The Globe. MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1595, 31 March 1879, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, MARCH 31, 1879.

The local committee to which is deputed the task of collecting the Canterbury exhibits does not seem to be having a particularly roseate time. They have had to encounter and overcome the apathy of expected exhibitors, and to endeavour to infuse into thorn the requisite amount of enthusiasm. Now that they have, to some extent at least, got over this they are confronted by a new and formidable difficulty. Many will recollect the disastrous fate which overtook a large proportion of the exhibits sent to the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, through no special representative being appointed to look after them. It now appears that exhibitors decline to risk their goods a second time in this way, and will not exhibit unless some one is deputed specially to watch over their interests. At first sight this objection appoars somewhat formidable, but on further consideration it seems to us that the difficulty is capable of solution. We have amongst us many mercantile firms who are connected, more or less intimately, with houses in Sydney. Might not then tho

Now Zealand firms recommend to th.o commissioners a gentleman connected with them in Sydney to act as commissioner for Canterbury. It might be urged that there will bo & great trouble and responsibility involved in nndertaking such a task. This may bo true, but still there will also bo a certain amount of honour attached to the post 01 representative of so influential a portion of the colony as Canterbury. Besides, it is more than probable that many of our citizens, some of them, no doubt, members of the local committee, will visit the Exhibition, and they would bo enabled to assist the gentleman holding tho appointment of Special Commissioner very materially, and would lighten his task. So far as can bo seen, there aro no serious objections to this course, and it has many advantages. Something must be done, or our portion of the exhibition will be small indeed, and it is almost useless to oxpoct tho Government to appoint special officers to look after the exhibits from each province. Our plan would give to exhibitors the best possible guarantee that their interests would bo carefully considered.

Various theories have been propounded with the viow of explaining tho absence of Sir G. Grey from Wellington at the date of the arrival of Sir Hercules Robinson. It was so obviously his duty to himself, his colloagues, and the country* whose career he is supposed to pilot, to be at his post on tho occasion referred to, that people havo been marvellously puzzled to account for his absonco. Some said he was sick, others that ho was studying natural history among the solitudes of Kawau, others that ho was staying away in order to perform the herculean task of turning the first sod of some out-of-the-way and inconsiderable railway. But tho papers soon gavo out that Sir Qoorgo was in blooming health; and it was evident too that a Premier, who properly attended to his duties, would havo but little time for scientific researches. Finally, as to the sod theory, it was generally felt to be quite inadmissable. It would have been quite as justifiable for Mr. Gladstone, when he was Premier, to have absented himself from Westminster, on the occasion of some great public ceremony, in order that he might scientifically fell a tree before the admiring eyes of some bucolic deputation, as it would be for Sir G. Grey to advance, as an excuse for his non-appearance at Wellington, the fact that he was about to display his wonderful skill in sodcutting. Some of the Government organs were, later on, cruel enough to say that Sir George had fled from his post before the Native crisis, and that he was burying his head in the sands of Kawau, while his colleagues were fighting the Waimato Plains battle. But the Premier had announced his intention of not coming to Wellington to meet the Governor before the Native crisis had reached any head, so that the Native theory had also to be abandoned, and people were all at sea. If we look a year or two back into Sir George's history, we may possibly find a reason why he hid himself in the deepest recesses of his island home. In 1870, at the time when the question of the Abolition of the Provinces was the burning question of the day, Sir George wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, apropos of the question being allowed to be considered on its merits, as follows: —" Upon the 3rd instant, to my great regret, I heard that there was a probability of our not being allowed to pursue the peaceful and proper course we proposod to adopt. I heard that in two parts of the colony reports had been circulated that Her Majesty's seamen and marines are to be used to put down, by armed force, all opposition to the Ministry, and I find it stated in a local newspaper of this morning ' That within tho last few weeks the people of Auckland have been warned by the supporters ef the Ministry in Auckland that opposition to the Ministry might involve the city being cannonaded by the men-of-war in the harbour.' I am so entirely satisfied of the honor and good faith of the paper from which I quote, that I feel sure there are substantial grounds for the statement it contains." We will pass over the fact as unimportant, that the whole canard was first given currency to by Sir George Grey himself who had, a year previously, in a conversation with one of the membors of the Auckland Provincial Council, given it as his opinion that it was " within the range of possibility that we mayyot see a British man-of-war in that (Waitemata) river, with her guns pointed i towards the city, to coerce us into submission to some intolerable measure of the Government at Wellington." It is evident from these utterances that the presence of a man-of-war must occasionally give much uneasiness to our sensitive Premier. He shudders when ho sees the British tar lurching down the side path, and is possibly convinced that the very lurch is assumed as a standing menace to the liberty of tho colonist, it boiug evident that no man would attempt to take up so much of the publio highway, unless with a sinister object. When any of the Australian squadron are within hail, Sir George's nerves aro in a constant state of strain. What he must have suffered during his squabbles with Lord Normanby it is hardly possible to conceive. The Imperial force being more or less at the disposal of the difforont Governors, each additional insult to her Majesty's representative must havo been made at tho cost of the expectation of instant bombardment. Whon, therefore, Sir Georgo heard the terrible news that tho new Governor was about to arrive with two men-of-war, his overstrained fortitude gave way. His conscience struck him — he fled precipitately to Kawau, and, wrapping himself in trembling solitude, waited the development of events. It is only after the roceipt of the news that the landing was quietly offoctod that ho has roturned back to the seat of Government. This is one view of tho cause of Sir George's mystorious conduct.