42

A.—3a

The first is found in the recommendation, revealed only on the publication of that despatch when laid on the table on the last day of the sitting of the Provincial Council, that the Civil List for each province should be increased from £'0,000 to £10,000, which recommendation, made by Sir George in November, 1848, he entirely concealed from his nominee Council, individually and collectively, while professing in December, 1848, his readiness to give (hem the fullest and frankest account of his recommendations to the Home Government on the future Government of the colony." And, while touching on the subject of the Civil List, this Association protests against, not merely the monstrous proposal of Sir George Grey to relain £10,000 of the revenue of each province, which must for years to come reduce any representative institutions they may obtain to a mere shadow of self-government, but they also protest against the present amount of £6,000, as an unduly large proportion of an ordinary revenue of about £13,000. Should new provinces be created it is probable that for a considerable time even £6,000 would absorb by much the largest part, if not the whole, of the revenue of each province, practically withdrawing all control of the public purse from the colonists, who are expected to be satisfied with a mere mockery of self-government. This Association conceives that the Civil List of a free colony should embrace no other object than the salaries of the Governor and Judges whose tenure of office ought not to be dependent on political change; or at most of the salaries, in addition, of the heads of the three or four principal executive departments; and even that would be a sacrifice of the principle of responsible Government. The extravagance of the ideas of the local Government on this subject is evident by the Civil List laid by Lieutenant-Governor Eyre before his late Council, which embraces even the Government gardener, the Colonial Chaplain, and the Private Secretary's confidential clerk. The entire list was as follows, showing the estimated expenditure for the Province of New Munster, proposed to be provided for out of the Civil List of £6,000, reserved by Charter of 1846, for the year ending 1849-50: His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, £800 ; forage allowance to His Excellency, £109 10s ; Private Secretary and Clerk to the Executive Council, £200; confidential clerk in Private Secretary's office, £125 ; Native Secretary and Interpreter, £200; Colonial Secretary, £400 ; Colonial Treasurer, £400; Attorney-General, £400; Auditor-General, £300; Collector of Customs, £400; Colonial Surgeon, £200; forage allowance to Colonial Surgeon, £54 155.; his Honour the Judge, £800 ; Registrar-General, £300; Eesident Magistrate, Wellington, £300 ; Besident Magistrate, Waikanae, £200 ; Government gardener, £70 ; contingencies, £12 ; Colonial Chaplain, £200 ; his Honour the Superintendent, Nelson, £500 : total, £5,97L ss. Further, this Association conceives that the history of colonies, and particularly recent events, have proved that there is no more certain source of dissension between a colonial Governor and his Legislative Council than the reservation of a large Civil List, and that if Governor Grey had endeavoured to sow the seeds of disunion between his successor (to whom he leaves the task of introducing self-government) and the people of this colony, he could not have contrived a more effectual means than the increase, by nearly double its amount in each province, of a Civil List already, even in the opinions of his own nominees, unnecessarily large. The other fact suppressed in his recommendation is that only one-thy'd of the Provincial Council should consist of representatives, while he told his Council in December that he had recommended two-thirds of representatives. ■ This the Association would gladly attribute to a clerical error or misprint in any other case, but after the unmistakeable deception practised in reference to the Civil List they felt that so charitable a supposition would, in Sir George Grey's case, be puerile. Resolution 13. — Moved by Mr. Vincent, seconded by Mr. McDowell; " Lastly, that this Association complains of the despatches having been so long withheld, being written in November and Februarv, laid on the table of the Council Chamber on the last day of the session in July, and published in the Government Gazette of the 20th July. They also consider that the conduct of the nominees in not requiring their production, though rumours of their existence were current and had been noticed by the Press for several weeks, is conclusive as to want of proper independence among those officials, and of their fear of offending the Government which they serve. And they think it proper solemnly to express their unanimous feeling that a course of conduct such as Sir George Grey has exhibited on the question of self-government in New Zealand, terminating with the suppression of his'recommending to increase the Civil List and his misstatement of the number of representatives, is calculated to lower the dignity of the British Government, to destroy all faith in the veracity of its servants, and to weaken those ties ot loyalty and affection by which the colonists would desire ever to be bound to the land of their birth." Nor must this Association conclude their remarks without alluding to the repeated occasions on which Sir George Grey has lowered the character of the Home Government for consistency and power by treating the positive instructions of Her Majesty's Ministers with ill-concealed contempt. As instances, they would refer to the manner in which he has departed from Lord Grey's instructions in reference to the settlement of the land question in the North, and which remains yet as unsettled as ever ; and to his present refusal to give even the smallest semblance of representative Government —the two most important matters prescribed by the Home Government. In short, if with every despatch from Lord Grey, Sir George had received one from his Lordship's political adversaries, and, putting the former into the fire, had carried out the instructions of the latter, some clue might be found to the course pursued by him; but, as it is, such course, in the opinion of this Association, has been irregular, injudicious, and dishonest equally towards the Home Government and the colonial public. This Association feels convinced that Sir George Grey's reputation rests much more on his skilfully-written despatches than on his acts, and they think that his aversion to representative institutions may be traced in a great degree to his fear lest independent Councils of the settlers should expose the numerous fallacies and misrepresentations they contain, and give a different colouring to the agreeable pictures of his administration which he habitually paints. John Doeset, Chairman.