SIR G. GREY’S PETITION.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 141, 14 November 1874, Page 3

SIR G. GREY’S PETITION.

The following is the answer of His Excellency the Governor to Sir G. Grey, in reference to the petition of the latter, against the abolition of provinces : Government House, Wellington. New Zealand, 30th October, 1874,

Sir, I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge his receipt, through the lion the Colonial Secretary, of a petition to his Excellency, signed by you and forwarded by the Superintendent of the province of Auckland, together with a copy of a letter addressed by you to his honor. His Excellency does not deem it necessary to reply through that channel. The prayer of your petition is that Ins Excellency will “at once summon the General Assembly of New Zealand to meet with the least possible delay,” and “ further * * * that a copy of your petition be at once transmitted to her Majesty’s Government, with a respectful request that it be laid before Parliament, and that his Excellency will immediately send a telegraphic message to her Majesty’s Government pointing out that at the present time there is no person constitutionally, or in point of law, qualified to negotiate or communicate with her Majesty’s Government on the subject of the abolition of the provincial institutions of the country.” It appears to His Excellency that in praying him to summon the General Assembly immediately, and transmit your petition to Her Majesty’s Government, you propose that he should act independently of, if not in opposition to, his responsible advisers, a course that would be justified only by great and exceptional emergencies. The object to be gained by pursuing such a course is in your opinion that the Imperial Parliament might not be led, without due warning, to pass an ' Act which would destroy complete Representative Institutions in this Colony. As his Excellency is aware, there is not on the part of the Government of New Zealand any intention to make application to the Imperial Government to propose any such measure to Parliament, or that there is any necessity for so doing to enable the General Assembly, in the exercise of its legitimate functions, to carry out in its next session by specific legislation the Constitutional changes, which, by resolution in its recent session, it declared to be advisable. His Excellency hopes that with further information on this point you will be satisfied that the prayer of your petition ought not to be complied with, and that it is also needless to make telegraphic communication to her Majesty’s Government of a fact which must be known to them, as it might be supposed to have been known to every person in this colony, that there is no person ‘ qualified,’ if by that expression in your petition is meant accredited, to negotiate or communicate with her Majesty’s Government on the abolition of provincial institutions.

His Excellency is very sensible that your experience is far greater than his own in the duties of a Colonial Governor, but it is nevertheless incumbent upon him to act according to his own view of his duty, and, considering as he does that to transmit your petition in its present form to Her Majesty’s Government with a request that it be laid before Parliament, would be in some measure to accept as matters of fact the premises upon which it is based, he is constrained to decline to accede to your prayer in this particular. His Excellency desires to assure you that, regarding as he does with the greatest respect and consideration any expression of opinion on the public affairs of New Zealand by one so highly qualified as yourself, he will most willingly and promptly transmit any representation which you may desire to make directly through him as the appointed channel to Her Majesty or Her Majesty’s Government in regard to those affairs.—l have, &c, (Signed) Francis A. Hare, Private Secretary. Sir George Grey, K.C.B.