SIR GEORGE GREY’S ADDRESS AT AUCKLAND.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1065, 31 January 1884, Page 2

SIR GEORGE GREY’S ADDRESS AT AUCKLAND.

At the Auckland Choral Hall meeting, addressed by Sir George Grey, among those on the platform were Mr Smith, JVf. P. for Tynemouth, a Liberal, and his son, Mr Justice Gillies, and members of the Upper and Lower Houses of the General Assembly. Sir George Grey, who was received with loud and repeated applause, said he had been asked to address them that night upon an important measure, and that was on the duties of the working classes towards one another. He had been requested, indeed, to advise them what steps they should take to maintain their rights and secure their prosperity for the future. What he would tell them was that the population ef New Zealand was so scattered, and the centres of population were so fir apart, that it was almost impossible for the working classes to make their power felt, and the only manner in which they could act was by correspondence between the centre bodies in each town. Christchurch was now moving in a similar direction to the Auckland Society, and he might say that it was suggested that he (Sir G. Gre>) should take some part in the movement, and visit the different parts of the colony, and see central bodies organised for the purpose of corresponding with each other, but he did not feel it to be his duty to do that. Perhaps he might be successful if he entered upon the task. He felt that it was not -just that ha should get any support from them except what they considered wasabsolutely right. They should be free to cast him off if they thought fit, and he on his part should be free to adopt any line of action he might consider proper ; therefore it was better that they should act for themselves and form their own bodies. They should train up the men to public life Their children were getting a good education, and they should look to the rising generation to supply men from their own body to watch over the interests and welfare of those from whom they had sprang. He did not wish them to think that he looked coldly upon die matter, because he thought it was a matter of great importance. However well off they might be at the present moment, it was apparent as population increases he'avier trials wi 1 fall upon the laboring classes. Abolish one evil and another would take its place. They could not attribute these misfortunes to the carelessness of wealth. The working classes nuat look to themselves for their protection in this direction, and by watching for the rise of each misfortune at its first origin to prevent its growth, and thus avoid penalties so heavy as to be intolerable. He thought i was their duty to make their voices heard, and their meetings should bind themselves together for the return of men who would watch over their interests, and to whom they could address themselves in every difli culty that occurred by correspondence. Working men might make up for the wide intervals that separated them from each other, and in one co-operate body sea that their rights were protected and their prospects in life were as good and bright as possible. To that they were entitled. In regard to the federation and annexation question, they trembled on the verge of a precipice. They had a long speech on the subject the other night, but he thought little was said on that occasion to give them an idea of what was taking place, or where they stood as residents in a British colony under a Government and Ministry whom they had appointed. They had not given their Ministers power to interfere in the concerns of other countries Supposing it was intended to deprive you of your constitution and to join you to a State in which a vast mass of the people would bo a colored population having votes and with whom if you

were joined your own power would bo lost, whilst you would have to obey laws mado by persona of different origin. civiiivßion, habits, and customs from your own. Supposing it were intended to do that, and the Queen were to send out lette s patent, and was to select two gentlemen from each colony without consulting you, and order them to assemble at some distant place, where your presence could not watch them, to conduct their proceedings in secret, and then to send home a recommendation to Parliament as to the kind of law that should be trade to fetter you in that respect, and that the Qnoen in doing that broke her word pledged to you when she assented to your Constitution Act. you would not revolt, but the beginning of differences with Great Britain would be laid which could not be removed hereafter. Then an officer would be sent out by the Queen with no power but that which the Queen gives him. and that is only a power enjoyed under an '.ct of Parliament, the Constitution Act. If he came out here and the e was his position for the pur pose of appointing delegates in that way, and sending them to such a Conference, why that was a breach of his duty to his sovereign and to the people of this col ny. As he was rather a weak speaker, he requested Mr W. L Rees to read the commission given to the delegates. The document was read as requested. Sir George Grey then proceeded. No law could be made but by their own Legislature there; except by their own representatives chosen by them for such a purpose, but they had gentlemen going to another colony and recommending the passing of an Act which their representatives had never seen, and of which they knew nothing. Only one of their repre sentatives had seen that Act, the member for Egraont. The other gentlemen was no representative at all. If that Act were to become law the prospect was gloomy in the extreme. They would have seen that that Act reached England. Approval of it had been expressed by gentlemen who were totally ignorant of what its pro visions would be. That Act was likely to become law when our Legislature met, and unless some way was open to stop the movement that was going on they would be fettered by its provisions. It might become law before they could see what it was, and have an opportunity of speaking upon the subject. He would try to make clear to the •; some things the law would do. Iti the first place a Federal Council was to sit in Tasmania with great power. How were they to know what was to be done in Tasmania ? How could our Press or our public meetings influence them ? This federal law did not say our representatives were to be elected by the people, but appointed by the Legislature. Would it not be right, he asked, that those gentlemen should go forth as delegates of the people ? He questioned the right of the Legislature to send forth gen lemen to fetter their liberties in a distant place, ’t was said the power of the Council was limited, but he pointed out that they could pass laws on any important subject they pleased which would be on them for all time, if two colonies, by a majority of their respective Houses, required them so to do. They knew that no Government question of this kind was settled without an appeal to the country, but this Council was empowered to deal with all matters of importance to us. Then they know the Governor could only assent or dissent to laws on the advice of his Ministry, that being the Queen in this respect. But by this Fedora* hm Act it was entitled to give powers to a distant Government which they did not allow their own Government. When a law was passed it was almost impossible to get it rescinded, and why, he asked, should an important law be passed without their being consulted 1 ') his federal body sitting without reporters were led astray by surrounding circumstances, • expecting that they were going there to do something, and ending by actually not knowing what they were doing. One gentleman, the Governor of Western Au-tralia, said he had not the right to append his name to the document, and refused to do so. He knew his duty, while the others like a flock of sheep, followed in the wake of the one who jumped the fence. Now it has been determined to make this Act a Government question, and without consulting the people they had pledged themselves to do all they could to have the measure made law. [Further extracts from the proceedings of the Convention Conference were then read by Mr Rees.] The Government was bound to do its utmost to get effect given to these resolutions They should have gone as fres men, open to argument, and should not have pledged themselves at a'l. So on one hand they were federated to Great Britain, free to think and say as we pleased ; but it was said that we have no weight, and that no attention is paid to what we may say, but the people of N’ew Zealand, he held, had no reason to threaten in their relation with Great Britain but to reason. What would they do about the coal depots to be established here, the convict question, defence, fisheries, etc? They shouid answer that New Zealand can defend its own coal depots, and that where France annexes and establishes each little island as a coal depot it simply weakens itself, and that as we grow we could conquer each little place in turn. So far as the defence was concerned we were willing to join with the British communities in establishing a navy, if necessary. These colonies could not interfere with the nations of the earth regarding fishing grounds. In an eloquent and forcible peroration Sir George sad—“ We do not want a great Federal Executive Government; let us spend our own money in developing our own resources ; let us work to make ourselves one Anglo-Saxon people, an important nation, without troubling others or submitting ourselves direct'y or indirectly to their distant rule. *’ uoud and enthusiastic applause greeted he conclusion of the speech.