work previously to the 31st December, 18' i 1, had they been allowed. We stated on the occasion of the resignation ot the Whitaker Ministry that the resignation was made because the Ministry' would not give their concurrence to the issue of a proclamation offering free pardon to the rebels, unaccompanied by the eonditiou of the fidl surrender of their arms, or embracing a fair and just measure of confiscation. This is not the proclamation about which the AHni.stry quarrelled with hi.s Excellency. That proclamation contained no rtj'erencc whalcrcr to arms. There is, however, in this proclamation a distinction without a difference. Eventually, in its results, it would have the same effect as the other would have had. There is no doubt but that Sir George Grey, having found, from the firm attitude of the Ministry and the outspoken sentiments of the whole Colony, that a determined opposition' would be raised to so palpably hollow a peace, drew back and flung over it the present llimsy veil in which it now appears. We have raiseel the drapery, however, and the public may judge for themselves of the skeleton beneath it, which sits grinning in their midst. And then another thought strikes us, what about Hewi and Thompson, is the amnesty for them ? llis Excellency does not speak plainly. What are we to understand by the term " engaged _ in murders" ? Rewi certainly did not fire the fatal bullet at Dr. < Hope or at Lt. Traggett, but ho wrote the letter ordering it to be clone. Thompson may not have tomahawked the tuo infants at Kennedy's farm, but he wrote a letter staling his intention to do such things, and, as the Head of the rebellion, thus sanctioned every murder which took place subsequently to the writing of that letter. Was not this letter clearly written to excite the murderous propensities of his bloodthirsty countrymen ? And will the Queen's pardon be offered to such men as these. Are the "30 murdered men, women, and children, whose names appear, appended to this proclamation, to .remain for over unavenged. The pardon will not be granted to their actual slayers. Is this all? How will these men be sought for? The Governor would let slip the only means he has of obtaining possession of the murderers. They can be taken in but one way, and that one way is to defeat the rebels before ollering terms, to make them feel their defeat, and to make the I surrender ot the whole of the murderers one of |

the iconflitionsioii';which, 'fthdl ie granted •Lea.V& .thro'.'demand. for tlieir surrender of tie till afterwards, and th ey will escape the hands of justice to a mau.' ... This then is the scheme of his Excellency Sir George.Grey, for forcing the greatest of all disasters, a hollow peace, upon New Zealand. Let us see in what it differs from the policy of the Assembly as entrusted to the charge of the Ministry, and consistently adhered to hy then until an appeal to the country becume necessary! The plan of the Colonial Govetnmcnt wa s to hate tedu'eed the rebels tt> submission—to hate extinguished the Native title ar e ji by bringing the " Conliscatioii Act: -into ppt'nition over that area.. Bytlii&method flieuiwoiild have been free to have dealt with the whole of the lands within that block; the claims of friendly natives -would have been surveyed and grants would have been issued to them for such lands as they wished to retain; ■while the Government would have purchased from them such as they wished to sell, the iclwh of the rebel lands, and of the purchased lands within such area would have been afSilahlt ibf ' purposes of military settlement —for sale—fof the location of immigrants and inen of capita] ground them, Without which Jthey bou.ld hot ' flourish, br b'ecoine self, knd for the location of . such, rebels . ks were really : penitent and . would giv? a material guarantee for their good faith. (Jortainly the Government never. contemplated anything less than the entire surrender of all arms, offensive and defensive, and of all ammunition. We say the whole of ihe rebel lands— we mean the whole of the rebels within, certain limits, for under the " cession" idea every rebel must agree, or the farce ends. ' ><~ Will the Assembly be jpr'epared to stand by] and see such a peace made ? Will the colonists sit inutely by and see the home of their adoption handed over to them, on the departure of the troops, as the arena of a sharp and bloody contest, a war to the knife between themselves and the Maori ? "We do not doubt the result of such a struggle. The policy of the Ministry and the Assembly clearly aimed at averting the necessity of so deplorable a catastrophe. The carrying out of the present proclamation renders it imminent. . On Tuesday nigilt,. a vei*y iihportan t bill under discussion in Lhb Provincial. Coiin cil, and 'it will be again considered to-night. It is called the " Municipal Police Bill," and according to • the general meaning of the word '•municipal," should be confined in its operation to towns. But this is not so, for it aims to embrace the Province generally. A consideration of some of the provisions of the Act will show the great mistake of attempting to make an Act of this nature to apply both to town and country. As Mr. Pi owe very justly pointed out, there ought to be two Acts of this nature, one specially for towns and another lor the country. What applies to one does not apply .to the other ;. what • is is an intolerable nuisance in one is hb huisaneg at all in the other. Country and town legislktion of this character, therefore, ought hot to be ■ jumbled together in one Act, and more especially in one having so many restrictions as this. Before discussing the merits of the " Municipal Police Bill," we cannot but remark the absence from the Council when this Bill wks under consideration of a considerable number of the members for the City. One would have thought that a measure of this kind, calculated to he eminently useful or eminently oppressive, would have commanded the especial attention of the ' representatives of the City of Auckland. Indeed, the whole number present during the time the Bill was considered in Committee, was only just sutlicicnt to form a House. ! There was considerable discussion on the ' clause which provides for the infliction of a : penalty on any person playing any game in public on the Sunday. Mr. Wynn and Mrs Slieelian pressed for a definition of the word " game," so that the law would be clear aiiSi 1 fullj' understood. This ife veiy desirable, hilt it is veiy diilicult to obtain. There can be no doubt but that a clause of this kind can be miide very oppressive ; and tlieie can be as little doubt , but that over stringent laws of this chtinietet , defeat their own object. The difficulty w;is al last met by Mr. Carleton proinisibg to einbody 1 in the clause the words of an English Act of a like character. Aiid this is probably the best course to adopt. In close connection with this subject is that of preventing what is generally known as Sunday trading. There is very little of this in Auckland as compared with the towns of the mother country. There is no real cause for it. 1 Chymists and druggists arc not to come under the operation of this clause. But we would point out that in England, where the druggists' shops are generally open the most of the Suh'day, the chief things sold by them atte hot'drugs and medicines, but swc'cts, spices, and those numberless articles of household consumption vet-y frequently sold by them, but by no means coming tinder the category of medicine. It would be well if the druggists would arrange to supply medicines on a Sunday only at stipulated , times, which should be notified to the puWie by being painted on the outside of their shop door, or on a shutter, as is done at home. The question raised in connection with hoarding houses might very easily be settled by tbe addition of a few words, placing them and hotels in the same character. They cannot be lboked upon as coming generally Under the terms shops and pluces of business ; and it would evidently be impossible and unwise to prevent them taking in boarders and lodgers on the Sunday. There is also another point to be considered. It is more than questionable, too, whether it is wise to shut out from the working classes all opportunities of procuring innocent refreshments on the Sunday. Why should the rich man at his club be able to procure that which is forbidden to be sold to the working mau or mechanic in the shops ? How will the clause in question atfect any omnibus, stage coach, or hired car. or carriage ? Can such either pty for hire on Sunday, or be hired at the owner's premises on that day? If not, we shall have virtually one law for the rich and another for the poor. The former may use his private carriage, the latter will not be able to use his carriage, the only one he can get, viz., cither a public conveyance or a hired private car or carriage. Again, can it be so strained that it would prevent a railway train running, say in the early morning and in the evening of the Sunday ? The practice in England and Scotland is diametrically opposite. In the latter country the law most stringently forbids anything of the kind. A person may hear ot a near relative, living at some miles distance, being at the point of death, and he may be most anxious to go and pay a last visit to hiin, but lie can neither have railway train nor public vehicle to carry him quickly to the bedside of his sick and dying relative. The present Dowager Duchess of Sutherland was once in this position, and she offered any amount-of money that might be named to get a special train to take htfr to where her affection and love so ardently wished she might soou be ; but she could not obtain her object. This particular case brought out the great inconvenience of the Scotch system in strong light, and showed its hardship clearly. We do not think that the persons subjected to these stringent laws are one whit beeter observers of the Sunday, in L ' on " sequence thereof. It is straining an excellent principle and practicc too much. And against this we would wish to guard. With respect to the clause referring to trapdoors in the streets of Auckland, we quite think, with Mr. Wynn and other members, that the i present system ought to be put a thorough stop I to. The public pathway is made privato property ; and the public have to scramble over the middle ot the street, over the shoe tops it may be in mud, while a shop keeper opens his trap door leading to his cellar, and makes a yawuiug

—- . ■ T" i 1 1 n " pTilf of the street. The opinion -was evidently on the side of doing away with this very great inconrcnience, but there was no one with sufficient courage to act upon his convictions, and propose the addition of words to embody them. This ought to be clearly done on the responsibility of the government, for the Bill is really introduced into the Council by it. But should private interests outweigh those of the piiblicj ilnit pre veil t this, tlieh proi-isibii Should bs ipiide Hint .'u6. sui-h trap door ttr dpenihtt slioiild eiirtofich abovß a certiiiii.distance, on tlie footpath iiiid the. time, when it.siipula be. iiijghfc iiasily- ! bc-<leiined. ' ttb sliould suggest that ihcv" should never bb allotted to bo upon at all, from say. eleven o'clock in the forenoon, until throe in the afternoon. This would give time to set Roods from the bonded -warehouses to the" cellars, and would give us uninterrupted streets, for at least a portion of the busiest part of the day. "When down, the trap door should l,e perfectly (lush with the foot piltli. ~jii some Wises iii <'iueeh-stree.t,.ihey are something JiFce six inches above it. nhfl. i'ornxii most, intolerable hiid disgriibeful aiid ,uui.sanec^: Amiilien very important provisibii is' tlisit which provides for cesspools being emptied, and their contends removed only in tlie night. But iiiis is totally inapplicable and unnecessary for die country- lAeeordiiig. to the clause "as it f»:mii,s,.a person in the bush,will break; the law if he ompties his cesspool and puts, it on his j.-md. except between the hours of twelve o'clock a! night and six o'clock in the morning, and tlie same. we apprehend if he carts the contents thereof, or his stable manure even, idong a publie road to his fields at any other time. jVow, ]iow can ft nuisance be created in country districts by -doing nil this in the day-time. Tt is, fj we havi? said, manifestly absurd to jumble »tMVu and roriniry legislation of tin's nature tojether. The result can be nothing but erecting a monument to emblazon and perpetuate our folly. Let the town be separated from the country, and let each have an Act specially applicable to it. But do not pass such restrictive, injurious, and unworkable laws as this. Legislators should be like parents—tliey should never make a law that is not wise in itself and that i'linnot be practically carried out and enforced, jmiiout doing manifest ■strong. Better have no law, than oiie neglected or broken with impunity. ... .. • _ ■ Mr. Howe spoke very sensibly with respect to preventing the streets of Auckland being made lite receptacles for all the rubbish which people u'et rid of from their houses, lie truly pointed out that this slovenly and filthy practice was one great cause of disease. The dirty and careless people who do this are ignorantly, we presume, taking a most effective plan for making the ground near them a manufactory of disease. The suggestion of Mr. Carlcton, that people should be rather encouraged to deposit this filth in ihc street, after the plan ptirsued in continental cities, and a cart then to, go and take it i.nv.v. is one that we hope will not be carried cui. I'at her follow, the plan.pursued ill certain parts of London and other English towns. Let a cart, with a bell affixed, go through tlie various streets, sav from eight to ten o'clock in the morning, and let the inhabitants who have any refuse they do not. wish to .put in their cesspool place, it in a bucket, box, or tin. by the. side of ihe street, and the " dustmah" will take and empty it into his cart as he goes his rounds. The streets will thus be preserved from being made literally into dung-heaps, the offensive matter will be at once taken away, instead of lving in the blaze of a hot sun, corrupting the atmosphere and offending the eye. iSot only should all solid matter be prevented from being tlirown into the streets, but also all " slops." These latter should be poured where they will flow at once into drains connected with the sewers. But as we have no sewers we cannot legislate on this point now. Wc beg to lay these suggestions before members of tlie Council. tlnd again strongly to advocate that it would be very much better to enact one measure peculiarly destined to meet the requirements of the town, and another to meet the requirements of the country; ' ... I