Mr ROEBUCK ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT FOR NEW ZEALAND.

Wellington Independent, Volume I, Issue 48, 28 January 1846, Page 4

Mr ROEBUCK ON LOCAL GOVERNMENT FOR NEW ZEALAND.

[From the Colonial Gazette, August 2.] [The suggestions thrown out for the future government of New Zealand, on Wednesday evening, by Mr. Roebuck, are parcularly interesting and important at the present moment. The practical question has been fairly launched.—How can the administration of the colonies be improved, on the one hand, by improved local instistitutions in the colony.; and on the other by re-organisation of the Colonial Office at home ? Willi the former branch of the h quiry Mr. Roebuck grapples in a-com-prehensive and practical spirit. His remarks may bear fruit in other colonies as well as in that to which they are addressed • —in Guiana or at ihe Cape ol Good Hope, as well as in New Zealand. 11 is with sincere pleasure that we present to our readers a more full and accurate report of Mr. Roebuck's speech than has appeared elsewhere. The bold and trenchant, yet judicious-, manner in which he brushes away all cavils about land-rights and the right of sovereignity is also admirable.] We are called upon, after the ordinary course of things in this country, to provide for—that is, to pay for—the new colony of New Zealand. The last of our colonies, in point of date, it follows the example, set now for centuries, and becomes a burden on the mother country. Is this forever to continue ? Is there any inherent necessity for this evil ? Is it not possible so to regulate a colony as to make it, from the very commencement, maintain its own government and provide for all its necessary expeust s ? Is it not possible for colonists to procure their own subsistence, and prove no more a burden to the metropolis as colonists than they would have been had they remained residents in England. There is, indeed, no such necessary condition of being a burden upon the mother country attendant v ion the formation of a colony. The colony of New Zealand might be made a self-sustaining colony. But, then, the principles upon which we are to proceed must be very different from those which we have hitherto adopted as our guides : new doctrines must be adopted—new courses must be followed. At present there is a complication of circumstances in our connexion with this new colony that draws it, in some dtgiee, out of the ordinary mie ; but it is not diflii ult to meet these ex raordinary circum. stance?, —to guard against the evils which may result from them,—and then to adopt for it, as for all other cases, one general pl»n, which, while, it provides for the due protection of the colony, entails no unnecessary expense on the metropolis. Tl.e peculiar circumstai ces connected with New Zealand arise out of the unfortunate transactions attendant on our taking possession of the islunds so called. We have preferred to set up a very doubtful right, resulting from cession, to the complete nnd unimpeachable title which we had by discovery. The trtaty of Waitangihas been the cause of many mischiefs already ; it will prove, unless wise measures be immediately adopted, the fruitful source of many evils yet to corns. T"e Government will find it absolutely incumbent on th m, at some time, sooner or liter, t> take posses ion, in the name of the Crown, of all tie wnste lands of the country. So long as they shall deem these lands the piopeMy of the natives, and dependent on their will and pleasure, the country

will remain a desert, and confusion and distress reign paramount within it. I will not now press this topic further. I know the Government must soon (_if they are not so at this moment) he of my opinion; and we must leave it to time to make them wise upon this head. Turning, then, to the consideration of the government of the colony, wh>tt ought to be done ? I confess that my opinion differs greatly from almost all that I have heard expressed on this subject ; and I now proceed to explain what my own views are, and why I differ from those of otheis. I think it will be acknowledged by all who will take the pains to consider the subject, that New Zealand should, for the purposes of government generally, be considered as one integral body, and that any scheme of administration, either for the present or the future, should contemplate the unity, the political, the continued unity of that group of islands. This being admitted, it follows that we ought, in all our regulations, to guard against the chance of separating the country into such districts as shall even suggest the idea of future and permanent separate interests. We ought to be careful not to make an England and a Scotland and an Ireland of this country, which ought to be, and can be, made one. Its extent.—its natural -boundary, the ocean—all combine towards this unity. New Zealand is not like Austral Asia, a huge territory which, by its bulk, almost defies a union. It is a small, compact country, that is physically one, and which can easily be made practically the same. But, while we are endeayouring to avoid the "mischief of separating the group into various states or nations, we ought also to beware lest we so divide any one of these larger divisions as to split it into a number of small and hostile communities. We wish not to make an England, an Ireland, and a Scotland ; we ought to be careful not to make in any one part a new Heptarchy. The fiiMt result would be a great calamity; the second would be utterly intolerable. Many of the precautions against these evils are common precauions : that is, the thing that is needed to be dove, to prevent the creation of the larger divisions, is necessnry also to prevent the smaller. I will, therefore, consider the precautions under one general head. In the first place, then, you should, from the first, contemplate the existence of one, and only one, general government; and all your divisions of the country, all your political arrangements, should be framed with reference to one. and one only, central or general controlling power. This observation is of the greatest importance,, for, unless it be steadily borne in mi nd, the evil feared will inevitably occur. Prevention depends upon two sets of provisions, —one, geographical', the other mora or political. The first of the geographical. If, in your divisions of the country for political purposes, you may make large and cumbrous divisions you will find that interest will drive separate parts of the country to unite into d/stinct and separate bodies; for example, you will find a great tendency in New Zealand, among the future inhabitants, to call and consider themselves as inhabitants, one set of the northern, the other of the southern islands. A -very small political arran«ement might, in this case, be attended by great and long-continned consequences; for example, have two governors—one for one inland, one for another; have two courts of appeal; have two independent hierarchies: and you run great risk of making two political c mmunities. Make-two legislatures, ar d you have done it at once. And war and confusion and misery, for centuries may be the result. My first practical suggestion, then, for the purpose of preventing this evil, refers to the division of the country; and I would entreat the Government so to make it that it refer always to one, and one only, central government, In what way, then, should the country be divided? As my whole scheme is dependent upon this division, I wiil at once state the steps which, in my opinion, ought immediately to be taken. The whole country ought at once, from north to south, be what I will call " politically surveyed ; " and the whole divided into convenient districts, which, for many reasons, I would call counties. The effects of that name will prove in all things beneficial. The size of these counties ought, as far as possible, to be the same throughout. Natural boundaries there are, which it would be idle not to follow. Cook's Straits, for example, must be deemed the southern boundary, in one case, of all such counties in the Northern Island as come down to the sea on the shores of those Straits; and tbe northern boundary of such counties in the Middle Island as reach up to the sea there. That is, no one county ought to be divided by Cook's Straits so as to have part of a county on one side and part on another. Political surveying contemplates all these great natural features, and while so doing strives to maintain uniformity; and it would in the case I am contemplating, be a problem for the surveyor to solve, viz., what, in each case, ought to be the ex'ent and limits of the separate counties, making them as far as possible equal in size ? The size is an important circumstance with reference to the political institutions. First, they should not not be so large as to make formidable entities—that is, so large as to allow state, not county, feelings to arise. Depend on it, the feelings of the state of New Yotk, with reference to the general Government of the United States, i* a very diff- rent combination fom that which exis's in the mind of a Yurkshireman, as respects tl'e general Governmer t of England; and the size of the stale of New York is one and an important circumstance which has led to this difference. Let the whole country, then, be div ded, for the purposes of couniy government, into counties and paiishes. 1 say county as opposed on the one hand to state, and on the other to municipal governor nt; and let the first county so set out by metes and bounds be Wellington; and then deal with Wellington at once as a ecu ty, not till the rest of the country be surveyed. You should have your scheme of <>overnment ready and pre-ordained: a general government being then in existence, declare Wellington a county, proceed to the other settlements, and do the same ivitii them: the m - veyor takingcare always that the bounds should be 1 id down ni h ieference to the intervening territory not suiveyed. Having then settled the general s'ze of ths counties with reference to county government, and having constituted cc, tain pott.una of the coiv trvcoun-

ties at once.it would then dare what you had decreed si. • 1 >c your covernment. And herein I must trc-at ot I>oe means to which I former y ad«, .J In the kr S e and proper sense o the tern.. 1 „ot confer on these counties any 1 g s ative i whatever. I think it not.only pos sibU. bu reaUy not difficult; to frame such a scheme of oujt > jo vemment as should reduce all its fun t .on.to > of the administrative and judtcal d< P rU.uts. *J > the example of bur own country before v . wc.uve a large experience, both for good and evil on tins questions now arise:-!. What fusionari es would you constitute: 2. W ' PJ we " wouhl you confer upon them ; and 3. In what way would you create these county office- s. What you really want is, somebody to wat 1 over the local necessities of the county -to pro de t means necessary for doing what is needed to be done. Now, what are the local necessities 1 hey are not matters of general law : these ought aU to be provided for already, and by other means, neither are they what may be called matters of general uolice. But they are the things which at this moment are provided for by the county magistracy ot England. I exclude from this the administration ot justice, with which I shall deal in a moment. Local policy roads, and bridges, providing means for the maintenance of the poor, and other general county expenses arising, ftr example, from the erection of gaols, court-houses, county halls asylums, &c.; these are the functions which a county government includes, or ought to include. The persons to perform these functions should be chosen by the people; and all danger might be guarded against by providing that persons registered as voters should alone have the power of choice. You would find this a sufficient preeau ion, both against dangerous natives and dangerous colonists. The persons so chosen hy the people of the coun. ty, for county purposes, should constitute a county board. The duties and powers of this board might be, and ought to be, at once enumerated and defined. The statement thus made wouid serve for the general law of the whole community, and, as, one county after another was constituted, the -law would at once, and without further trouble, be in force. I have spoken of constituting a county, and will therefore, before I speak of the administration of justice, explain what I mean by this phrase. In a county yet to be settled, it is evident that the mere marking out the boundaries of a couivy cannot be enough to ma c it a part of the body politic; it must have inhabitants befnre it can be, in fact, a county ; and here I think a very useful regulation be introduced, somewhat similar to a law of the United States, respecting what are called ' territories.' The existing states have all defined limits, and all persons living beyond the borders of any existing staie are not subject to its laws; and, as the county becomes setth-d, boundaries are marked out, and, until the inhabitants reach 40,000, the new colony is called a tenitory. When it reaches the prescribed number of inhabit, ants v is received into the Union, and is called a state. So 1 would deal with the counties of New Z-aland, giving each county dtfined limits. I would declare that the persons living beyond those limits should not, until they had reached a certain num. ber, obtain the title and advantages of a county for the place they dwelt upon. This would have a double beneficial tendency ; it would make it the interest of all settles to choose a constituted county for their place of residence, and would thus, to a certain extent, concentrate population; while, on tbe other hand, it would hold out a temptation to large bod es of settlers to choose one and the same place of residence, in order to obtain the advantage of self government, and representation in the general government. The prescribed limit of numbers necessary to constitute a county need not be high ; 30U0 would be ample. These imperfect counties or territories ought, while in that condition, to be subject for all purposes to the general government. Having thus provided for tbe administrative part of the counfy government, I proceed to-consider the judicial part of it. This I would make consist of magistrates and judges, both chosen by the Crown—the magistrates merely having power to apprehend and coram t offenders. The judges should have tw> separate classes of functions, which, in reality, would soon lead to separate classes of.judges, viz., those of a summary'jurisdiction, and those of the regular and establUhed tribunals. In all cases I would have the judges paid officers, and taken, as soon as such a regulation could be enforced, from a class educated for ihe bar. The counties would be, as I have already stated, subdivided into parishes ; and parish officers, very similar to our own here in England, ought immediately to be chosen. This part of the subject would create no difficulty. Among the officers of the county an accountant or clerk would be needed. He ought to be chosen by the people ; and in his name the county ought, being considered a legal entity, to sue and be sued! What, then, it may be asked of me, would you have no municipal bodies ? My answer is, in the present state of the country, certainly not. The time may possibly arise, but certainly not in tbe life of the youngest amongst us, when great towns may g r ow up, and the numbers of the inhabitants may require special bodies to watch over their local affai s. But, even in this case, I much doubt the benefit to be derived from the creation of c rpnrations. In times past, under very different cirtum stances from any which now exist, they were of use. They were needed to prot ct the quitt merchant and artisan against the power of the f udal noble, and ihe evils of feudal law ; but that ponrer and those evils no longer exibt, and the general plan I here propose will, I believe, meet all the exisen ctes of the present time. You want no chur.er for thts-a general law might easily be framed. The plan I have faintly sketched might be fully carried out, and all things proceed after a settled and regular scheme. But what, it will be said, do you propose in the Stow" ,- governments My answer is as The present is by all acknowledged to be a tern porary state of things, and the sooner, in my opinion" hat it really comes to a a end the better. I v ! therefore, state what I believe wm.ld be the hi plan to adopt at once. " c best There are twopciuts icspccting the general go-

,-r merit which require immediate ronM leiution •— I! Xreih.ll it" place itself? 2. Of what shall: 11 The'selit of the general government should be beted solely wi'h reference to the interests of tluj colony; and of this the bet judge* are the coloni ts themselves. So soon, there tore, as I determined to adopt a representative government, to them I would leave it to determine where the < r , V emme ,t should he placed. So, in the counties, the moment I dermined that n county should, according to my plan, be constituted at that moment I would leave it with them to determine at what place th. ir county government should assemble ■ where they should build their courts, gaols, •&c.' 1« the same way I would deal with 'the general government. The next inqury is, when would you adopt k representative government ? For my part I see no has yet been assigned for not adoptin"- it'at once. The only plausible reason is, that, under present circumstances, it would be dangerous to do so because of the natives. This is not so. It is said the natives are 100,000, the colonists not 15 000, In the first place, I believe 'the number of the natives to be grossly exaggerated; next, they are spread over the wholo islands—they are scattered far away into parts that cannot for years be constituted counties, and in all such parts as are constituted counties they must be registered to vote. This will render them incapible of mischief. If, however, it is said that the real di-ead is, that inju.-tice will be done to the natives, then I answer, you have the Governor representing the Crown. He will of necessity possess a veto upon all legislaii,n, and no injustice can be perpetrated to which he is not a party. You can go no further, and declare that no laws, immediately and by name affecting the natives, thall have the force of laws till sanctioned by the Crown through the Secretary of State. As for any elective legislature being more imprudent or unwise than the one now existing in New Zealand, that is impossible; on that ground you cannot rest your objection to an immediate adoption of an elective legislature. 'The only ground that I can'fancy as being deemed of weight, is the small number of the community, and their scatiered condition. Their numbers, however, if you will adopt my scheme of counties. One member for each county of such a number of inhabitants, two when the numbers reach a given point ; and you may safely leave it to the people to determine upon the persons to be chosen. You will by this means have a much wiser and more economical and ■zealous legislature than you could otherwise framr. But then comes the question, what form of government would you adopt ? For certain purposes I would have an executive council, chosen by the Cruwo, to advise with ihe Governor ; the Governor, however, acting without their consent The councillors should, when they differed from the Governor, be required to state their reasons in writing ;*rhe Governor to act, however, without the consent of any councillor, and entirely on his own responsibility. The reasons of the dissenting councillors being sent to tne Colonial Office. For the legislative purposes of the colony, I would have on elective assembly, dusen for a limited period ; which assembly and the government sh uld constitute the legislature. In this I know I differ from many persons—for whose opinion I have great respem— they believing that two legislative bodies are necessary. To this, as the opinion of the great majority of rensoners on government, I should not object to yield; but this I am certain—the only way in which you can prevent this second legislative body from being the cause of constant dispute is bymaking it al,-o el'ctive. Make it dependent on the choice and will of the Govei nor, H nd you ma-ke it at once a small obnoxious oligarchy— the-cause of constant quarrels, the source of all possible mischief and confusion. Havi igthus cons'ituted your general government what pewers wou'd you confer upon it ? Every pawer requisite lor the government of the colony. Ihey cou.d not haTe ihe power of rep.a'ing an act of Parliament, butevery thing short of that (subject of necessity to the veto of the Crown) they ought to possess. It should be renumbered that ihe Gov r _ nsr of the Crown is an essential element 0 f th : s legislature, and that nothing can be done without Irs consent. There is a sufficient safeguard agoinst mischief as is found in all our North American and. West Indian colonies having elicuve legishtures. Ihe business of the metropolitan government, excepfng ihat part which is confided to the Governor. is merely to protect her outlying territory from foreign aggression.' Keep your active colonists »afe fiom hostile attack.; g ye ihem your markets as the great outlets for their trade ; Jet them take advanl a n S d e i°/v OU^ C3pitaL ' y° ur6kill . «nd your safeguard, wi,d m? h m to ' thdr ° Wn ener S ies - «"£ °™ wisdom in the management of their own affairs, and the government of their own newly-formed country. Avoids you would a pestilence, all unnecessary interference. Let :hem provide for their own w .n£ by their own means; trouble them ~ot. hamper them ml/* y °7 meddlin S- You CO «W not manage a farm at the antipodes; why should you fancy it so easy to govern a kingdom You har* o tie T'r f UIiS - Very C / 8e ' a Striki "S '""'ration you Z f " amm your inter.neddl.ng> you are now about to pay for it in the shape of tne elve?' "Jr he Col ° ni3 > wh ° »™ i»"t Hke you,----2 it, la c " cry thin S-™ d Probably, in enZLTn th *' >' GUr , SU l' eriorß -a»ow.hera I say, to govern themselves, Jetting them enj ,y the ereat fZZ B J P6rfeCt -, S f ty " oder *e J 4uof g ou a J b nefi? Z , VJ°? WI J be ""P l * compenaated for the uni» th y % nf v r ' b £ Beein * n »*" England grow Id c, / f r ° Utl T Sea , 8 ' mul,ti "S ««»W the o he tt?n W it an honour LO a ' ive ueuved then origin.