63

A.—3a,

of the Crown, and clearly included in the surrender of ".territorial and sovereign rights " of the Natives by the Treaty of Waitangi, they persist in refusing to allow the Government to establish ferries at these dangerous rivers and lake ; nor is it able, either by the assertion of its undoubted prerogative or by persuasion, to obtain for itself the power of exercising this right, so necessary for the convenience and safety of the colonists. One instance exists within ten miles of Wellington, another within forty miles, and another within sixty miles, all on lines of road constantly traversed by the colonists, whose complaints to the local Government and to Sir George Grey in person have been both repeated and loud, but attended with no result, on the avowed ground that the Government cannot get the consent of the Natives to so reasonable a proposition. We repeat then, my Lord, that in our opinion the whole, or very nearly the whole, of the advancing civilisation of the Natives is attributable to their intercourse with the colonists; that the Government neither possesses the means nor makes any attempt of the slightest consequence directly to improve their condition or to promote their civilisation. And we repeat our belief that the intercourse between the races may safely be trusted to the good feelings of the colonists and their manifest interest, without any such danger as Sir George pretends to foresee as likely to arise from the introduction of the institution of self-government. We repeat, that all the past disturbances, to which Sir George Grey alludes, have originated in the fickle, changing, and ill-judged policy pursued by the Governors who have successively held the reins of absolute power in New Zealand, while they have been in no degree attributable to any act of the colonists, much less to their exercise of the privileges of self-government, which they have never possessed. 14. It is not easy to understand how, if the objections to the immediate introduction of selfgovernment urged by Sir George be sound, he can see his way to their removal at the end of the limited period of four years from the date of his despatch. Will the relative proportion of the two races be by that time so changed as to obviate the evil consequences which he foresees while they exist at present? Will that short period suffice for the civilisation of the bulk of his " 80,000 and 25,000 savages, nearly all fighting men "? Will the contribution of the colonists to the revenue be so proportionately greater as to entitle them as a matter of right to control the expenditure of a revenue supplied by themselves ? We do not hesitate to express an opinion that in none of these particulars will the period fixed by Sir George effect any material change, and that, if credence be given to his statements now, all we can look forward to at the end of that period will be a further postponement on the same grounds for an indefinite term of the long-promised institutions of freedom. The only particular in which we can with confidence predict a change is that Sir George's term of office will have expired, and he will have left to his successor either the task of doing what he fears to do himself, or the odium of again disappointing the hopes of the colonists. [Many months before this letter was written I had recommended your Lordship to sanction the introduction of representative institutions into New Zealand.—G. G.] 15. In conclusion, my Lord, we appeal most respectfully, but most earnestly, to you against the reasoning, the statements, and the policy of Sir George Grey in this matter. We believe in your Lordship's entire sincerity when you expressed in your place in the House of Commons, in 1845, generous, manly, and most sensible opinions in reference to this question—opinions which were echoed by the gentleman who has now the honour to act as your Lordship's Under-Secretary. That you have been turned aside from pursuing the policy you then avowed is a subject of regret to your political admirers, who would gladly have seen the son of that nobleman who secured a new charter of liberty to the parent-country restoring to the colonists of New Zealand the privileges of self-government, of which, by an unconstitutional anomaly, their emigration had deprived them. It is no less to be deplored by us that your Lordship should now appear as the power which stands between us and our rights ; for, judging by the repeated vacillation in Sir George Grey's previous counsels, we feel fully convinced that if he were not assured of your Lordship's countenance, constitutional pressure from without would induce him to yield the desired boon. While, however, his arguments find that acceptance with your Lordship to which we have endeavoured in this letter to show they are not entitled, we have no hope of such a result. We therefore earnestly implore your Lordship to withdraw from him in this matter that countenance which, if our arguments have not altogether proved futile and unconvincing, it is impossible you should longer continue to extend to him. I have, &c, John Dorset, The Eight Hon. Earl Grey, &c. Chairman of the Settlers' Constitutional Association.

Appendix. 1. The estimate, in fact, includes a small portion of the northern province, the boundary line being, by the Proclamation of the 10th March, 1848 (in force when Sir George wrote), from the centre of the north of the Patea Eiver to the East Coast, some miles south of the Otumatua. But in the returns the number of Natives for this part of the coast is not given in detail. If the boundary fixed by the late Proclamation, determining the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, be hereafter adopted for general purposes, it will add some 1,500 Natives more to the southern province, making a total of less than 11,000. In the Settlement of Taranaki and the neighbourhood, in anything like immediate contact with the colonists, there are only (according to Government returns) 800 Natives. If, therefore, we give Sir George the benefit of his forcible abduction of that settlement from its province and its introduction into this, with the 1,500 between Taranaki and Otumatua, the total is only 11,800, or less than one-half of the number stated by him. 2. Since the date of Sir George's despatch the troops are reduced one-half, and the navy also. 3. Mr. Kemp is the son of a missionary in the northern Island, and has resided nearly all his life, we believe, in the country. He has been in the employment of the local Government at Wellington for some years past, and the returns quoted above were made after a most careful personal investigation of several months' duration. They are, we do not doubt, by far the most correct, probably the only correct, returns which have yet been made in this part of the province. The diminution in the number of Natives, extent of cultivations, &c, exhibited by them, when compared