41

A.—3a

Besolution 11.—Moved by Captain Rhodes, seconded by Mr. Johnston: "That, notwithstanding Sir George Grey's professions, this Association is convinced that he is not, and never really was, favourable to representative institutions ; and that his treatment of the question of their introduction into this colony has been marked by the most subtle diplomacy and an entire absence of that straightforwardness which the colonists are entitled to expect from the representative of Her British Majesty." When the question was first mooted, the feeling of the colonising public in England had been openly and strongly expressed, in Parliament and elsewhere, in favour of the immediate introduction of selfgovernment into New Zealand, This was followed by Lord Grey's very decided outline of a Constitution which Sir George was directed to introduce at once into the colony. Echoing the feeling which was manifested at Home, Sir George expressed, in a very emphatic manner, his conviction of the expediency of immediately introducing self-government into the colony, and of the remarkable fitness of the colonists and Natives to receive immediately such a boon; but he took care not to introduce it; and, in order to gain time and take his chance of the chapter of accidents, referred the question Home on points of detail. Public ardour having somewhat cooled at Home, and the Home Government having suspended Lord Grey's Constitution, giving Sir George a carte blanche, he determined to take the bold step of postponing representative institutions till he should have quitted the colony, while at the same time he would take credit for having framed a free Constitution to be prospectively introduced ; so, putting out of sight altogether his previous convictions of the fitness of the colonists and the propriety of the time, he unvvrit.es all he had written; and, overlooking the fact that all the reasons against the immediate introduction of self-government now urged by him existed, if at all, more strongly when he expressed himself in favour of it, he becomes the most determined opponent of what he before pretended to advocate. Down to the month of February, 1848, though seeking to obtain the postponement of self-government, he professed to adhere to' his intention of immediately introducing representative institutions. In that month —having previously proclaimed Lord Grey's Charter—he appointed to high offices in the local Government three gentlemen who had previously been known chiefly for their advocacy of self-government, and who, in the innocence of their hearts, continued such advocacy on public occasions after their appointments; and from them he not only concealed his intention of declining to introduce representative institutions, but he led them to believe that they would be immediately bestowed. In September he was compelled, by the public deputations before referred to, to avow his intention of postponing self-government. These various movements have convinced this Association that Sir George never intended to introduce free institutions during his tenure of office —a supposition in accordance with his diplomatic turn of mind, which renders it easier for him to conduct the affairs of the colony by individual influences than by fairly meeting the demands of large or popular bodies. The same conclusion is arrived at from the internal evidence to be found in Sir George Grey's proposed Constitution. Ho recommends that the "Provincial Councils, in making laws, shall conform to and observe all such instructions as may from time to time be issued by Her Majesty for their guidance; that such laws shall be subject to the approval or disallowance of Her Majesty; and that no Ordinance of the Provincial Council shall be assented to by the LieutenantGovernor without the previous sanction of the Governor-in-Chief." Moreover, the laws enacted " must not be repugnant to the law of England," a term to which, as an able legal writer has observed, "no sensible meaning can be attached" —a term which has admitted of the existence of the various slave laws of the West Indies, and which has never obtained any other authority than the wavering policy of the Home Government may from time to time have found convenient to allow, " and which consequently places it in the power of the Home Government, in innumerable instances, to disallow, for technical objections, laws of practically vital importance to the colony. Hedged round with so many restrictions, the limits of self-government are narrowed to a degree altogether incompatible with true freedom—limits which no man who sincerely desired to bestow "the inestimable boon of selfgovernment" would have thought of imposing. Nor is Sir George Grey's anxiety to retain power in the hands of the Governor less obvious in his proposal to make the franchise of the Natives dependent upon a Government certificate, and to give the Governor a right to alter that franchise from time to time; a skilful exercise of such power placing the elections entirely in the Governor's hands. But above all is his insincerity evidenced by his proposal to postpone the introduction of self-government to a period when, according to the usual term of the official tenure, he will have quitted the colony. There is no other magic in the particular period of four years —no particular events which turn upon that date, the only incident which can be predicted with certainty likely to affect the question being that before that period Sir George will be elsewhere than in New Zealand. Admirably does his position illustrate the remark of the great jurisprudent, that "this is a sort of argument or observation we so often see used by those who, being hostile to a measure, are ashamed or afraid of being seen so. They pretend, perhaps, to approve of it; they only differ as to the proper time of bringing it forward ; but it may be a matter of question," says he, "whether this argument was ever used by a man whose wish it was not that the measure should remain excluded for ever." Nor must this Association omit to allude to the various and inconsistent arguments used in the different settlements by Sir George, in his endeavour to persuade parties to support his measure, evidencing as they do his hollowness and insincerity. At Auckland he informed his Council, while the Provincial Council Ordinance was under discussion, that the settlers in the South " would be well pleased with such a measure," though, not six weeks before, the two deputations at Wellington above mentioned had expressed their determination to be satisfied with nothing less than immediate self-government. At Wellington he shifted his ground, and urged the unsettled state of the Natives in the North, and the land question there, as reasons for delay ; while to Nelson settlers he said that, if all the colonists were like them, he would not fear to give them self-government; but the number of contractors which existed at Wellington, whose interestit might be to prolong military operations, deterred him. Yet among bis own Wellington nominees, three at least out of six were deeply interested in Government contracts. Besolution 12.—Moved by Mr. J. Johnston, seconded by Mr. W. Dorset: " That the despatch of the 29th November exhibits a suppression of two facts so flagrant that this Association cannot characterise it by any term which the proprieties of social usage would justify them in employing. 6—A. 3a.