SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE COLONIAL PRESS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4279, 7 December 1874, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE COLONIAL PRESS.

The following letter is addressed to the editor of the New Zealand Herald ''.— Sin, —Upon Tuesday last some of my relatives were arranging my library. They brought me a set of papers marked Federal Union, and ashed where they were to be placed. I kept these papers, opened them, and found they had been printed in 18G8, and recorded the opinion of the leading men in South Africa that my recall from that country, in 1858, had been an error 6f a serious kind, and that the policy I had recommended, which recommendation had been made the ostensible ground of my recall, although it was not the real one, had been a far-sighted and comprehensive policy, the wisdom of which was in 1868 universally recognised, and was put forward as that which, although late, still ought to be adopted. I then remembered the burst of indignation with which a large and powerful party had in 1858 received the recommendations I at that time made, with what pleasure my punishment, for having dared to make them, had been received by that party. How gladly they heard that What in fact amounted to a pecuniary fine of about £2OOO, and might have very much exceeded that sum, had been inflicted on me, but I also remembered how these faithful friends and a large majority of the people had held me up in my apparent fall and discomfiture, and how, after the lapse of ten years, reason and right had .prevailed in 1808, How they had gone on spreading ever since that date, until now the very men most opposed to me in ISSS are earnestly endeavoring to bring to pass the policy which I then recommended.

Let all this, I thought, as I mused in my solitude, be a lesson to myself, and to those who are now aiding me, that men who would serve their fellows must labor earnestly, and bear patiently, and perhaps wait for years before they see the results of their labors. They are but husbandmen sowing seeds which will came up tender plants, amongst vigorous weeds of prejudices, interests, corruptions, passions ; but if they are useful plants, which' will bear good fruits for men, they will strike their roots deep, grow surely, bo nursed by the loving hands of those who see their utility, and, above all, they will grow up together with the youth of the country, whose minds, still uncorrupted, can without prejudice imbibe that which they feel to be right and generous to their fellow-men ; —thus, these plants which in youth looked so tender, and which so many .strove to trample down, will at last overshadow and destroy those things which strove to check and poison their early growth. Whilst I was still thus pondering, our weekly steamer, the Lady Bowen, arrived with the mail, and brought me a packet of newspapers, sent by a friend, personally unknown to me, although well known to me by his literary merit, and in this case a friend indeed, who forwarded to me a number of provincial journals which discussed the subject matter of my petition and the “ Compact.” But for the thoughtfulness of this friend I should not have seen these papers. Having read them, and the personal attacks which some of them contained, I felt how useful the previous discipline in relation to South African affairs had been to my mind, and I felt also a kind of keen pleasure that I could once again in the decline of life have an opportunity of serving my fellow-men under difficulties and discouragements, although still with this great advantage—that true and devoted friends, and, I believe, a large majority in New Zealand, will share these difficulties with mo, and kindly regret that the storm falls rather upon me than upon themselves. It is for the sake of these friends scattered throughout New Zealand that I ask you to publish this letter, that I may show how erroneous are the attacks made upon me. Hitherto I have for years submitted to these attacks in silence, nay, may seem almost by this silence to have admitted their justice, but now I am anxious to put on record my denial of them, and to give to those friends who are acting with me the means of proving the entire inaccuracy of the statements which have been made. It is said that the Constitution we live under was obtained by the Constitutional Association, aided by influential men in England, and is far more liberal than any proposed concessions of Sir George Grey’s. The fact is, that the Constitution in all its concessions and liberal features was sent home from this country ; that no association whatever gave me any assistance or in any way, directly or indirectly, aided or influenced me in proposing or preparing any part of it. My chief assistant here was Mr. Swainson. He drafted its most important clauses, and gave me in every respect most valuable advice and assistance, for which I shall ever feel grateful. Other friends, who were chiefly public officers, and some of whom are still in New Zealand, were my confidants, and it was one of my delights to talk over with them the best means of securing a complete and perfect system of self-government for the inhabitants of New Zealand—a conception into which they warmly entered, and which they aided by sympathies and suggestions. Sir William Martin assisted me by pointing out and discussing all the passages in strong relief which boro on this subject, and Lord Grey, in England, gave all the energies of his original and powerful mind to devise and perfect the means by which full self-government might be secured for this colony. When the draft constitution reached England, every alteration made in it, with the exception, perhaps, of the addition of the province of Taranaki to the five provinces I had proposed, was an alteration in restriction of the liberal concessions I had proposed ; for these alterations I am not responsible. I am, also, in no way responsible for the nominated Upper House in ibis colony. It was arranged between Lord Grey and myself, that Parliament should be advised to create an elected Upper House—the whole balance of the Constitution depended upon its being an elected body, and upon the manner of its election. It was Sir J ohn Packington—who, at the time the Constitution reached England, had just become Colonial Minister—who, acting upon the advice of some persons in England, changed the proposed elected Upper House into a nominated one, simply informing me that he need not enter into the particulars of the reasons for this change. This circumstance made a painful impression upon my mind. I thought it wrong that one man—a subject like ourselves—should be able thus arbitrarily to deal with the liberties of a young nation, and to inflict, without reason or explanation, a great evil upon New Zealand. Such frequent misrepresentations have been made regarding the mode in which the Constitution was introduced into this country, that it appears now to bo admitted here, that some unfair means were taken to secure that the action of the Provincial Government should bo felt before that of the General Assembly. But, in truth, the whole Constitution, and every clause of it, was drawn on the supposition that this must necessarily be the case, as is shown by the fact that by the Constitution as drafted and sent home, the General Assembly could not even exist, until the Provincial Governments were in full operation, inasmuch as the Upper House of that Assembly was to be elected by the Provincial Councils.' The members of the Provincial Council, also residing at no great distance from the capital town of each' province, the Superintendents could easily call their Provincial Councils together. I did nothing in introducing the Constitution but what my duty required me to do. I rigorously fulfilled the requirements of the law. The closest scrutiny was made by hostile people into every step I have taken. This scrutiny was made in each House of Parliament in Great Britain—twice in the House of Commons, once in the House of Lords, The result was a unanimous admission in each case that I had fully and impartially performed my duty. The very member of the House of Commons who first brought accusations against mo, and who moved for enquiry into my conduct, admitted that he had entirely changed his opinions.

X see that it is stated, in unbecoming terms, by one of the Ministerial papers, that I would not remain in New Zealand to meet the first General Assembly, but improperly quitted the country before it met. When I left for England in December, 1853, I had served in New Zealand for upwards of eight years, amidst toils, difficulties, and privation, which could now hardly be imagined. I was not only entirely exhausted by labor, but calls of a kind which human nature finds it difficult to resist had then for some time made my heart yearn to return to my home, after a total absence of more than fourteen years. I had fortunately offended a party, then powerful in England and in this colony, by preventing them from obtaining enormous endowments in Now Zealand for bishoprics and a favored Church. I say, I had fortunately offended them, for the result was that this brought, as I have already stated, my conduct before the .House of Commons and the House of Lords, and one of the principal accusations made in the House of Lords against me w r as this one—of improperly quitting the colony in December, 1853. This accusation, instead therefore of being allotted still to circulate in secret, was brought to the full light of day, and *vas enquired into. Those who care to know more about the matter will find, upon reference to the debates in the House of Lords upon that occasion, that my conduct received the full and entire approbation of that House, —I believe without a single dissentient voice. i have, up to this point, answered the animadversions which have been made upon myself ; allow me now for a brief space to animadvert in my turn. I see general statements that Provincialism is a hateful thing, and that the Colonial Ministers are determined to sweep it away ; but none of them have the courage to state that what they intend to sweep away is the right of selfgovernment, in the fullest and most effective form—in the fullest, or at the very least, in as full a form as the world has ever yet seen —a form of government which has here led to no disloyalty, to no discontent, to no want or suffering, to no disturbances, to no expense, to no personal incomes, personal allowances, or personal expenditure from public funds—a form of government under which the people are trained to consider closely, and nigh to themselves, the framing of the hvws under which they are to live, and what concerns their own well-being and that of. their fellowcitizens and families. This form of government is now to be destroyed by a Government in which the people are most imperfectly represented, and which from having at the present moment millions of borrowed money at its command, in such an unrestricted manner regarding its disposal as is, I believe, unexampled, and is certainly unconstitutional, — has the power of exercising temporarily a dangerous influence both within and without the walls of the General Assembly. The slightest consideration of the small number of men amongst whom these immense sums of borrowed money are in so short a time to be spent, will give a measure of what this influence must be, which is again greatly increased by the number of contractors and their agents now in the colony, who undoubtedly possess, and have attempted to exercise an influence over public affairs. I think that every man who loves this country, will from these causes alone object to such a moment being chosen as a fitting one in which to destroy all of really representative government which exists here. This leads me on to apply what I fear will be considered strong language to the Constitution of the General Assembly, but which at the present crisis, when it proposes to destroy all really representative institutions in this country, it is right to use, because I think it will be admitted that such language fittingly describes an Upper House nominated for life. Have we not then, here, an Upper House which either is in part composed, or may hereafter be composed, of persons who the Minister of the day may think, or ■ may have thought it necessary to obtrude upon the colony, without its people being in any way consulted ? Is it not too probable that the independent members of that House may at any moment be suddenly overpowered by the creatures of the Executive Government placed in the Upper House, and possibly, even at the same time or shortly afterwards, made Ministers, even our rulers,—not upon account of their public services or claims upon the favor of the Crown or of their fellow-colon-ists, but appointed as the mere nominees of the Premier, as men ready to do his bidding and take his rewards ; so that all customs and traditions of the proud British race being departed from, we have a mere dependent Upper House, and one which, perhaps, may bo so made dependent and so nominated by those whom mere fortuitous circumstances, or, perchance, the unconstitutional act of a temporary Governor, may have placed in office or retained there. Yet it is by the assistance of an Upper House so constituted, and which will remain a permanent institution of the country, that it is now proposed that every germ of real freedom in New Zealand should be crushed out.—l have, &0., G. Grey. Kawau, November 2C.