39

A.—3a

of the Provincial Council a resolution was carried by Sir George's own officials and nominees (unanimously, as far as appears from the Government Gazette) to the effect " that the Parliamentary grant spent in this province on public roads has not been productive of so much benefit to the colony as under a different system of application it might have been ; " and the Council recommended to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, " that, for the future, as far as practicable, the system of contracts should be resorted to in the construction of all public works." It appears also from the official reports of Mr. Fitzgerald, the Government Engineer, published in the Government Gazette (New Munster, Vol. ii., p. 93), that a particular portion of the most important military road of the province then in course of construction could have been completed for the sum of £123 65., but that, owing to its non-completion (which continues to the present day), the traffic between Wellington and the important military post of Porirua, fourteen miles off, and in fact the whole coast beyond to Wanganui, " must be stopped for the winter season ; " yet, at the date of that report, the Lieutenant-Governor was engaged in the erection of an unnecessary bauble of a flagstaff at Government House —a mere child's plaything, of no sort of use —which is understood to have cost the amount specified by Mr. Fitzgerald, or thereabouts. The nominee Council was at the same moment voting a salary of £200 a year to a Colonial Chaplain, £80 a year for a gardener for the Government Domain, forage for horses for various officers who have no equestrian duties to perform, and generally disposing of the public money upon a variety of unnecessary and unproductive objects, as if the public purse had no bottom. To take, as an instance, the department engaged in collecting and distributing the revenue: there are for this settlement, and independently of Nelson and other places, a Collector and several subordinate officers, a Treasurer and one clerk, and an Auditor-General and one clerk, to perform duties which in 1842, with a revenue only £2,700 less than at present, were performed by the Collector of Customs and his clerks alone. Surely the above are causes over which Sir George Grey had control, and which he ought to have controlled. If for such causes the colonists are to be debarred from selfgovernment their case is indeed hopeless; for, so long as they are despotically governed, it is certain that such or similar causes will exist. Resolution B.—Moved by Captain Daniell, J.P., and seconded by Mr. Joseph : " That, bearing in mind that the whole of the Parliamentary grant for the year 1849-50 has already been expended ; that the ordinary civil expenditure for the same year recently voted by the nominee Council for the southern province is £2,000 in excess of the estimated revenue ; and that Sir George Grey himself asserts that' any sudden stoppage in his plans in reference to the completion of the military roads at present commenced would render useless all that has been done, and would certainly entail a greatly increased military expenditure upon Great Britain, besides again arresting the progress of the colony,' &C, this Association cannot but regard His Excellency's promise that a considerable reduction in such expenditure may be made during the year 1850 as not merely altogether impossible to be realised, but as eminently calculated, if not expressly intended, to mislead Her Majesty's Government—to conceal his own mal-administration of the public funds, both Home and colonial, and to throw discredit upon his successor in the government of the colony by involving it in financial embarrassments of no ordinary magnitude; thus treating his successor with the same unfairness, illiberality, and injustice which he has so notoriously exhibited towards his predecessor, Captain Fitzroy. To show the utter hopelessness of effecting any such reduction as that promised by His Excellency, this Association submits the following facts in connection with the military road in course of formation between Wellington and the Wairarapa: In an official report dated the 16th July, 1847, and published in the Auckland Government Gazette of the 7th August, 1847, Mr. FitzGerald, the surveyor for the southern province, stated in reference to this road, that, " judging from what has already been executed, making the most liberal allowance for all contingencies, and including expenses of every description, the total cost will not exceed £14,136 16s. Bd., or £9,991 13s. 4d. in addition to what has already been expended ; and I have no doubt whatever but that the whole road will be completed by May, 1848." In December, 1848, the amount (according to the official returns) expended upon the road exceeded £16,000, being £2,000 more than Mr. FitzGerald's estimate of the preceding May; and yet, upon an estimate being made in December, 1848, of the further sum required to complete it, it was ascertained that an additional £20,000 would have to be expended before a dray could pass from one end to the other. Resolution 9.—Moved by Mr. John Wade, and seconded by Mr. Eobert Wallace: " That Sir George's plea for delay on account of the state of the Natives is an illustration of what a great writer has happily termed the hobgoblin fallacy —addressing itself not to the reason, but the ignorance, the prejudices, and the fears of parties at so great a distance as the Home Government is from this colony." Considering that, as Sir George states, the southern province would consist of a narrow district round the Town of Wellington and of the Middle Island, it is evident, from the paucity of the Natives interested, that it can have little or no foundation here; and in reference to the position of this province with regard to the Native population, this Association thinks it desirable to point out the fact that, according to official returns which have been published from time to time, the European population is fully equal in number to, if not actually in excess of, the Native, and that no reason exists on that ground for withholding from the colonists the privileges of self-government; and they protest against that species of logic which, to suit the purpose of the arguer, treats of the colonists of this province at one time in reference to their limited local character and at another would inflict upon them the consequences attributable to the more extended relations of the whole Islands. But the plea is altogether untenable on other grounds. (1.) The Natives would be represented by the officials in a representative Council equally as they are in the nominee one. (2.) The Governor would still retain his veto on all measures affecting their interests. (3.) That, to whatever extent the franchise might be bestowed upon them, they would have an infinitely more direct influence in a representative than in the existing nominee Council, while their desire to obtain the franchise would have a proportionately civilising effect. (4.) That it is monstrous to assume, as Sir George Grey does, that the settlers, whose prosperity entirely depends upon the advancement of the colony and especially upon peace being preserved between themselves and the aboriginal inhabitants, are less desirous or less capable of devising measures calculated to promote and insure the permanent