SIR G. GREY ON THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4244, 27 October 1874, Page 2

SIR G. GREY ON THE PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES.

We (Olatjo Daily Times) are indebted to tbe New Zealand Herald for the following letter, addressed to that journal by the Superintendent of the province, enclosing a petition from Sir George Grey, which will be simultaneously published in Auckland : To the Editor of the Herald. Superintendent’s Office, Auckland, Oct. 20, 1871. Sir, —I have the honor to forward to you the enclosed copy of a letter, addressed to me as Superintendent by Sir George Grey, K.C.8., together with a copy of the enclosed thereto, being a petition addressed by him to His Excellency the Governor of this Colony. As you will see, Sir George Grey desires that his petition shall be made public, I trust that you will bo good enough to give it publication accordingly in your paper.—l am, &c. J. Williamson, Superintendent. To His Honor the Superintendent of the Province. Sniji—l have the honor to enclose to you, for transmission through the proper channel, a petition to His Excellency the Governor, praying His Excellency, for the reasons therein : stated, immediately to call together the General Assembly of New Eealand, and to adopt other measures to prevent Parliament from being hurried into taking any stop for abolishing provincial institutions in these islands, or from authorising their abolition, until the preliminary constitutional steps have in the first instance been taken. I beg that you will give the prayer of this petition such support, or that you will obtain for it such support or signatures as you may think

right. Any recommendation in favor of the prayer ef the petition coming from yourself, as the Superintendent of so important a province, and as such the representative of so large a provincial constituency, must carry great weight with it. In this part of the colony we are a very scattered community—so scattered, that I have not attempted to obtain signatures to the petition. I feel that if what I have stated is of no importance, then no number of signatures ought to give it weight ; whilst if it is, as I believe, of vital importance, that then the matter contained in the petition, and not the number of signatures I might have obtained to it, is in truth what all candid men will consider. But under any circumstances, time so pressed as to admit of no long delay for the purpose of obtaining signatures. I should be glad that this petition should, if possible, be published, as I do not wish to take any important step in such a matter without my fellow-colonists knowing what I am doing.—l have, Jcc., (Signed) G. Gret.