GENESIS OF A DOMINION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 1, 26 September 1907, Page 7

GENESIS OF A DOMINION.

STEPS IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL : LADDER. FROM SAVAGERY TO "NATION- : HOOD. Now that New Zealand has been given tho titular recognition of the status which slio' has long held in /act amongst her sisters in the Empiro, it-is proper to take stock of her small beginnings and to glanco over tho successivo steps of her nationhood. "A new country" she is called, but, unless nothing exists until it figures in the pages of tho historian, thero is no man can say ■whether, moasured by human habitation, sho is not older than much of " the'old world." Even tlio date of her first discovery by a European is indeterminable. It is not enough to point to Tasman. . Tasman does not end tho matter. In his day tho ocean must have borno many a Columbus. Tho world was yearly wicifening, but the sea was still limitless in mystery, fringed, tho seamen knew, by strange countries, for they sometimes saw unknown coasts through the storms, as they boat back again to tho highways. One pictures little ships, handled by rough men, drifting far out of their courses, driven by wind and current, sighting new region's, and, if time served, tentatively peering at them as they stole along the coast. Thus, 110 doubt, many an old sea-captain, full of fear and wonder, discovered New Zealand, and cither dismissed it as a land of demons or tiie South Polar Kingdom, or christened it in a log lost or drdwnod many centurios ago'. The first abiding record had to wait until Tasman came. Whist Tasman Found, Four months out from Java, investigating the extent of New Holland with his small ships " Hcemskirk" and " Zcehan," hp had sailed eastward from Van Dievnon's Land. It was in December of that year, "1G42,

that ho saw land ahead of him—tho cloud-hung peaks of the western Southern Alps. His chart told him tliiii was a new country, but his anxiety to go further west ruled his course, and though he was impressed with the first glimpse of "tho mountains, ho turned northwards through tho storms, rounded the cape that- is now Cape Farewell, and began to drift through tho strait. He anchored in Golden Bay 011 18th December. In those days the Maoris were numerous and ferocious, and a party in canoes attacked his boat's crow. AVhether the mon wero terrified or wore unarmed, ,thev wero helpless in that long-ago fracas in tho Sound, and three of them woro killed. Perplexed, ono can imagine, and in some fear, Tasman sailed way from Murderer's Bay, and endeavoured to find open water. The easterly wind was strong, and blow away his theory that lift

wag in a strait, so that ho turned about and coasted north, catching glimpses of tho North Island through tho storm and sea-fog, until Tie rounded tho North Cape, and rejoiced that he had tho westward sea open before him. At Epiphany ho sighted three inhospitable islands ringed with rough foam, and ho called them Three Kings, in honour of the Magi— Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar. He would have landed, but tho surf was forbidding, and the storm sounds were increased by the screaming of hordes of savages, who rushed along the coast with prodigious strides—clearly tho anthropophagi of tho Odyssey.

It was plainly not a place for honest Dutchmen,. and lie sailed away, glad, its Mr. Reeves conjectured, to leave "this vague realm of'storm and savages." He had not planted a (lag, but he could apply a 'namo, and ho gave this rugged and bloodthirsty country tho name of Staaten Land.

In 1618, Van Kampen built a new Stadt House in Amsterdam, and in tho pavement was set a pieco of sculpture by Arius Quellinus. representing a map of the world, in tho corner of which was the outline of Stanton .Land, with tho namo of " Zealandia Nova." Thus was New Zealand born into tho map. Tasman died, the centuries passed, and silence closed over the country. Thus one accident of diScovwv miscarried.

Tho next accident was Cook's. It is curious to think that this country becamo British, and has becomo ono of tho Dominions of the Empire, through aii astronomical cause. In 1769 a transit of Venus was duo, and.tho Royal Society wished to havo it proporly observed. As a result tho Crown fitted out tho barque "Endeavour," under Captain Cook, for despatch to Tahiti. Cook did his astronomical business within ten months of his doparturo from Plymouth on August 26, 1778,' and cruised southwards, ignorant of what might lie before him, but awake to seize any opportunity of extending the realms of his King. His large volumes toll in tho most complete detail tho daily, oveuts of his journoyings. Is the morning of October 6, 1769, ho saw' land, and sailing slowly southwards he made out hills and mountains and bush. Ho came close in shore on tho Bth, and observed in a bay (Poverty Bay) many canoes, with houses on shore, and, upon a small peninsula, " a pretty high and regular paling, which enclosed the whole top of a hill."

What conception he had formed of tho kind of country this might bo is a subject of doubt; but somo of his party wero so thoroughly British . in their belief that tho entire world was .modelled on England that tho paling enclosure was "the subject of much speculation, somo supposing it to be a park of deer." He sot his historic foot on land in the evening. When the pinnace and yawl wero sent ashore the assembled natives ran awav as tho party advanced, but four_ Maoris, armed with long lances, rushed out of tho woods to.attack tho boys in the pihnaco, then lying in the stream, lho coxswain 'of tho pinnace fired a musket, but, after a moment's alarm, tho natives renewed tho pursuit. The coxswain was eventually compelled to

prorogafcivo and spoliating the natives. Tho association promoted a Bill, but :fc was defeated. Tlia Government had for years been courteously saying " no " or "yes,", drafting despatches, and taking the due official interest in a faraway country which tboy probably believed was a myth, with tho abstracted inattention of a sober old gentleman called upon to do something in connection with some make-believo country in a troublous-nightmare. Private Enterprise. Tho colonisers wore thrown upon their own resources, and the New Zealand Company, under Lord Durham, was floated in 1539. The "Torj," carrying a party including the famous Wakcficlds, sailed on Way 12 of that year. Two days later tho public heard that tho company had been constructed, and wondored, 110 doubt, what, madness had driven these faddists to sail away and settle in a country full of cannibals. At three in tho afternoon of September 20, 1839, tho anchor dropped in tho waters of Wellington amid war songs, war dances, booming guns, a waving flag, roast pig, champagne, and cheors.

The pioneer settlers followed in tho "Cuba," "Aurora," "Oriental," and " Adelaide," arriving on January 22, 1840, and on that day the Britannia settlement was formally begun, and the forerunners unfolded the first New Zealand newspaper (tho "New Zealand Gazette," ready printed in London on August 21, 1S09), and skimmed the latest news from home. It was seventy years since Cook had landed at Poverty Hay, and one hundred and ninety-seven years since Tasman beat to sea in tho storm at T'hreo Kings, and for all constitutional purposes Now Zealand was as it had boon when tho eanoo came from Elawaikii. But tho first'sod had been turned.

shoot down ono of tho savages, and tho 1 others fled. On the following day there was another skirmish, and an attack by natives in cauoes, resulting in tbo death of four of tho Maoris.

Cook seemed little disturbed by this bloody beginning, and notes in his journal that humauo people might censure him. "And," ho adds, with a philosophic detachment, " it is impossible that, upon a calm review, I should approve it myself." He has a defence, however, which he sots down with surprising naivete: "They certainly did not deserve death for not choosing to confide in my promises or not consenting to come on board my boat, eveu if they had apprehended no danger; but tho nature of my service required me to obtain a knowledge of their country, which I could not otherwise effect than by forcing my way into it in a hostile manner, or gaining admission through thoconfideuco and goodwill of the people." In November ho cut on a in Mercury Bay tho ship's namo and the year and month of his visit, and, after displaying tho colours of England, formally took possession of the country. The Reign of Anarchy. The stre»m of visiting navigators then began, a?id with it a long era of disorder and bloodshed, crimes, and sins.' Traders and whalers becamo numerous, and for over fifty years tho history of the country was a balancing of native ferocity against the brutality and deceit of tho early adventurers—a gap of anarchy, in the centre of which remains the ghastly incident of the "Boyd," tho crow, and passengers of which wero killed and eaten in 1800. New South Wales Sras near enough to apprehend tho oxtent of these barbarities, and tho I

Reluctant officialdom, after a period of active antipathy towards schemes of exploitation, had by:the late thirties begun to think of despatching a consul to tho new country, and was driven to defmito action by tho operations of tho New Zealand. Company. Accordingly ou Juno 15, 1839, letters patent were issued extending tho boundaries of New South Waies to take in tho Maori islands, and Captain Hobson, who had been sent from New South Wahs in 1837 to protect British subjects in tho Bay of Islands, was commissioned to obtain tho sovereignty of tho country and act as Lieutenant-Governor. Ho arrived on January 29, 1840, and the Treaty of V.'aitangi was signed in February. , The Birth of Autonomy. On November 16 of that year Now Zealand became a separate colony by letters patent, and Auckland was chosen as the capital city.

At this point tho settling-down process was fairly begun, and tho details of the history can be neglected in this consideration of the successivo steps in tho colony's constitutional ladder. But it is at this point that thoso dates crowd in which provoke, from time to timo, tho controversy over tho colony's birthday. Now that wo have .reached the status of a Dominion, tho birthday of our colonysbip is of less importance than it has seemed to past controversialists. Was it January LI, ISJO, when, tho country was formally taken into tho Empire as a part of Now South Wales? Or January 22, when tho Aurora's passengers lauded at Port Nicholson? Or May 21, when tho Queen's sovereignty ivas proclaimed over the islands? Or November IG, when the colony was creatcd an independency? Was it, perhaps, oven tho day on which C'ooi; unfurled tho [ llag ill Mercury Bay in 17G9?

Reverend Samuel Marsden, a nine-teenth-century Augustine, came to the Bay of Islands to found the first mission in 1814. A mission was indeed sadly needed. In tho sarao year Mr. Kendall was appointed as Resident Magistrate, and tho Imperial Parliament passed an Act giving to the Supremo Courts of Australia and Tasmania jurisdiction over British subjects iii New Zealand. Those were the first events linking up a system of order that was at last to harden and remain. " Colonies Enough Already." During tho first thirty years of tho century the American War of Independence was still influencing British opinion, and its echoes were still loud enough to break warningly upon talk of colonisation. The lesson of that war, as Professor Seeley, in tho comfort of easy reflection, pointed out a century later, was not "that all distant colonics, sooner or later, secedo from the Mother. Country," but that " they secedo when they are hsld under the old colonial system."

But tho tea in Boston Harbour had left an unpleasant tasto in British mouths. At tho very most, speculative and venturesome peoplo thought of the wasto lands of tho earth as business propositions merely, and there was no doubt little of tho Imperialist or Em-pirc-expansion spirit in tho thought that some peoplo wero giving to New Zealand, as a field for settlement.

Tho namo of Wellington is a permanent reminder of the anti-expansion sentiment of tho statesmen of tho time. A deputation of tho Colonisation waited upon tho Duke of Wellington with propositions respecting a Now Zealand settlement, but tho Duke would hear of no such proposal, and informed tho deputation that even supposing Now Zealand wero as valuable as was represented, Great Britain had already colonies enough. A com-

The first mollification of the tutelage, of the young Crown colony proceeded from the charter of 1840, which divided the country into two provinces, Now Ulster (North) and New Minister (S'mth), each of which would have its own Executive Council. The charter was suspended for live years. By this time the anarchy of the old days had disappeared, and settlement, had progressed until the framework of to-day 7 society had been well covered with U:o flesh of permanent institutions. The country was still fettered, but :t had not long to wait until the bonds wero shorn away. It was in l- 1, 2 a representative constitution was provided by an Imperial Act, and in January, 1353, the Constitution was officially proclaimed. "ho Provincial Days. 'Wo wero still a considerable distance, and in a very important direction, from being a united polity. The colony was divided into six provinces, and each of these had a superintendent and n Provincial Council of not less thjin nine mcnibors, each council being elected for four years. The first elections under the Constitution Act took place in 1853. The provincial system remained until almost within striking distance of to-day. As in Australia, and, earlier, in America, 'federation had to come, and it came with all the pain attending tho sacrifice of .individual interests for a national good.

In 1875 an Act was passed abolishing tlio wl.olo of tlio provincial system. unci in 1376 another Act provided the foundation of the existing system of local government. The old provincial spirit died hard. In Australia the time elapsed since the realisation of tlio Commonwealth is so brief that "secession" is still actively in tlio front of Dolitical controversy.

pany promoted by many influential men, including Lord Durham, nevertheless sent out sixty settlers to the savage country in 1825, hut » tribal war was in progress <when tho settlers arrived, and the hakas and the battles frightened tho colonists away. Himicurs of the Thirties. Tho history of tho thirties is not without its humour. There was Mr. Busby, for example, who camo to the Bay of Islands as British Resident in L 832, and who for six yours ruled with complete impotenco. Ho had big ideas, however, and it was ho who suggested that New Zealand should have a national flag. The flag chosen was an ensign with stars and stripes, the. fruit, no doubt, of some Yankee's suggestion and the native affection for bold colour and loud design. Mr. Busby was able to copo with Kings, and he acted promptly enough when " Charles, Baron do Thierry, Sovereign Chief of New Zealand, and King of Nuhuhova " —the comic opera Frenchman who hunted tho world over for a vacant kingship—announced his intention of establishing an independent sovereignty. A meeting of chiefs was convened by Mr. Busby, and a highly-civilised and complex constitution, including a congress and law courts, was drawn up and signed by the chiefs, who probably roared with laughter as they took to the bush onco more. "The United Tribes," tho new republic, was actually recognised by Lord Glenclg in 1836. So that New Zealand, now a Dominion, and lately a colony, has in its day been a kind of republic and a sort of kingdom!

Reality began to tako shape in 1837, when the New Zealand Association ivas formed, with' Lord Durham at its head. It has been noted that " sound " British opinion was against any Pacific philanderings.. The London "Times' , of tho day actually branded the promoters of tho association as "Radicals " bent on weakening the Crown's

Thirty years have brought in a now generation in Now Zealand, and-al-though' the provincial system has its defenders to-day, few of them are so hardy as to daro tho abandonment of the good wo havo gained. Sir Maurice O'Rorko, who yearly brings a motion forward affirming tho need for retracing our steps, is being left fewer and fewer followers as time removes the old Provincial champions year by year.

Olio would like to discovor in the successivc metamorphoses of tlio constitution a guiding spirit tending always to a known and dofiuits end. This one cannot fairly presume to do. As Tasman fled away from Murderer's Bay in recognition of tlio fact that it was plainly most expedient for the moment, so the landmark ovents were most of them, events for tho moment. Nobody before' tho fifties dreamed of a constitution of complete liberty; cortainly nobody dreamed of Empire.

Such national impulse as there was was towards enlarging tho realm of His Majesty. The racial instinct governing modern Imperialism hardly flavoured the individualism of tho pioneers. But natural forces were ruling the nation-makers, unknown to them, and tho trend could havo been 110 otherwise, nor tho end other than it has been. If the boat's crew of tho "■Hocmsikirk " had kept its head, of course, wo might havo been Dutch, and this sketch might have been written in the Taal. The Federation Grisib. Tlio no:;t constitutional crisis which has its place in this survey of the Dominion's growth camo with the end of the century, when tho federation of Australia came within tlio sphere of practical possibilities. A convention of delegates from tho Australasian colonies mot and .drafted a constitution, known now as the Bill of ISOi. It is

worth noting that'not the'least of the troublesome points to bo settled was the titlo of the Federation, and "Commonwealth" was. not decided upon without dispute—a dispute fortunately made unnecessary for us by the arrangements of Sir Joseph Ward. The Bill encountered severe opposition in the State Parliaments, and a second convention was .held, at .which Now Zealand was not represented at all. The referendum of 1839 indicated that federation was an assured event, and the eyes of Australian Federalists were turned quo'stioningly to New Zealand. Tho subject had becomo an important one for us islanders, but, it must be pointed out, important only as a question of commercial and administrative expediency.

What tho real public feeling in tho matter was at ..that time cannot be gauged, and Mr. Seddon gave no indication of his policy—he was uncertain of the popular will—until February of 1000. Ho then expressed tho hopo that the: Imperial Government would insert an " opeu-door clauso in the constitution in. order that New Zealand might enter at her own time on equal terms. New Zealand had obviously, through her public irclearned pretty .thoroughly tlio ar

taking care of herself. A Royal ( A mission was appojntod, and after ,

ing voluminous evidence hero and in Australia, reported' strongly in 1001 against the submersion of our identit; in the Commonwealth.

An Imperial Entr'acte. gr "How long,"..asked-Mr. G. H ! Reid at the time, " how long will NevZealand be ablo to preserve air inde-' j.i! pondont orbit in. the presenco.of a iuc P mvcr f u ' gravitation..and . attraction j i such as Australia, will then possess ? " That question- does not seem pressing now, whatever tho future may hold: Q \nd, as by way of counterblast, Mr. " Seddon set to.work .to do some federsiting on Now Zealand's own account - | The Imperial' sanction having been ob--5 rained, the Cook and' other islands; | ivoro annexed, and brought within the i :irclo of tho colony's authority in | 1900. Tho ombracing- of the islands 1 by the colony - cannot properly be jjj* given a place in tho march of constiii< tutional evolution. Excepting to the Jjj ej-o of prophecy, which may see* thost islands drawn into the game of- interj| ' national chess ill the Pacific,'their m adoption cannot appear anything but | a small Imperial entr'acto, of''present | importance only by. its consonance I' with, tho federation of tho Empire in i distinct groups. j To-day—and To-morrow? s And now —thq Dominion. ~ i Further, steps-thero must be iiv the future. What they in ay be tho future \ urast be left to reveal. Each man. has; | his ,own dream-rdreams that, range. |: from tho -separatist;.conoeption..of.-8.. || great independent republic to the-Im-p perialist's hopo for more highly develH oped centralisation still, and the gathI] firing up of-all tho bonds till they are h| drawn to a centre from which everyE thing will radiate, • all • our life • and | growth will proceed] -'- In fulness of | time," runs one conjecture, ''tho | children shall surpass their grey mo : I" ther, in all savo honour. The Imperial | city shall lose her, pride of place. In B another sea-girt'isle, by themargiu cf | the Pacific, whero n suow-crested hiountains sentinel the straits, sleeps a fair | city which the soothsayers named S after, yet boforo,' tlio Empress Queen, ft 'From east to west the circling word- | has passed.' Another channel frets bojj ! neath an Empire's commerce.'- From | the land-locked; ! harbour s'vift 1 ships I) emerge. They arc, tho war, fleet of ,the | litaple Leaf, heading .to tho Southern jS Cross. For the . manoeuvres, are .at | hand, and this..,year, the CoininouI wealth dircots. - Meanwhile councillors I] are gathering by the' ' Hall of our | Thousand Years'—feared but yesterji day on the southward brow above the jjj blue. They have come from Ottawa I aud Dalgety-,- from ■■Wellington and S Blooinfoutein.. .Thore. they are.asswu- | bling, still in the shadow of the strong | North. Their i business is .'tho. Peace tj among tho Peoples' and tho comi mon matters of- tho Five Nations, | which order tho peace. Awhilo tliey I wait, for not yet is their tale com- | pleto; then stand aside, yielding pre!i cedence to the ' Wards of' tho Outer I March '-rto tho:: undaunted sons of

- 'giant-meii Who shacUlcd the careering centurics To one email island's name.'"

GROWTH. OF IMPERIALISM.

A LONDON PRESS OPINION. The London /"Times," of July 2 last, commenting on New Zealand's change of status, says:—Tho announcement that tho Home Government has consented, on tho receipt of a resolution from the Colonial Parliament, to advise the King to raiso tho status of New Zealand to that of a> Dominion is: an indication of the growth of Imi>orialism in another of our great- colonies. The motives which have induced New Zealand to desire the change are sufficiently obvious. At ono period it .seemed possiblo.that the colony might be' enrolled among the States of the Australian Commonwealth; and;'although slio liad stood aloof from federation schemes for some years before tho proposal for the formation of tile Commonwealth took delimit! shape inlS99, she was at that time still desirous -that provision should be made in' tho Commonwealth Act for her oventual admission on the same terms as the original States. Sinco thou, however, the progress of New Zealand has be<;n rapid, and tho poworful argument supplied, by. the thousand miles of ocean which separate her from tJio Australian continent ha 3 been roinforced by growing confidence in her power to stand alono and to hold lior own as a separate and "independent member of the Imperial family. Tho change in her designation is an ovort recognition of tho justice of her claim to bo regarded as holding a position among tho self-governing States similar to that of Canada and Australia, and wo" hope, iii tho near, future, of South' Africa., Neither-ho?" area nor her population is such as caii' rive her quite the same importance as thoso vast continents or sub-con-tinents, but her resources and tho energy and strong Imperial sentiment of her" population aro unmistakable-in-dications of the increasingly, important role she i 3 destined to plav. For, the position she lias so "rapidly attained Sew Zealand is in a largo liieasuro indebted to the immense energy and remarkable. gifts of the.late Mr So'ddon, and in licr present Premier slio appears to havo' found for him no unworthy successor.'" Tho' part played with both firmness and self-restraint by Sir Joseph Ward at the Conference showed him to be.a staunch and..enlightened champion of. the cause.of . Imperial unity. Under bis leadership we have no dfiubt that New. Zealand will continue to. make swift -progress and that her future development will i'ull.v justify the change of status:.roconsmomlwf by the Imperial Govern- | meut. 1