The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1888. THE" GOVERNOR GREY" Pso-POSAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1805, 3 April 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 3, 1888. THE" GOVERNOR GREY" PsoPOSAL.

A few days ago we noticed the proposal which has been made m Auckland that steps should be taken to ge^ up a monster petition to the Home Government praying that Sir George Grey should be appointed to the Governorship of the Colony upon the completion of Sir William Jervois' term of office. In so doing we gave some of the reasons which can be urged against this course being taken, and we observe that it is also opposed m Auckland itself the morning journal ( the " New Zealand Herald ") regarding the suggestion as "purely chimerical." It well says : — " The idea of taking a prominent man out of the heat of party politics m a free Colony with representative institutions, and lifting him into the position of arbiter m the party disputes m which he was recently a combatant, is one that has not hitherto commended itself to the British Government, and we feel pretty confident that it never will, so long as the relations of the Colonial and Imperial Governments continue as they ate. Time may come m the evolution of things when an elective Governor, chosen by the people themselves, may have been a partisan of the most pronounced typo, and a warrior, politically-speaking, with his hands stained with blood. But so long as the Governor is the silken reins with which the hand of the Imperial Government lightly and gently influences the affairs of a colony, there will be a scrupulous anxiety that the Queen's representative shall be a man wholly removed from even suspicion of sympathy with any parties, or any vexed questions of local politics There are

many m the colony and these not among those who least admire Sir George, /who would have grave fears lest — if holding the position of Governor — he would not exercise that neutral part as between contending parties m New Zealand which is m these times deemed one of tho most essential pre-requisites m a constitutional Governor. In fact, to expect him, while speaking m gubernatorial language, to become the mouthpiece of, 9ay, Sir Harry Atkinson, or Hir JuHub Yogel, or teir-John Hall, or Mr Ormond, would-be to subject him to an ordeal which tvo hardly think his worse enemies, would like to see imposed on Sir George Grey ; and, though m the mellowness of his years, the fiery, untamed spirit which was the terror of his Ministers m days antecedent to constitutional Government, and m the infancy of responsible* institutions, might struggle to conform itself to altered conditions, we should be sincerely sorry to see the greatest of colonists closing an honored career m the contemptible position of a mere puppet, speaking and dancing to the wire-pulling of men whom he had so often overmastered m debate. As to whether any of them would care for undertaking the task of responsible adviser to bir George might bo also a question ; enough to say, than an experiment involving so many contingencies would certainly never be made by the Imperial Government, nor would it commend itself to the right reason of the people of New Zealand." Again, as from the point of view ot the Imperial Government, the " Herald " urges that the appointment of so thorough-paced a Radical and democrat would m the exigencies of party etiquette " be simply impossible at the hands of a Conservative Tory Government," while again, ' such an appointment on the request of a colony would raise a precedent— a course which is not lightly taken. It is true it would not exactly raise the question of an elective Governor, but it would approach it so nearly, and it would make it so difficult to offer objoction to any other colony and to all colonies similarly desiring to have a voice m tho choice of Governor, that such a course would uot be adopted by any Government, Whig or Tory, Liberal or Conservative, without the gravee t consideration $iven to all the contingencies. The unprecedented course of resurrecting a Governor long after he had died to the service, the appointment ot a Governor long past that age which has by usage been fixed as tho period at which Governors retire from the public service—all this might be overcome ; but all the same these objections would arise m the minds of Her Majesty's Ministers, to confirm them m the belief of the obvious unwisdom of taking a man from the very arena of contest and Betting him as Her Majesty representative to hold an even balance between the contending factions, among whom ho had been erstwhile one of the most notable painbatants." It appears to us that these . arguments are absolutely conclusive, and that it is en)tii'.ely unnecessary to add another word to' Bhow that Mio propose! is altogether uawiso and impracticable.