NEW ZEALAND AND EARL GREY.

Otago Witness, Issue 53, 22 May 1852, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND AND EARL GREY.

(From the Horning Herald.)

Sir Charles Grey, to the forced sale of whose carriage we have already called the reader's sympathising attention, is not the only governor of the name who has forfeited for ever the good-will of the people over whom he exercises viceregal authoiity, by the betrayal of their best interests. The name of Giey is identical with colonial misgovernment. In Downing-street, in the island of Jamaica, in tho new dependency of New Zealand, a Grey sits a? an incubus, or moves, only to create panic and disaffection. Of Governor Giey of Jamaica nothing need be added to the short but graphic account that has already reached us of his present position amongst his openly disloyal subjects. It is confessed, that with a view of showing a- general want of confidence in his Government, and of forcing him to resignation, a public and well-meditated insult has been offered him; and no further expression of public opinion can add to the force of the emphatic utterance that has already been made. Of Governor Grey of New Zealand it is enough to say, that not one colonist in the thiee islands under his control — who is not bribed into admiration of his policy — but regards his whole system of despotism and corruption with any feelings but those of unmitigated indignation and disgust. What the future constitution of New Zealand may be, it is as yet impossible to guess. In the course of next session Lord John Russell has undertaken to introduce a bill for the better government of the colony. That bill will come into force in the following year, and we do not hesitate to affirm, that unless it provides for the removal of all the abuses which Governor Grey has introduced and sanctioned, New Zealand, one of the latest and fairest of Her Majesty's acquisitions, will be one of the first to wrestle against a dominion which in an incredibly short space of time has taken the form of an absolute tyranny.

From Governor Grey of New Zealand much was expected when he quitted England to assume supreme authority in the colony ; for curiously enough, notwithstanding the suspicious look of the four letters which compose his name, he is not in any way related to the chief of the Colonial Office, and he had already earned some title to confidence and respec'.. by> the labours of his early manhood. When very young he proceeded to Western Australia as an exploring traveller, and on his return to England published an interesting and useful account of his adventures. Upon the credit of this work, and.

at the instigation of more than one influential

friend, he was appointed to the governorship of South Australia. His administration of this government disappointed his patrons, although it gave him a reputation for success in correcting the'errors of his predecessor, who had indulged in a profuse expenditure, which had actually made the public chest insolvent. Beyond performing the plain and easy duty of putting an end at once to an outrageous extravagance, Governor Grey conferred no further obligation upon South Australia ; but he soon acquired in the colony a character for unbounded devotion to the Colonial Office, and, in fact, was rapidly winning general unpopularity in consequence, when the devotion, which was absolute, unflinching, and "complete, obtained for the faithful client the appointment of New Zealand.

In New Zealand fortune again favoured the Governor. Here, for the second time, he succeeded a man to whose career it was necessary to put a stop, and whose extraordinary proceedings gave occasion in 1845 to debates in the House of Commons, which occupied no fewer than five long sittings. It was easy enough for Governor Grey to make an impression in New Zealand under the peculiar and fortunate circumstances in which he found himself. With ample means at his disposal, with plenty of money, and with an adequate supply of troops, it required no great exertion or skill to malce an appf-aranee of having put things to rights. We will do the Governor the justice to admit that he accomplished this feat. Much was he praised and puffed at the time for the triumphant effort, and infinite must have been his own sense of selfsufficiency, since from that hour he has proudly declined all further salutary exertion. The consequence is, that all the grave New Zealand difficulties which has been bequeathed to the colony are still in existence. An immense expenditure — its real amount has been carefully concealed — made it no difficult matter for Governor Grey to cover up the dangerous places which had been made, and to salve over the wounds which had been inflicted by the Colonial Office under Sir James Stephen ; but he attempted nothing whatever with the honest design of altering that gentleman's mischievous policy; and at this moment, after six years of government, during which the Governor has had every opportunity of advancing the welfare and material prosperity of the community under his care, and an ample field for the exercise of administrative ability — were there ability to show — the native question, and the land question, and above all, the question of self-government, are in as bad a state as ever. Nay, the condition of all these questions is manifestly worse ; for the progress of time has, in many respects, spoiled the opportunity of settling the native and land questions happily ; and the discontent of the colonists at not being allowed to manage their local affairs in their own way has been converted, in man)' places, into a settled hatred of England. It is in this l<ibt matter that Governor Grey i^ wholly without excuse for his conduct ; for it was at his instance solely tiiat the free constitution for New Zealand which Lord Grey established, and with which, notwithstanding its defects, the colonists were delighted, was suspended by Parliament for the space of five years, and the pure despotizm of a Governor maintained during the interval.

The unpopularity, however, of Go\ernor Giey in New Zealand, by no means rests solely and entirely upon his having upset the constitution of the country, and established his own unlimited autocracy in its stead. His whole career in New Zealand proves him to be altogether deficient in statesmanship, whilst his government is calculated to display little more than such brilliant effects as cajolery, trickery, and wholesale corruption are likely to produce. The immense public outlay of New Zealand — immense in proportion to the number of colonists in this infant settlement — places the means of corruption largely at the disposal of any hands willing to use them ; and to an observer of the Government of New Zealand, for the last few years, it would really seem th.it the only business of the Governor has been to buy off the opposition of his most indignant remonstrants. It is edifying to note how many of the present chief orliciaU were not long .since leading opponents of the wretched Government, of which they have become the open supporters, without in any way altering it ibi the better. Useful and independent colonists, intent upon the reformation of glari.ig abuses, have, one after the other, become eaters of the bieni of idleness as servile officials ; and the process of conversion has but to continue a little longer in older to undermine the wellbeing of the whole colony from north to south, and to prepare it for revolution and outbreak, almost before it is well cbUblished.

We do most earnestly trust that the opportunity about to be offered in "the approaching session lor putting an end to the scandalous system that prevails in New Zealand will not be allowed to pass unused. In Itio3 the Constitution suspended by Governor Giey will come into fovee again, unless another be supplied in its place. Lord John Russell has undertaken to furnish tho colonists with their needful Bill of Rights. Let them obtain it, and no colony on the face of the globe — not e\eu California itself— shall boaßt a more rapid elevation, and a more prosperous career than New Zealand shall achieve. She has every blessing that Providence and the industry of honest men cau give her. Her climate is the finest in the world ; her colonists are amongst the most industrious., orderly, and religious of emigrants. She asks but for free government for the development of her great resource 1 ?. She has it not under Governor Grey ; and until she possseses it she is degraded, maimed, and obstruou, ed in her pi ogress towards civilization uud content' ment. • - . •