The Poberty Bay Berald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1279, 24 March 1881, Page 2

The Poberty Bay Berald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING.

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1881. When it was announced that Sir Arthur Gordon had been appointed Governor of New Zealand, the general opinion expressed was that the Colony had got a man who would be likely from his antecedents to ignore constitutional rule. Sir Arthur had been for many years a Crown Governor of small colonies, where his sway was absolute and his commands became law, that people thought he would be as autocratic here as he had been in other countries. We lind Sir Arthur the reverse of all this, and he did not fail to make himself understood at the banquet given to him nt Christchurch. The .sentiments he expressed there found an echo iv the breasts of his hearers, and his afterdinner enunciations when they went forth through the newspaper Press have found great favor. Sir Arthur Gordon's own words are worth quoting, He said, " I think it not impossible that those who have been curious enough to investigate the antecedents of ray career may have exchanged doubts and expressed alarm, and said to one another — what is perfectly well known — that for many years — fifteen — I have been exclusively in the Government of what are called Crown Colonies, that in to say of countries where the whole executive power and a preponderating voice in legislation are vested in the Governor ', and that for the last five years I have exercised a power even more absolute than is generally the case in Colonies of that description, and it may be asked, nay, I am sute that it has been asked, ' Is this a good sfchool in which to learn the lessons of constitutional government 1 Will a man, who has had these powers, submit to the restraints which are here imposed upon him ]' Well, gentlemen, these are questions which I cannot with propriety attempt to answer or even to discuss, but the fact that it has been raised is sufficient to justify me in making the declaration I desire to make. I hold with the certainty of absolute conviction,] that in Colonies where the mass of the inhabitants out-number in great proportion those who hold the ruling power among them, of a different race, with different habits of thought, different objects and different habits of life, there it is essential, if we would avoid the ascendancy of a narrow, cruel, and selfish oligarchy, that power should be in the hands of one independent man. But on the other hand, I hold as absolutely that in a community such as this is, where the great majority of the inhabitants are men of English descent and feelings, not only is no other than such a Government as now exists possible, but no other is desirable. I wish this to be understood, that strong as is my conviction that, where the dominant race is in a small minority, power must be committed to one man, it is os strong that in a community Jike this it must rest with the people themselves." This is a perfectly just and accurate theory as to the relative positions of Crown Colonies and those enjoying representative institutions. Still it could fairly have -been rejoined that His Excellency might hold the most admirable theoretical conceptions of the situation, and yet his mode of reducing it to practice might prove arbitrary in the last degree. His Excellency seems to have anticipated this rejoinder, and promptly disposed of it in advance. He proceeded .. — » But some will say ' that this is all very fine, we give you credit for the best intentions, and you probably think now that you will only fill your constitutional place, but have you learnt what that place is ? Hare

the last fifteen years of your life fitted you to know what are the restraints you must submit to V That, too, is a question 1 cannot possibly answer. I can only tell you this, that my estimate of the functions of a Colonial (Governor is exactly that expressed not very long ago by the late Governor-General of Canada, himself one of the best of constitutional Governors, a man full of the wit and humour hereditary in the family of Sheridan, and endowed with ability and sound sense of his own. Things inarrli fast in these days, and I dare say that .speech, which made some noise at the time, is now quite forgotten, and I may, therefore, be excused for repeating its substance. After giving in a speech made at a banquet like the present an elaborate and most able account of a Governor's duties, he summed up in this way : he said that the functions of a constitutional Governor most closely resembled those of the humble individual who, dressed in a white fustian jacket, and carrying a tin can with a long spout to it, hovers round some elaborate machinery, dropping a little oil into this joint, and a little oil into that. Those functions, humble as they are, are extremely useful in keeping the machinery moving without friction ; the man does not attempt to interfere with the working of the machine, or to play with the valves, but his oil-dropping keeps the whole concern moving smoothly and easily. I may also add, with all seriousness, that perhaps the man who has lived for some time in the exercise of despotic power is, of all others, the least likely to contend for miserable shreds and fragments of authority which, can in no case replace that power which he has given up." It is well that His Excellency has explained himself in terms so clear and distinct. No Governor, whatever his proclivities, could rule in a free colony, populated by a free people otherwise than constitutionally. We are pleased to place Sir Arthur's words on lecord. Had he not have uttered them, it would have been all the same ; for he would have been made to act upon them, or the term of his appointment would have been brief indeed.