LORD ONSLOW AND WELLINGTON.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8162, 25 January 1890, Page 6

LORD ONSLOW AND WELLINGTON.

ASTOUNDING EXPLOSIONS OP ANGER. [BT XMJMBAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT.] Wblumotok, Friday. I MSawaoarKD in my last despatch that there was rouoh discontent here because His Excellency the Governor refused to give official recognition to the celebration held in Wellington on the 22nd inst., as the anniversary of the day when " Her Majesty's authority was first established in New Zealand," and some obloquy has been oast upon the manner in which Lord Onslow treated the popular display of enthusiasm whioh the Wellington Jubilee evoked. Those, however, who are acquainted with the facts know that the irritation, or unpleasantness or disappointment, whiohover it may be 'called, was created by the persistent efforts of a few persons to force the Governor into a false position by appearing to acknowledge the " official status" of the anniversary of the arrival of certain private persons in Wellington in 1840, as the occasion when the Queen s authority was first established in New Zealand, at the same time that the proper date is indicated by official aoU doue in Her Majesty's name and on her behalf by her authority. 1 his persistence has recoiled on those who so industriously maintained it by making the Governor's position somewhat difficult. That he was anxious to elude the difficulty woe apparent The fact that he took the earliest opportunity of leaving Wellington is construed into a Blight. For any such construction of His Excellency's departure for the North I am assured there is not the shadow of foundation. It is said that Lord Onslow parted company with Lord Carrington and Admiral Scott because he would not meet the Wellington people at the Mayor's picnic. There is not a scintilla of truth iu this. The fact is that Lord Carrington and Admiral Scott were anxious to proceed North with the Governor yesterday morning, but Lord Onslow pressed them to stay and enjoy the mayor's hospitality, speaking at the same time of the mayor and mayoress in terms of high encomium. The truth is, that Lord Onslow was obliged to hurry on in ordor to be in time to meet Lord Carrington and Admiral Soott at Oxford on the due date. I am assured that he has two pressing engagements alone the line of rail in Wellington and Hawke's Bay provinces, and that he had sent his horses on before, which circumstance also was likely to occasion further delay. It was only at the last moment and at the Governor's expressed wish that the other members of the Viceregal party resolved to go to Karori picnic. The Governor was at the Mayor's ball the previous evening, so that there is not the slightest ground for saying that a slight has been offered by the Governor either to the Wellington city or people. A great deal that is said about that is the purest fabrication. With regard to the address to the Queen, which some people here say was treated with disrespect, there is a great deal of misapprehension. It is not true to say that it came upon the Governor as a surprise. It was shown to him, and he only objected to one passage. I believe this passage was the one which claimed for the 22nd January the " Anniversary of the foundation of the colony." I do not know exactly what occurred, but from the fact that this passage was excised, I have reason to believe he pointed out that the 29th of January was beyond all doubt the day when ''Her Majestv's authority was first established in New Zealand," which historical fact was actually notified by the official gazette of the colony at the very moment that he was speaking. There is, of course, no question whether the address to the Queen was in good form or not. That may be assumed to be the right of the subject, but as no official notice was taken of the Governor, it may be assumed that he omitted no foi m of courtesy in failing to recognise officially a celebration which improperly claimed for its origin an event that had no official significance, and no political significance except what it derives from being part of the general history of the colony taken as a whole. The Press, in a leader which bitterly censures the Governor, puts the affair as follows —" It was from hrst to last essentially a people's commemoration. We had become habituated to the absence of the Governor from Wellington bv his lengthened stay from our city ; and" his passing visit, the temporary nature of which was emphasised by his allowing himself to become a visitor at the club instead of Government House, deprived his visit of any official significance. Indeed there is no doubt, we think, that Lord Onslow desired to create this impression, that he was anxious to avoid all appearance of lending official countenance to the Jubilee of the people, and that he has reserved his official sanction •entirely for the official Jubilee on the 29th. At any rate that is the impression left on our minds, and to that His Excellency has lent considerable weight, not only by the unofficial character impressed upon this visit, but by the terms in which he replied to the address, and the refusal to receive the address from Major Kemp and the Maoris who desired to present it. The Governor took advantage of the address from the Council to point out to them that he himself was not recognised in it, and in effect to administer a palpable snub, which was illdisguised under the sarcasm in which it was couched." Now with regard to the charge against the Governor, that he refused to receive the address which Major Kemp and the Maoris had to present to him, the manner in which this iz dragged into every discussion upon the event" of Wednesday, indicate plainly that the objee* is to make an impression upon the Maori people, more especially those residing in the North, that an English nobleman, Governor of the colony, treated their race with something like contempt. It is no doubt a very adroit move to make the Governor unpopular with the Auckland Maoris, and so to compromise the Jubilee celebration in Auckland, on the 29th, in which the great I aori tribes of the North have as much concern as the Europeans who inhabit that part of the colony. I have been at especial pains to inquire into this matter. .What I have to Bay on this subject is stated upon authority second only to that of the Governor himself. It is this, '* That the Governor was not asked to receive an address from Major Kemp and the Maoris, consequently he eould not have refused to listen to it." Lest the charge made against the Governor should fail to have emphatic expression, it is repeated again in the following terms :-—" The refusal to hear the address of Major Kemp was, we think, still more marked. No doubt His Excellency is extremely well disposed to the Maori population, who have invariably displayed an unusual loyalty to the abstract sovereignty of the Queen and its concrete presence in New Zealand, the Governor for the time being. We cannot then account for the refusal to receive their loyal address on any other ground than the same desire to avoid extending the official sanction to the Wellington Jubilee beyond the very strictest limits of the commonest civility to Wellington." In answer, allow me also to repeat on high authority that there is no foundation for Buch a charge. It is probably true enough that Kemp and the Maoris had a petition to present, and in the bustle of the occasion it ■was overlooked by those who marshalled the proceedings until too late, a thing which frequently happens on such occasions ; but the Governor would not be responsible for that., Sufficient for this subject is it to say again that His Exoellency did not "refuse" to receive an address from the Maoris who came to Wellington for the purpose of presenting it. But Lord Onslow is threatened with the serious consequences that his behaviour on the 22nd of January may have upon the future relations of the Australian colonies to Great Britain. {This would not be worth referring to except in so far as it illustrates the temper which pervades a section, and a very considerable section, of the inhabitants of Wellington. Thus Baith the writer : —" We should not attach importance to this episode in the proceedings of yeßterday but for the very Berious Question which is now uppermost in the minds of so large and weighty a portion of the people of Australia, and is rapidly crystallising there, the idea of separation from England. The slightest friction from the English Colonial Office instantly produces there an outbreak of defiance on the part of the press, and outspoken resolution to stand by Australian nationality. We do not hesitate to say that the very least assertion of Imperial authority on the smallest point, by Lord Carrington, would be hotly resented. Lord Carrington would have ridiculed the idea of doing in Sydney what Lord Onslow did yesterday in Wellington. It may be said that Lord Onslow can pursue in safety the policy of divide el impera, a course which it would be impossible for Lord Carrington to pursue in Sydney -.that if Wellington resents his action he will find repose in Auckland, and that if Wellington is displeased Dunedin will rejoice. That may be so. We are not sure that is to be relied on, and at any rate it is a vanishing quantity, and it is not wise to base a policy on differences and jealousies which are certainly disappearing. The people of Wellington are practically told by Lord Onslow that they are nobody, and of no weight in the colony. That celebrations are fmblic functions only when they are ordained rom the colonial office and sanctioned by the representative of the Queen." It is remarkable, and I only mention the circumstance to account for the nervousness of the above style of writing that the great Wellington earthquake qf 1855 happened on the 22nd of January of that year. The earth rose several feet. Baron Alsdorf (a German nobleman) -was killed. The coincidence of date must have had some influence upon the nervous English of this irascible editor. Here

is some more of the same currency coined in the same mint : — "It may be safe to say that to the people of Wellington, especially when His Excellency con go to Auckland and gratify them by what he has done, and by having thus thrown his weight into the balance in their discussion with Wellington, but the people of Auckland, not less than the people of the whole colony, will soon begin to understand that a much greater issue & at stake on this matter than a question between Wellington and Auckland— question whioh is always ready to rise into prominence between the people of New Zealand and the official authority of Downing-street— the nation of New-Znalanders and Imperial dictation. Australia is about to become a nation, and probably will at first accept a Governor-General from England. When that takes plaoe, Melbourne, and Sydney, and Adelaide, and Brisbane, and Perth will be the provincial cities of Australia. If the Governor-General should be so unwise as to go to either of these oities, and take tho course that Lord Onslow took at Wellington yesterday, he would strike a blow at the connexion with England which would probably pave the way to a declaration of independence. We do not suppose that what we have said will be palatable to His Excellency. There are plenty of persons within the small circle which surrounds him to speak smooth things. We feel it our duty to point out that the Government of this colony springs from the people of tho colony, and that it is unwise and impolitic to pat the slightest strain on those delicate links which bind to the Crown of Fngland. The Governor represents a sentiment and not a force, and while the colony indulges that sentiment it is certainly the duty of the Governor in no wise to shock ft."