E.—No. 5.

capital, formed upon limited, often erroneous information. AVhen, therefore, the General Assembly meets, some time elapses before the Members can thoroughly acquaint themselves with what has passed since their last meeting, and ere they have fully mastered this, the time for their separation has almost arrived. Sometimes also papers upon important subjects are only called for after the Assembly has met for some time. I believe in some cases the printing of these papers has been hardly completed when the Assembly has separated. The Sessions of the Assembly are also not only short, but by far too infrequent to enable them to exercise such a control over public affairs as is exercised by the Parliament of Great Britain. 8. For instance, the General Assembly met at its last Session on the 19th of October, 1863, and was prorogued on the 14th of December of the same year, after a Session of only 56 days, and it may probably not meet again until the month of March, 1865—that is not until after an interval of fifteen months. 9. AVhilst the General A ssembly exercises so feeble a control over public affairs, what is termed the Cabinet bears but a faint resemblance to the strong and powerful Ministry which can be formed in Great Britain. Since September, 1861, there have been three Ministries in New Zealand. The present Cabinet consists of five members, one of whom has been absent in England during the greater portion of tho time of the existence of the present Ministry. Two other members of the Ministry have been frequently absent from the Capital; so that the direction of affairs, involving largely the interests of Great Britain, in the employment of her Military and Naval Forces, and the expenditure of her funds, has rested at such times in the hands of the remaining two members of the Ministry, who are the two partners who compose one of the leading legal firms in the town of Auckland. And it was on advice thus tendered to him that the Governor was frequently expected to act in the most important affairs of Imperial concern. The protest I now enclose is made by this Cabinet, and not by the General Assembly, and it is made before your last despatch is known in the Colony, and before public opinion has been in any way formed or expressed on the subject. 10. The position of the Governor in this Colony is also peculiar, from the relations existing between the Mother Country and a Colony. The Governor is the person who here issues in his own name all orders to the chief Military and Naval authorities ; such orders are, in fact, openly and ostensibly his orders, and he is apparently responsible for all acts done under them ; and when bis Ministers require him to sign such orders he is really their servant, and yet is responsible to the British Government for the orders they compel him to give, and which may be repugnant to his own wishes and feelings ; and he has also here none of the facilities for forming a new Ministry which the Crown in England, or the Governors of neighbouring Colonies possess ; for, from the great distance of the several Settlements from each other, the defective information they possess on public affairs, the rare and short occasions on which New Zealand statesmen are brought together in the General Assembly, it is almost impossible for the Governor to consult them as to whether they will, or will not, form a new Government, or for them to determine what support they can reckon upon in the General Assembly if they undertake to do so. 11. It should also be remembered in reference to the two distinct populations in this country, that the native population who are the largest landed proprietors in the Northern island, are unrepresented in the General Assembly, the other population, the European one is the governing body. Necessarily in a civil war the feeling of race exercises some influence, and men's passions more or less lead them to adopt extreme view's, and too hasty and often illconsidered acts, in which they are sustained by a public opinion to which there is little or no counterpoise, so that surrounded by such influences, it would be very difficult for a Minister, endued with the very calmest mind to arrive at a correct conclusion; and this difficulty is greatly increased when he has to please a constituency in which almost universal suffrage prevails, and which is composed of one race engaged in a civil war with a race which it is to govern, and which is to be subdued by an army supplied by the mother country. 12. Great Britain, in whoso service the officers and men of Her Naval and Military Forces nave engaged themselves, often from the highest motives, owes something to the feelings of these officers and men, and something to the welfare of the wives and children of her soldiers, and I do not think that when two populations arc arrayed against one another as is now the case in this colony, the uncontrolled power over the lives, actions and honor of these officers and men, and ofthe welfare of their wives and children, should be handed over to irresponsible persons, or at least but feebly responsible to a Colonial legislature, the seats of the members of which depend upon constituencies who must, by the course of events, be more or less excited against another race, which is unrepresented in that Legislature. 13. I have used the word " irresponsible " persons, for in truth a Colonial Ministry cannot be said to be responsible to the Parliament of Great Britain, nor even in any indirect manner to the British tax-payer, whose resources they would direct the expenditure of. I cannot but think that whilst a civil war prevails in New Zealand, Imperial officers, responsible to the British Government, should exercise such a control over the management of public affairs, as is directed in your despatch against which my Responsible Advisers protest. At the time of their protest being made, they had not sanctioned the publication in the colony of your despatch No. 65 of the 26th May 1864, so that no expression of public opinion had taken place here regarding it, I am not at all satisfied that when this subject has been fully considered public opinion will be adverse to the instructions you have issued for the management of public affairs during the present crisis. I think that all would see that these instructions which have been issued to meet a temporary emergency, would lapise the moment a normal state of things was restored in the colony, and that they were suited to meet the exigencies of the present moment and to provide for the restoration of peace to the country. I think no doubt should be entertained of the good sense and good feeling of the inhabitants of New Zealand, that you should feel satisfied that you will be supported by a large majority in this country in doing that which is right, and that when, after full consideration, you have determined that a certain line of policy is that which justice to Great Britain, and to both races in this colony requires to be pursued, you may direct that it should be carried out in the full confidence that the Governor here will, when all the facts become known, have ample support in giving effect to your instructions. I have, &c, The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, M.P. G. Gbey.

9

TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE.