SIR GEORGE GREY’S PETITION.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 127, 27 October 1874, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY’S PETITION.

(From the Otago Daily Times, October 22.) The important positions which Sir George Grey has held in the Empire, his long connection with this colony, extending over some of the most critical periods of its history, and his acknowledged personal ability, will always ensure for any published expression of his opinion on the topics of the day a careful and courteous consideration on the part of his fellow colonists in New Zealand. On this account his petition to the Governor, which we published yesterday, will have been read with eager interest throughout the length and breadth of his adopted country. From his hiding place at Kawau Sir George has until the present moment made no sign. He has apparently been content to forget his old rank amongst us, his old popularity, his old readiness in our service. To use his own words, he has industriously and quietly occupied himself with his own pursuits, and has taken no part in political affairs—or, we may add, in any social movement whatsoever. When, therefore, he at last lifts his voice, and that, too, in loud and earnest tones, the conviction at once forces itself on every mind that the matter which has aroused him from this studied lethargy is something of more than ordinary importance. Not only does that which he undertakes to say acquire interest from the antecedents of the speaker, but the fact that it has drawn him into speech lends a ne.v importance to the subject with which he deals.

To every one who dispassionately considers Sir George’s petition in the light of the present condition of affairs in New Zealand, these circumstances which have caused him to approach its perusal with an exceptional feeling of interest will only prove to be cumulative reasons for disappointment. For the document itself has a twofold character. As a mere protest

against hasty legislation it will carry with it the sympathy of every man. But as a manifesto against the lornr foreseen and now rapidly approaching aboli tion of the, provincial system of government, it is but the plaintive whine of an inventor who sees his ingenious devices about to be superseded by more practically useful improvements, the value of which has been determined not by theory but by the hard logic of experience. The burden of the argument, which lies half-buried in this rambling petition, is that the General Assembly of New Zealand does not represent its people ; that the Provincial Councils and the Superintendents do, and that therefore it. will be dangerous to our liberties if the superior Legislature should be permitted to alter the status, character, or functiono of

the inferior. Like a great many other arguments, this one is unassailable if we do but grant the premises. We are not prepared to do anything of the sort in this case. No one can read this petition without coming to the conclusion that Sir George Grey is lamentably wanting in acquaintance with the present condition of affairs in this colony. Half a-dozen years of constant and rapid change have rendered his knowledge of the circumstances and requirements of the people of New Zealand and his theories on the subject of their good government alike obsolete. That he does not perceive this fact is a thing that may well be forgiven him, so long as he lives in obscure retirement at Kawau. Not so when he undertakes to define aline of conduct for the Governor of the colony, when he lends the weight of his name and fame to statements about our affairs which are very wide of the truth, when he brings to bear all the influence naturally and properly accruing from a long and distinguished career in the public service to thwart the cherished desires of the great bulk of the people of New Zealand. He makes one statement in the document before us, which, if he could establish it as a fact, would render all the rest of the petition a waste of words. He asserts without qualification, and evidently with a childlike faith in the truth of his belief, that “ the provincial or federal system has been perfectly successful in this country.’’ Why ! the only argument that ever was advanced in favor of the abolition of that system has been that it has in the past been only partially succesful, and is at the present time, in many cases, an utter failure. Here, again, is something which he claims as a merit of the provincial system:—“Your petitioner and hii fellow-colonists have by these same institutionsthe very unusual right confirmed to them of making their own laws upon all local subjects, withoutsuch laws beingsenthomeforthe confirmation of the Crown, whereby one great cause of probable danger of dispute ultimately arising between the colony and the mother country is removed, and the inhabitants of the provinces have assured to them the entire right of the expenditure of their own funds, and freedom from any interference on the part of the Home Government to compel them to incur any expenditure of which they may disapprove.” Will not our fellow-colonists in other parts of the Empire who may see this petition laugh as they read the pretension put forward that this is such an especially favored colony ? It it then not true that notwithstanding these magic provincial institutions the constitution of New Zealand contains restrictions on the free legislation of its colonists on the subjects of the disposal of their waste lands introduced therein as a sequel to the manner in which the more important settlements of the colony were founded, to which none of the other selfgoverning colonies of the empire are subjected ? We can only account for such statements as these we have referred to being found with the signature of Sir George Grey below them, by calling to remembrance the proverbial fondness of a father for his first born. That we owe the form of our present, constitution mainly to Sir George Grey every one is aware. We can well believe that to his dying day he will never acknowledge that it has not been “perfectly successful in this country ” —never relinquish the belief that it always must be so. With the immediate prayer of the petition we need not deal. It is in the last degree unlikely that Sir James Fergusson or his successor will call the Assembly together at this season of the year, or at any time in the absence of the Premier. The alleged fact of what Sir George Grey says he has been “credibly informed,” viz, that one of the objects of Mr Vogel’s visit to England is to obtain an alteration by the British Parliament of the New Zealand Constitution Ant, has been authoriiively denied. This sudden burst upon the arena of New Zealand politics to which Sir George Grey’s faltering affection for his bantling constitution has incited him, seems to us from beginning to end an ill-considered proceeding, and about the last that his career as our Governor would have led us to expect from him.