GOVERNOR GREY.

Wellington Independent, Volume V, Issue 429, 21 November 1849, Page 2

GOVERNOR GREY.

(From tfie Sydney Morning Herald, Oct. 2rj.)

The position of Governor Grey becomes daily more embarrassing. The maze of difficulties by which he is encircled are hourly accumulating.. As the deliverer of South Australia he was received in New Zealand as the harbinger of peace and prosperity. Proclaimed a " model Governor" at home, the settlers in New Zealand felt grateful for the care and caution which the British Government had bestowed in the-selec-tion of a Governor who was to succeed Captain Fitzroy, and conduct;with energy and enterprise the Government of a country which under Captain Fitzroy's administration had been the seat of anarchy and rebellion. On Governor Grey's arrival in New Zealand, he was welcomed by the colonists; in' him they thought to enjoy the protection of one whope very name would silence the tocsin of civil war; in him they trusted that $he colony would be relieved frum the embarrassments which had been occasioned by the vacillating and temporizing policy of Captain Fitzroy; in him they looked for a Government to be carried on honestly, and with economy, and integrity ; in him they hoped to find, from his previous experience, all the es3sentials requisite for allaying the then existing dissention between the Aboriginal and European population, and for establishing the government of New Zealand upon a sure, safe, and solid basis. But how grievously have the colonists been disappointed. The rebellion was only put down after many conflicts and much bloodshed. The embarrassed state of the Colonial revenue, with all the assistance which Governor Grey has received from the Imperial Government, has been plunged into still greater difficulties by his unwarranted creation of useless offices, and his reckless and unnecessary expenditure. Economy has not been practised in his government, and integrity has with him been a scarce commodity. The blighted hopes and bitter disappointment of the colonists have, after a patient endurance of between three and four years, found vent m the expression of opinion at a public meeting, which was held at Auckland on Thursday, the 6th of September, when resolutions were adopted complaining that the prosperity of the colony during the last three years, is and that no .advance has been made in developing the natural and inherent xesourcNSgtn ? couAtry— that the policy adopted* by Governor, Grey has been restrictive; despotic, and unconstitutional—-that.the j unwise policy of Governor Grey has caused a re-emigration to California, which would in a great measure have been,prevented if a different policy had been-pursued, and free scope given to the profitable employment of capital in unfolding the resources of .the colony. And as a wind-up, we find a resolution in the following words, carried without a single dissentient voice :— -

The the disregard manifested by the Governor of this colony (New Zealand) to the just complaints and petitions of the people, and to the recommendations of the Legislative Council,.proves, that he has no sympathy with the real inte rests of the settlers of this district; and the results of his .policy being so disastrous, all confidence in his measures is justly forfeited, as well as all official character for veracity, in so far as his despatcnos abound with' systematic misrepresentations, and in which individuals and classes are calumniated, and facts perverted, without. scruple, to-oneet the exigences- of/the moment. This meet-" injfis therefore of opinion" that a memo

rial should be forwarded to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, petitioning for his immediate recal, as he cat) no longer remain in this colony with honour to the Crown or with advantage to the community. It would not require much research into colonial history to discover that it is a circunistnnee of no unlrequent occurrence to call upon the colonial minister at home to recall an obnoxioHS Governor. It is little more than a year ago that a petition was adopted at Melbourne praying the Queen to remove Mr. La Trobe from , the office of Superintendent of Port Phillip, but Earl Grey refused to comply with the prayer of the petitioners, because his Lordship expressed himself far from supposing that errors might,.not have been committed by Mr. La Trobo as well as by other gentlemen vi his-po-.sition,-in shaping their course-so assto avoid or surmount the,many difficulties which beset it. This however is not the case of- Governor Grey: - his- recalMs rapt demanded upon a mere. error of judgment. " The substance of-the resolutions passed at the meeting ttre'enibo'died m' a ■petition to be sent to Earl Grey, \tiahi prayer of which calls upon Earl Grey " to recommend to Her most gracious Majesty forthwith to remove Governor Grey, from his appointment, and to replace him with one who may at least have straightforward honesty of statement in hiscom-i munications with Her Majesty's Government; and whose proceedings in the colony, whatever may be their result may at least bear upon the face of them integrity of purpose and good-will towards the settlers." . i

To follow the various speakers through the numerous charges which they made against Governor Grey, in discussing the resolutions and in adopting the petition, would prolong our remarks beyond our usual limits. The pith of the arguments were extracted from . Governor Grey's own despatches, as published in the Blue Books for 1847 and 1848, and in which despatches, says one of the speakers, hia attacks and mis-representations had been chiefly directed against the Missionary Land Claimants generally, and Govern--ment Officers, besides having libelled the whole Northern settlers in his attempt to prevent them obtaining Representative Institutions.

The sting of the libel agaiust the colonists, however, appears in a despatch dated October, 1847, (Blue Book, p. 2). in which Governor Grey writes, " I feel quite satisfied that if such an attempt (representative institutions) were made ■before these questions.(the second claim, whifcli he himself had raised t}p) were, disposed of, efforts would be made lo return . representatives not to transact the real business of the country, but to agitate these claims, and from the number of Government officers who are directly or indirectly connected with the influence of some of the missionari'*' who claim such large tracks of land, and from other circumstances, I fear that a' period of confusion, probably of renewed rebellion, expensive both i?i blood and money, must, under such circumstances, inevitably take place."

; Such is a specimen of the offensive language used by Sir George Grey in addressing the Colonial Minister about British subjects who have been confided to his protection. It is only one of many of a similar character ■ —expressions which have for a long time been patiently endured, but which by repetition have a last become insupportable. Governor Grey's prejudging the efforts of representativegovernment before representative insti-.. tutions have been established is unstatesmanlike and insulting. His attack upon - his own officers and the respectable missionaries who paved the way for colanising New Zealand, is a gratuitous affront, whilst the conclusions at which he arrives that " renewed rebellion, expensive both in blood and money," must be the inevitable result of conferring representative institutions on the settlers ' is not borne out by any act of theirs, but exists only in the excitable mmd of the ■ Governor of NtiwV £ealsfa.r^The'■■prefc , '* feedings of-the people of Auckland havebeen backed-by the Constitutional Association of Wellington. ; The "latter have v - also adopted ff petition to bbtti Houses of Parliament, complaining of the acts of Governor Grey, and urging his recal. The colonists have done their duty. They have impeached Sir George Grey, and ' the Colonial Minister is bound to call upon Sir George Grey for an immediate explanation of his unnecessary and uncalled for remarks.