THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1875.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4172, 29 March 1875, Page 2

THE New Zealand Herald. SPECTEMUR AGENDO. MONDAY, MARCH 20, 1875.

We quite concur with the opinion expressed by the second erof Si r George Grey's unopposed nomination on Saturday,, if not in the precise words wo use, that the election of Sir George to a representation in tho Colonial Parliament is of much ' greater importance than that of merely . being our Superintendent. In fulfilling i the functions of the latter office, without i any other power at hi 3 back, Sir Georgo Grey would merely be able to lay the claims of the provinco before Ministers in official documents, which would be acknowledged with official politeness, and then ignored. But our Superintendent, as a member of the Colonial Parliament, will bo able to rise from his seat in the Legislature, and demand from tho House, instead of supplicating Ministers, redress for all those wrongs and grievances which we have so long suffered under, and havo so patiently borne with. By electing Sir George to the Assembly we have invested liini with a power wliich ho would not otherwise have possessed. That he will use that power in tho best interests of the provinco we have not the least doubt. That he will bring his long years of political experience, his consummate ability, and his intimate knowledge of our many needs to bear, wo feel equally certain. We believe that a new era is about to_ dawn upon us, although wo do not think that tho policy of Sir George Grey will bo to destroy the present Constitution so much as to re-construct parts of it from existing materials. It is not the Constitution which is in fault. Jt is the | way in which its fundamental principles have been permitted to be sapped, undermined, and violated by Ministers who have for so long obtained the support of a majority, by means too well known and understood to require mentioning. The want of a leader able to lay bare existing abuses, and point out tho remedies for them, has long been felt by every representative in Parliament who has the interests of tho colony at heart. Such a leader, we feel assured, they will find in Sir Georgo Grey, and such tliey will be willing to follow. The electors have not set up Sir Georgo Grey as a political idol to bow down to and worship, but as a representative entity, who is willing and capable to render them material aid in the present crisis. It is not for his titles, nor for the high offices he has held that he has been chosen. Not for what he has achieved in the past— and ho has acliioved much—but for what he is likely to be able to accomplish for U3 in the immediate future. We know that no price will buy him. We know that he will not betray us. We know that the words he has spoken have been the words of earnestness and thorough conviction. A silent spectator of passing events he had long been ; but nevertheless not uninterested or unobservant of the affairs and business of tho State. He had seen and noted that the groat principles contained in the Constitution which he helped to framo in so largo a degree had been diverted from the channels they were first made to flow in ; and when at last he saw a danger threatening the government of tho colony, he came forth from his retirement to restore them.

When the Assembly meets for the last time of the present Parliament, members will be found to take their places on different benches from what had been t'neir former wont. They will no longer sit under the dread of a threatened dissolution should they not record their votes at the will of Ministers. The impecunious and the ambitious will feel that very soon their future politic.il fortune must depend upon the sweet wills of tlio constituents ; that Ministers now can do little or nothing for them, as these, like themselves, will in no very long time have to woo the favour of the electors. All will shortly be reduced to the saiuo level as supplicants for Iho suffrages of the electorates. There is the honorarium of future sessions, which will beget anxiety. Representatives will soonbemade to learn that the country with a new Parliament will demand a welldefined platform before any great organic changes shall be made. It is not in an expiring Assembly that measures will be allowed to pass which are to inlluence tl.o future of the colony. We believe that Sir George Grey will have a largo body o: supporters, because it will be at onco seen and felt that to blindly follow tho lead of Ministers in all their measures wiil bo but to court- defeat when the writs have been issued for a general election.

Wo do not suppose for an instant that Sir Georgo Grey will make any attempt to oppose what is called the " policy of progress" mapped out by the Hon. the Premier. He will see that the Public Works and Immigration scheme which has begun must be continued and ended up to a certain limit. But he will certainly oppose any reckless action taken by the Ministry to maintain themselves in power by an extravagant expenditure and the creation of offices tlirougli which tliey seek to obtain support for any measures however wild and visionary they may propose. We have little doubt but that in the next session Ministers will be made to feel the black ingratitude of those who have heretofore been at their beck and call. When there is little or no patronage to bestow, their late followers will become tlio most fervent of patriots and lovers of their country. They will give their votes with duo forethought as to how these will be weighed and estimated when they seek to be reelected by the constituencies.

Sir George Grey expresses no fear for the future prosperity of the colony if its State affairs be properly administered. He is well acquainted with our immense indigenous wealth ; of the industry and enterprise of the peoplo. He has long studied how both shall bo turned to profitable account, but he has been unable to see that this can be accomplished by Minister* who appear to take so little thought of the morrow, caring only for the present, and believing that suiheient for the day is the evil thereof. It is now tvinin that to meet tho interest and l inking fund of the public debt the peoplo 01 the colony, under its present syst"in <>t' (.'ovemment, will have to submit to iiiuuli additional taxation

in whatever shape it may be made to tako. Retrenchment in every public department will bo one of the panaceas to prevent the piling up of burdens upon tMb people; and this, under the present regime, we must neither hope nor look for. The colony cannot much longer stand the strain of a. Governor with a salary and allowances amounting to £10,000 per annum, nor a Premier drawing from the public purse somo three or four thousand pounds yearly for his salary and travelling allowances ; nor Ministers receiving no less than fifteen hundred ayear, with what else they may claim as extras. We cannot afford fifty or sixty thousand pounds, paid out of borrowed money, to be spent upon a building to enable Parliament to meet and conduct its deliberations. We cannot afford to indulge in the many extravagances we see perpetrated around us. The power to remove all these abuses will shortly be once more delegated to the electors of the colony. With them will rest the right to elect representatives who will guard their interests and check the headlong career of extravagance which the governing powers of the colony have so long indulged in. We can hardly bope to f. ot men o" the calibre of Sir George Grcy, but it should not be difficult to obtain tho services of those who will use thfrir utmost endeavours to second his efforts at Parliamentary re--1 form. In the next session all that we ca-1 look for from Sir George Grey is that : he will lead the way to better things in I the new Parliament, to which, if life be spared him, he will certainly bo elected ; for it is unreasonable to expect that any great reforms will be initiated in the last weeks of a House of Representatives which ceases to exist by the effluxion of time.

Eraser's Magazine for February of the present year contains a long letter, signed Cliarlea Fallows. This communication comprises a series of bitter attacks upon the financial policy which was initiated and is now being carried on towards completion by our Premier, the Hon. Julius Vogel. The charges made by Mr. Fellows, who was at one time writer iu Otago newspapers under the nom de plume of " .Master Humphrey," are vague, wild, and for the greater part untrue. Such statements, had they appeared in any colonial publication, would have been allowed to pass almost unheeded. Probably no one would h."ve thougki it worthwhile to comment upon them. But appearing in a high-class London magazine, the Premier, from a sick couch in Florence, deemed it his duty to reply to them, and this ho did in the following number of the same publication in which Mr. Fellows made his extravagant and untruthful charges. Mr. Fellows possesses some literary ability, and by mixing up a very little that true with much that has no foundation in fact, his letter may have had the effect of leading the readers in Eraser's to believe that the colony was financir.lly rotten to the core. Mr. Voxel's defence is a very able one. It was written, as he says, amidst the weariness attending a slow recovery from serious illness, and with but few books and documents accessible. The Premier disposes of the various allegations made by Mr. Fellows, by quoting at considerable length official figures and returns, the accuracy of which it is not likely will be disputed. We propose to publish Mr. Vogel's pamphlet in extenso at an ear]")' day. " The colony," Mr. Vogel asserts, " is as prosperous now as any country in the world; It has immense resources, and is sureof a great future. But not only on its resources does it depend. As a comparatively recent colonist, I may, without egotism, say that, far above climate, soil, and mineral and other capabilities, the strength of New Zealand depends on its people. A country maysupport population even in spite of its origiI nal sterility —as witness Utah, not to mention many spots in Europe. Upon its people depends a country's success ; and the colonists of New Zealand have those virtues of frugality, faith, industry, and energy which ensure success and happiness to their possessors. In the New England States, the grand qualities of the early Puritan founders I shew themselves in their remote descendants. Generations will live and die in New Zealand, and still the homely virtues of its pilgrim fathers will be reproduced, and will earn for the land a great place amongst the dependencies of the empire to which I believe they will, like their ancestors, glory to belong. To the people of New Zealand, I who have won their way to success through ' go many difficulties, that happy phrase, ' the I heroic "work of colonisation,' is peculiarly applicable."

The admirable address of Sir George Grey at the conclusion of liis nomination 011 Saturday culminated in this: He was returned unopposed as their representative in tliß General Assembly, but that all his efforts would be wasted, and all tliat lie might advocate would be useless, unless he was supported by the entire representative body of the province. It lias been the case ixi the past that Auckland membera have been divided among themselves on almost every important measure which has been brought before the House—so many recording their votes on the left, and an equal number on the right. "Where there is so much of disunion there cannot possibly be any strength. The representatives of this province, if united into one homogeneous whole, with the influence thtj could bring to be-ir upon other members of the House, would prove themselves a power which could not fail to command attention and respect. It may have been that so much divided voting has been due to the want of an efficient leader to guide, direct, advise, and to cause differing opinions of members to become subservient to advancing the larger and more important interests affecting the welfare of till' province. We have reason to believe that our representatives have seen the evils arising from tlie want of union among themselves, and that we shall in the future witness a combination among the members which no ordinary intluenee that may be brought to bear will disturb.

Australian and New Zealand mail matters would appear to be unsettled in the minds uf English writers. The subject of a fortnightly mail has been revived in the leading London journals. Foremost among the contributions that have been made to this important subject, we notice a pamphlet from the pen of Mr. William Purdy, says the Australian and Xew Zealand Gazette. The pamphlet is a reprint of letters published in some of our daily contemporaries, with additional matter, and exhibits, through a very perspicuous style, a perfect command of the subject. The object the writer has always in view is the establishing of a fortnightly mail service. Sir. Purdy, in a small compass, gives a useful exposition of the actual positions of the various existing mail routes, and reviews the results of the variuHS mail contracts so far as they have yet gone. The whole of this little pampWet will deeply interest all our readers, and it will be found that in every case a practical view has been taken of the whole question. During nearly a quarter of a century the Australian mail service has been undergoing—as Mr. Purdy says—a series of transitions, and we most heartily hope with him that the present year may bring a solution of what is an absolute necessity of the position. Seldom have we seen so important a subject treated better in such a narrow space. Mr. Purdy finds room to suggest, as well as to criticise, and in conclusion he invites public attention to the mail service with Australia with the following great objects in view :—That the Australian Governments merge all minor differences in a determination to ensure a perfect fortnightly sen-ice. That the mnet efficient line of steamers be Imperially subsidised; that special attention be given to dividing the mails, one route being for the ivcstern and southerly colonies, the other for the northern and easterly colonies ; these and many other equally good suggestions are strongly put by Mr. Purdy, and we heartily commend this

pamphlet to the earnest stufly of all interested in the progress of Australia.

Ocr telegraphic columns last week announced the death of the renowned old chief Moses Tawhai, and our columns to-day supply an account of the nature of his death, and the rights peculiar to the natives with which he was interred. Moses Tawhai was one of the old race of warrior chiefs, of whom there are now so few left. Born and reared amongst scenes of rapine and bloodshed, where life, and everything that made Maori life desirable, could be retained only by mere force of' arms—when every man must be a fighting man or nothing—then, in those times, Tawhai became an accomplished and successful warrior, and, many years ago, led a division in that memorable Xgapuhi army which, under Tahoho, Tamati Waaka, Patuone, and other Xgapuhi chiefs, in company with Ta Rauparaha, passed from north to south along the West Coast, and returning by way of Waikato, left nothing in their rear but blood, and ashes, and the hones of the dead. Subsequently Tawhai led an expedition again to the south as far as Tarauaki in search of it/u for a comrade. In this expeI dition he was desperately wounded. After | this he was at the storming of Taurakohia, iu Waikato, where the destruction of life was, even in those days of blood, almost unprecedented. And in his middlo age, before this country became a British colony, when, like "Greek meeting Greek, '* Xgapuhi contended against Xgapuhi, Tawhai in several inter-tribal battles upheld his reputation and gained much "worship." The greatest ! honor we can do to the memory of our departed friend is to record the fact that as soon as he perceived a far superior social system existed than any that he or any other Maori chief of his time could have imagined or been expected to appreciate, he immediately, as Jar as his lights would go and circumstances permit, ad.optcd it, and devoted the remainder of his life to the establishment of peace and commerce, and the rule of law and religion. The subject of this short notice was not, however, allowed to pass his declining days in peace. When one-half of the Xgapuhi tribe made war against the Government, in 1845, and under Hoke and Kawhite attacked, sacked, and burnt the town of Kororareka, and were in advance against Hokianga, Mosos Tawhai at once, without hesitation, hastened to join his old companion in arms, Tamati Waaka, and together, though inferior in number to the enemy, these two chiefs by a month's almost continuous lighting held him at arm's length till the arrival of Her Majesty's forces, thus saving their European friends in Hokianga from the slightest harm or molestation. After the arrival of the troops Tawhai and his followers continued to do good service at AS'ahue, at Te Ahuahu, at Ohaeawai, at Te Ituahekapeka, and whereever service was to be done until the end of the war, and when peace was at length concluded he returned to his place at Waima, hung up his battered arms, and never used them more. Moses with others signed the treaty of Wait angi in IS4O. For many years he held office as a native assessor, by whom he was ever highly esteemed. He was, we believe, considerably over eighty years of age at the time of his death. It is due to the memory of the departed chief to say that he was in his time a brave man, a good friend, a dangerous enemy, and he died a Christiau.

The event of to-day will be the laying the first atone of the works to be constructed for bringing a water supply into Auckland. Discussion of the subject has happily resolved itself into a practical issue. The source is determined upon, the character of the work 3 required decided, the contract taken, and nothing remains but the ceremony and Ihe speeches which shall speak good wishes for tho enterprise. The contractors, Messrs. T. and S. Morrin, are fortunate in having their names so intimately associated with the advancement of the city, in which they have so long held a high commercial position. That they will prosecute the work with all possible speed is guaranteed by their wellknown public spirit. The first stone will be laid by the Mayor of Auckland.