The Globe. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1876.

Globe, Volume VI, Issue 624, 19 June 1876, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1876.

Tub latest manifesto in favour of provincialism is a despatch from Sir George Grey to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It is a most remarkable, and coming from the source which it does, a highly absurd production. It exhibits an amount of credulity which is something astonishing on the part of one who has held the high position Sir George Grey has done. The letter begins by recapitulating the old story of the rights of the people being trampled upon, with which of late we have become so familiar, ant}

then goes on to argue that the Provincial Councils should have been convoked, and asked to decide upon the question of abolition or otherwise. It is not our intention to go into this question again, as it has already been (airly argued out,and the constituencies, who .after all are the real parties to be considered, have had an opportunity of expressing their opinions upon the matter by means of a general election. Sir George then goes on to say that it is his intention, as Superintendent of Auckland, to appeal to the Court s of the colony, to ascertain whether the General Assembly can lawfully exercise the power of abolishing Provincial Councils without their consent being first obtained. Had he been contented with announcing to her Majesty’s Government that such was his intention, though holding the opinion that his position is utterly untenable, we should not have taken very much notice of it. We have bad so much of the claptrap about the people’s rights, &c., which appears to form the sole stock-in-trade of the Provincialists’ arguments, that this could very fairly have been included in the same category. But when we find an ex-Governor of the colony, a Superintendent of a province, and a man who claims to be a statesman, gravely writing to one of Her Majesty’s Ministers in all sober earnestness that if the citizens of Auckland opposed the Ministry on the matter of abolition, they might expect to have the city cannonaded by the men-of-war in the harbour, we cannot but characterise it as mischievous in the extreme. A cause which requires such bolstering up must indeed bo in a bad way. Sir George in this notable despatch says:—“ I find it stated in a “ local newspaper of this morning, “ ‘ that, within the last few weeks, the “ people of Auckland have been “ warned by the supporters of the “ Ministry in Auckland, that opposi- “ tion to the Ministry might involve “ the city being cannonaded by the “ men-of-war in the harbour.' I am “ so entirely satisfied of the honour “ and good faith of the paper from “ which I quote, that I feel sure there “ are substantial grounds for the etate- “ meut it contains.” Were it not that this ridiculous asserl ion is contained in a despatch from a gentleman of Sir George Grey’s experience and position, it would simply be ludicrous in the extreme; but coming from him, it carries with it, more particularly as people at home are not well versed in colonial affairs, an air of truth. Apart from the fact that the Colonial Government has no power whatever over her Majesty’s fleet, to suppose for one instant that any Ministry under responsible Government would dare even to hold out such a threat is absurd; but still it shows most conclusively that the Provincialist party will stick at nothing to carry out their particular views. There is, however, another view to take of this matter, and that is that Sir George Grey, though complying in some way with the ordinary etiquette of official correspondence by sending the despatch alluded to through the Governor, has taken the unusual course of forwarding one copy of it direct to the Earl of Carnarvon. During Sir George’-s term of office as Governor, no one was more rigid in the observance of the rule that all correspondence with the Horae Government should pass through him alone, and it is therefore the more reprehensible that he should have intentionally transgressed it himself. Altogether, the despatch alluded to evinces either an amount of credulity which it is almost impossible to believe could exist in the mind of so astute a politician as Sir George; or else it is a deliberate attempt to mislead the Home Government and so obtain their interference. In either case his conduct is equally blameworthy and shews to what straits, as leader of the T’rovincialist party, he is reduced. ♦ THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS. We have received the following telegram today from the Press Agency at Wellington, from which it will be seen that Ministers have been persuaded not to resign for the present at any rate : “After the meeting on Saturday, Government notified to their supporters, who had requested them not to resign, that business could not be gone on with by them, until the House had decided that there was no reason why a Crown Grant for the Piako Swamp should not be issued. At the meeting to-day thirty-nine members were present, who unanimously adonted the following resolution—* That Government should carry out the Piako arrangement bytheissue of a Crown Grant in due course. ” Eleven others, notpresent, promised to support the resolution, and in*all probability either two or three others will do so. Government will, on the meeting of the House on Wednesday, move a resolution to the above effect, and, if carried, will remain in office.”