REVIEW.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 40, 17 September 1857, Page 3

REVIEW.

The New Zealand Settlers Guide, a sketch of the present state of the Six Provinces ; with a digest of the Constitution and Land Regulations, and two Maps, By J. Rhodes Cooper, Captain 58th Regt. — London ; Edward Stanford, 6, Charing Cross, 18.57. Third Notice. Our author considers his Excellency Sir George Grey one of the most able men by whom the Government of New Zealand, or of any otner colony, has ever been administered. We endorse that opinion, never having doubted or questioned, the abilities of Governor Grey whose New Zealand practice, though sometimes rather sharp, was always clever. Captain Cooper offers a few extracts from an official letter written by Grey in 1819. From these extracts it appears that the most able of Colonial Governors believed, “ a fcw.years o f continued peace and prosperity would suffice for the fusion oi the two races (Maori and European) into one nation.” Not ourselves being Fusionist in the sense of Governor Grey, we cannot take so hopeful a view of Native character and prospects as he appeared to do. But the Native Difficulty Question appears to arise out of the gross injustice with which Natives have been treated by successive British Governors. Captain Cooper deserves credit for just appreciation and large experience of IN alive character. According to him “ the Natives are naturally a sober people, and that they may continue so, a law has been passed to prohibit publicans from selling spirits to Natives; this law has not been efficiently carried out, and has I believe, induced many to drink who would only for the law, haye grudged spending their money to their own injury.” Our author adds that at Melbourne where many of the Maories have been working at the gold fields, where no law prohibits them the enjoyment of spirits, I have heard it stated that they are generally very sober, at all events, more so than in New Zealand.” In governing men regard should be had to their nature. Nothing easier than to make laws of some kind; out to make laws of the right kind is the business of sages, of men who knowing men are able to legislate without revolting those instincts which nature implanted and those who govern are bound to respect. Though men differ “in clime, complexion and degree,” they agree in resistance to the spirit of prohibition. He was a keen observer who said that ice-cream would be a perfect luxury if to eat it were made sinful. Because we told Maories they should not buy gunpowder, to buy gunpowder they were peculiarly inclined. Because forbidden to buy strong drinks, they delighted to obtain them at much beyond their market value. Because Imperialism tells the Native population that they have no right to sell their land except by permission of. her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, they either decline to sell land at all, or part with just so much of it as they cannot conveniently keep. Were the restrictive system, imposed by Europeans upon Natives, at once and for ever abolished, we should' hear no more of Native ferocity or Native disposition to make short work of British rule by one good wash of the island. On the matter of prohibitions, therefore, we agree with our

gallant author who “we presume” will allow that" forbidding Europeans to sell grog to Nativesis not one whit more absurd in principle than forbidding Natives to sell land to Europeans. Witn some remarks suggested by another passage from his useful little Work we will close our Review of it. At page 69, after a hit at our bad Drainage, and “ progress backward” in Cleanliness, he proceeds thus- “ The new Constitution has given Auckland too many Government officers, so many, indeed, in proportion to its population, that it is difficult to find out whose duty it is to do anything.” With regard to the truth of this statement we think opinions ,are “ at one always excepting Government officers tht.fnselves, who cannot be expected to think themselves a drag upon the wheels of improvement, or more numerous than they ought to be. What duties are performed by our Government officers severally it would be difficult to state with exactitude- What is the sum of duties they collectively perform might perhaps be got at. But our Parliamentary check upon official abuses is imperfect —as yet. Those abuses can neither be controlled nor corrected until ministers of state are made responsible in fact as well as in name ; that is until Responsible Government ceases to be a sham and Honest Opposition becomes a reality, An honest Opposition iu Parliament, and an honest Press out of Parliament, would soon set officials to rights, while perfectly enlightening the Public as to “ whose duty it was to do anything.” Under representative institutions the genius of officialism is usually more modest and less exacting than where none dare call officials to account. New Zealand Government probably never reached so great a height of corrupt extravagance while New Zealand Government officials never displayed an amount so intolerable of tipsy insolence as in 1842, when, says Martin iu an Introduction to his Letters on New Zealand, —The European population of this Colony, amounting to not more than 12,000, was governed by Captain William Hobson, and Mr. Willoughby Shortland at an (annual) expence of £73,018 13s. 3|d.. or about £6 per head.