Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENGATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." THURSDAY, 31st OCTOBER, 1867.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2591, 31 October 1867, Page 3

Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENGATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." THURSDAY, 31 st OCTOBER, 1867.

Tiie despatch which positively announces the appointment of Sir George Grey's successor iu the Government of New Zealand is neither more explicit nor courteous than the other, dated two months earlier, which gave the first intimation of the impending change. IL is so long since Sir George Grey has received anything but the most cavalier treatment from the Colonial Oilice, that it would have been foolish to expect; anything else now. It was in the highest degree unfair and unjust to answer honest and earnest protests on behalf of the colony by a curt and unceremonious dismissal ; but that, perhaps, is not so surprising as the cool indifference, alike to the feelings of his Excellency and the colony, which his Grace the Duke of Buckingham displays. The first despatch, dated the 18th of June, announced in its closing sentence that iu the course of another mail Sir George Grey would bo informed of the name of his successor, and yet more than two months are allowed to elapse before the fact of the new appointment having been made is communicated to the Governor of this colony. In the meantime, the information h allowed to ooze out and heroine known in Melbourne by a Router's telegram weeks before it has officially reached New Zealand. This may bo the official Avay of snubbing a troublesome Governor who is bold enough to defend the rights of the colony against Imperial injustice ; but if the same tactics were employed in social or business life, the person doing so would be set down by gentlemen as an insufferable snob. Dukes may, however, do things "which simple gentlemen dare not do, and perhaps in the minds of some people, the exalted position of the actor in this case may extenuate the meanness of his proceedings. Surely a- public servant of the reputation and experience of Sir George Grey was entitled to a little more consideration than has been shown. He is in eflect told that Sir Genre;© Pergusson Bowen has boon appointed his successor, but as the time of his arrival in the colony \ti uncertain, he (Sir George Grey) is to hold office till it may be convenient to his Grace to send the new Governor here. It amounts to this, that while the Duke of Buckingham would be quite ready to turn out the present Governor at a moment's notice if it suited the purpose of the Colonial Office, he is told that it is not convenient to do so, and that he is to hold office till it is. Everywhere throughout the colony this treatment of his Excellency will be resented and sympathy expressed with its victim. * This journal has never been a flatterer of Sir George Grey ; indeed, in many instances, his past acts have been the subject of merited and adverse criticism ; but in recent instances, when he has so gallantly fought the battle of the colony, it has been no more than an act of pimple justice to express approval of his conduct, and to resent the treatment 1o which he has been subjected. In Sir George Grey the colony will Jose a sincere friend. Whatever may have been his errors of judgment, however much ho may have obstinately adhered to views which experience has shown to bo unfounded, we arc inclined to believe that he meant to act for the best interests of the colony. That ho has so acted during thr. Insfc year is proved in every despatch .-.;.": it by him to Iho Colonial Office, tiis energetic remonstrances, his appeals for just treatment", are all. on record, and with these before us we do not choose to remember with anger the past, when a policy of war and confiscation to which the colony had lent its strongest support and pledged its resources for years to come, was hampered and frustrated by his weakness and vacillation. Of Sir George Pergusson Bowen w know but little, except that he is a gen tleman of liberal education, that he has been President of the University of Corfu, and that, in addition to his official experience as Governor of Queensland, ho has held an important political position as Chief Secretary to the Government of the lonian Islands. It may, therefore, fairly bo assumed that the new Governor of this colony is a superior man, though not to be classed in the first rank of those who ■■"btain similar positions. It is of little consequence when the colony now possesses the fullest measure of responsible Government in native as well as other iffaiivi, that its Governor should be profoundly versed in the history of our past loalings wiih the Maori race. The native iifHeully has assumed a new phase, and

the position of the colony with respect to 5 ifc is entirely altered from what it was Avhen Sir George Grey came for the ' second time to New Zealand. If trouble should arise, tho colony will deal with it ; and Colonial Ministers are not likely to - brook Imperial interference, when the right to exercise it has been abandoned ' bv the withdrawal of Imperial aid. Hence, the real power and responsibility I of conducting the Government of New Zealand will rest with the colonists them- ' selves, and under such circumstances, when there are no longer in view " objects of great Imperial concern," the Governor will not be anything more than the representative of the Queen, with duties of . little else than a formal character to per- • form. It is, therefore, perhaps best that ■ when a new era has commenced, there ' should be a new man as the nominal head ,[ of the Government in the colony. Sir I George Grey's special abilities would to F ' a great extent be thrown away when the necessity for their exercise no longer • exists in the same degree as before. The sphere in which he could be most useful is one where a certain policy, involving the exercise of, to some extent, irresponsible power, has to be carried out, and the time for that in New Zealand has gone by. It is = possible that Sir George Grey, whose 1 twent3 r -four years of service at the Cape, at Adelaide, aud in New Zealand as a colonial Governor have gained him so high a reputation, may yet further increase it by his future acts in a similar 1 capacity elsewhere.