The New zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, THURSDAY, DEC. 8, 1864.

New Zealand Herald, Volume II, Issue 335, 8 December 1864, Page 4

The New zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, THURSDAY, DEC. 8, 1864.

SPECTEMTTR AGENDO. " Give every mm thine ear. but rp,A " ftiy voice: Take each mail's censure, bul 'reserve thy judgment. This above all.—To thins owiiself be true; And It must folioI*,1*, fcs the niclit the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Setting aside for tlie moment the fact that members of the "Weld Administration ore confessedly the creatures of a one-sidrd combination on thr pa.vt of the otherprovinces, formed deliberately to exclude tlienietropolit an section of the colony from ill participation in the Administrative and Executive departments of the Government, we cannot now see to what uses, according to its own showing, it proposes to devote its energies should it continue to exist for any length ol time.

On first asking the confidence of tlie Assembly, the new Ministry at least assumed to propound something which its Authors wore pleased to dignify vrilli the title of " policy." The policy of the Weld Ministry (we spcal; in reference to Mr. "Weld's Ministerial statement) was basrd upon certain principles—the withdrawal of the troops, and the substitution of a colonial army in their stead—and the demand for full responsibility in native affairs. Mr. Weld congratulated the country on bavin" obtained for the first time a Ministry which would take a firm stand on this point, nrd assured the Assembly that if Ministry after Ministry followed their example, and resigned upon the first refusal to this clrmnnd, that Sir Ocorec Grey and (he Home Government would he beaten out at lsst. and would give way to the voice of the colonists. Before a week was over Mr. "Weld turned his old love, principle, out of doors, and abandoned himself to the meretricious charms of Expediency. He has discovered n very Cireaan retreat for care-worn Ministers. He has quietly and without a murmur allowed the Erround work of his policy to slide from under him, and has dropt into the rendv lap of the enehantress of the castle of Political Idleness. Himself and friends are now in the enviable position of men having politically nothing whatever of their own to defend. If there be a political Elysium on earth it is this. Jt must be the very Paradise of statesmen to occupy a station in the management of public affairs where such things as " opposition," " debates," and "divisions" maybe entirely dispensed with. If ever we should be t. mpted to " join" a Ministry, it certainly would be one of lliis class we should select. Here, at least, wo could promise ourselves a little plain 'sailing. It is in truth Govemment-made-casy, where there are no longer principles to propound, propositions fo explain, or a policy to reconcile or elucidate by facts and figures. The Weld. Ministry, like the Assembly itself, commenced with a large amount of " tall talk," and has ended with a feeble plaintive cry. Just ns Southern members hounded on Governor Browne to vigorous prosecution, and in the Inst session were prepared to be satisfied with nothing less than making this the last IS T ew Zealand war. and have now shrunk from the performance of duty when they felt itsirksomeness.so.now.the Weld Ministry have abandoned what their leader only lately declared could alone have dragged h -m into the Executive seats —the service which the colony required in the carrying out of certain alleged vital principles—" the immediate withdrawal of the troops, and the annihilation of " the form of double Government." They were going to turn a new leaf with the Home Government; the Natives henceforth were to be dealt with " humanely," and though that meant that sometime shortly they would find themselves minus " such and such blocks of land" (at Wellington and Taranaki we presume) on sccovst of riobelt.ion ; yet this was not to prevent them, the natives, from becoming "richer and better" men; and the country, delivered from "divided councils" and "double Government," would henceforth be ruled by a Governor " guided entirely bv Constitutional Advisers." 'All this, however, ns already remarked, now belongs to the past. It is, doubtless, quite in accort'anc; with the tactics propounded by the New Zccdandcr. the only Auckland journal in the interest of the Southern party. " The Assembly," says the official organ, " will not accept Mr. Weld's "'propositions,' but they are vert/ willing, it "seems to accept and desirous to retain Mr. " Weld and his colleagues." That is to say. the General Assembly is very desirous to retain a Southern Executive specially commended through the act of having ignored the existence of Auckland, the principal Province of the colonv, though its measures happen to be inconvenient' t*> the country and cannot be accepted bvit! This certainly is a new phase of Government for which wc were hardly prepared, and we question whether, in the annals of' representative institutions, anything equal to it has ever been witnessed. A set of men are chosen to rule the country and guide publicaffairs at a moment of terrible crisis in its history, whose political principles it is acknowlcdced may be anything or nothing—but they ft e to r tie ! These gentlemen are to accommodate themselves to the votes of the House, whatever course the House may require them to take. '■The precise shade of polity that they shall Qnd to be in unison with their own views and those of the Assembly they may oe may not now consider to be absolutely the best!"—but still they are to rule. Heretofore, the Premier has been called, and considered to be, the " leader of the House now, it seems, the House leads the Premier, If the Assembly thinks this kind of bolstering u P. a party wilh an. end in view will succeed in C[uieting the country, they are miserably deceiving themselves. We have a profound conviction that it will not do. We believe that there is something essentially wrong in the elementary condition of the body politic that can have recourse to such tinkering expediency and sacrilice of all principle. There is, we regret to have to admit it, a groat want of consistency displayed

liy fhe Legislature of the country in all tins. Tito General Assembly of New Zealand as a body appears to think itself privileged to act in this way. but it may fairly calculate upon it. Mint it cannot and does not do this witb impunity. Last year, in the face of a groat emergency, it was brought a little to Its senses by the immincncy of the now danger then threatening the country, nnd, in consequence, wa3 led to adopt a comprehensive policy in every way adapted to secure tlio most satisfactory results: but the Governor in the meantime, for reason's familiar to even' member of the Legislature, thought proper to upset that policy, though pledged to tho Assembly faithfully to assist in carrying it out. Accordingly tin country has been brought almost to a state of anarchy. The object of the war, for the present at least, is frustrated, and the relation in which vro stood to the Nntiv. s at the beginning "titirelv changed. We are now suing for peace. We either cannot or will not hold the country we have overrun, but while wc arc talking o! opening up fresh ground to be contended for. and of renewed campaigns in the enemies territories to tic Undertaken, we are abandoning what n-o have already Won, and are bosecching the Natives on nil hands, and on their own terms, to cry quits with us. It appears the General Assembly is perfectly satisfied with this result. It seems to regard the rendering abortive of its policy of last year, a matter of no moment whatever to its interest or its honour. It lias now another object in view. Their has been a lull in the war, and there has been an opportunity of parading lite cost and of disheartening those who have commenced its vigorous prosecution and inducing them to stop short in earryingoutthe partly dom work. Now was the time to arouse the fears and jealousy of the South for the purpose ot inflicting a wrong upon a Province which bid fair to outrival the rest of New Zealand in its wealth and importance, and in the power which an increasing population must soon bring to i( in the way oi" increased representation. To do this. Southern men were willing'to stultify their policy deliberately laid down by them in tlie lasi session of the Parliament, and to pocket the insult offered to themselves, and the wrong perpetrated against the Colony by i-ir George Grey's studied obstructiveness during the past nine months, mid which, thanks to his " clever handling." has apparently resulted in everything going against us, both in finance and in war.

These are unpalatable truths which we arc unwilling to expose, but nothing can now be sained by attempting to conceal them. The South has the power and tlie will to outvote u> 011 questions of Northern interest, and to nil appearance is ruthlessly and mercilessly bent on exercising that power, irrespective of the general interests of the Colony at large. Neither justice nor generosity will turn them from their purpose. and even consequences to themselves seem overlooked or unheeded Nevertheless we do not despair. "We have faith in the immutability of justice. We believe in the scll'-sustaininiz vitality of righteous principle, not only in morals but in politics too. We have confidence in the retributive adjustment of public relations as well as in the equitable distribution of just awards in tfie matter of individual history. The state oi things we now witness will yet right, itself.

The Smith has overshot its mark, and will find, when it has drawn down upon it the interference of Uritain in our behalf, that a straighforward mnnly adherence to principle and honesty would have been its own best safeguard from the dismemberment which, while it leaves the Northern Island unshackled to grow into the position of the leading country in these seas, will leave, as its best hope for the Southern one, that we may some daj' be induced to hold out the hand of protection and encouragement to our less important neighbour, and extend to it the benetits of annexation.

Tiie debate on Tuesday night on the Weld resolutions, piaying fortl.o removal of the British forces from this colony, was on a subject of the greatest importance. That importance can scarcely be over estimated, from whatever point of view we look upon the subject. And it was very greatly increased by the grave matter?which were virtually clustered round the centra] and main one, many of them of scarcel}' less importance than the cause of Ihc debate. For tijion the adoption of the Weld resolutions depended also the removal of the Executive from the very spot where its presence is most urgently required—where at any moment the lives of hundreds of set tlers may depend upon its prompt and immediate action. The very removal of the Executive is calculated to precipitate the Northern crisis.

In addition to this was the very difficult and delicate, and to us as a colony the deeply important subject of responsible, that is, of Constitutional Government. And, as if these subjects were not sufficiently weighty in themselves, the policy of corifiscalion also formed a part of the debate, and, incidentally, the differences between His Excellency and his late advisers. These certainly .subjects, any one of which would afford fit matter for an animated debate in our House of Commons, and would test the capacity and ability of our statesmen. Wc are very fully convinced that the debate on the Weld resolutions sustained the high character which has attached to the New Zealand Commons. As we sat and listened to the speeches delivered, and the manner in which the debate was conducted, the conclusion forced itself to our minds that the scene we then witnessed and the speeches wc then heard would by no means disgrace the greatest popular assembly in the world, the British House of Commons.

Having thus spoken as to the ability displayed in this debate, we proceed to comment briefly on one of the points discussed. And first, as to the seat of Government being immediately removed from Auckland, the very centre of the Native population, to the Southern extremity of the 1 slaud at Wellington. The Southern members, with an absence of that patriotic spirit for which some of them desired to have credit, were all but unanimous in their determination to shut their o;> _-s to any real consideration of this question. The reasons which were put forward by their best speakers were utterly unworthy of the ability of those speakers. The whole debate showed that however disastrous might be the effects to this province of the immediate removal of the seat oi Government from the vicinity of the natives, the Southern members had entered into an "unholy alliance," and had banded themselves together for the purpose of carrying out the plans of the Canterbury meeting. The arguments adduced by Mr. Fitzgerald in support of his scheme were totally unworthy of a man of any pretension to statesman: hip, and could only be explained on the assumption that l.e was dangerously afflicted with the terrible disease of Aueklandphobia, and so his judgment was blinded, his ordinary spring of action out of joint, and his sense of justice, of political necessity, and the demands of patriotism were beclouded. The terms in which he described the settlers of Auckland as being fully able to cope with the natives and conquer them, at once proved that Mr. Fitzgerald cares not through how much blood such a consummation may tie obtained, or whether the native race be virtually exterminated or not. For if Southern members a oy that the settlers of this province left to tliemsetvcs to cope with the Maoris, will be satisfied, when once this dreadful struggle is inaugurated by.the Southern men, to leave it ink he unsettled and uncertain state in which it has long been; if they fancy that liiimun endurance will bear a prolonged existence virtually at the will of the Moari, not knowing when the torch of rebellion may be lit, and themselves and their families kept in a constant state of aniioty and foar, lest tho prowling Maori with

his gun and tomahawk: should visit tlie defenceless stations of outsettlcW, and by threatening language keep the whole province in a, constant state of siege—we repe&t, if axiy such notion as this enters tho mind's of the Southern members, be they Ministers or be they those who arc so anxiously and clamorously waiting for the crumbs which are expected to fall from the Ministers table, they will be inost miserably disnnnointed.

" When the tale of bricks is doubled, Moses comes," is an old Jewish proverb, and the Southern members are doubling the tale ol bricks as fast as they possibly can. They may now repudiate the war which was, by their own consent and statement, mainly brought about by themselves. They may adopt the " Yankee notion " of the " drad coloured men of Pennsylvania," and repudiate their just debts and duties to the colony in its time of danger, debts of money, of counsel, and of manly endeavour to free the colon}'- from the presence of the rebel; they may so far mistake their duty to their Queen and country as to interpret it to mean the virtual disfranchisement of this Northern Province ; for, as Mr. Stafford told them, this will be the real effect of the immediate removal of the seat of Government.—and they may tell us thry will pay no more for this war of their own creating, but they cannot escape the damn"mcr suspicion that the pocket is their golden -tile of politics, and that dishonour is lightly thought of among tlirm. Xtook at this subject in a purely commercial point of view. What won Id be thought of a partner in a large mercantile concern giving advice which involved it in large losses and expenses, and when he «v these would increase rather than decrease, at once take steps to withdraw his capital from the firm whose financial embarrassment was in a large measure caused by his own advice. Yet il the South is 110 longer to pay its fair share of the cost of reducing rebellion and restoring nonce in the colony, it is just following this plan. To split up an empire into districts, each of which lias the power of choosing, like a charitable individual with his donations and bequests. how the taxes paid by them are to be spent, is to introduce a novel feature into Government. The South say they will not pay longer for this war. and yet they will not consent to an arrangement which will take the Native question entirely away from them, and so prevent them either having to pay taxes in connection therewith, or to be troubled to come up to Auckland to legislate upon it. Mr. Stafford, himself a Southern member, the most eminent statesman of New Zealand, who clings to piinciple rather than to place, who rises above the petty, narrow views of the day, and of miserable, short-sighted selfishness, warned the House, in eloquent, forcible, and ! solemn language, of the great responsibility ot carrying out the determination to remove the seat of Government at the present crisis in Native affairs. The thing is so monstrous to all those at all acquainted with the facts of the case, and whose vision can peer beyond their own special self-interest, that one is at a loss really to believe that any set of politicians would for a moment entertain the ridiculous idea. We again repent that this is no time for these quarrels to be entered into. Common decency oucht to prevent, it, to say nothing of common sense. And since the Weld Ministry lias yielded to pressure on one griive question, it is lo be hoped it will yield to the dictates of patriotism, of right, justice, and expediency, and adopt the views of the most distinguished member of the South and of the House, and decline to remove the seat of Government at present, iust as they have decided not to press the withdrawal of the J3ritisli troops at present.