WELLINGTON.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 402, 11 August 1868, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(litOM ODK SPECIAL CC RfcEiPONDENT.) Thursday, July 30. Since my last, nothing of much iinpcrlance has taken place in Parliament, except the debate on the second reading of the Road Boards Bill ; which measure; you will remember, is the one on which the Ministry has taken its stand. The Provincial Party — which, by the way, is composed of the nu>3t incongruous materials — have been musL.ing all their strength, and would, I have no doubt, if they had been sufficiently strong, have attempted to throw the Bill out. But, unfortunately for that party, and fortunately for the Colony, they are split up into sections — some holding one shade of opinion, and others a different one. For instance, there are those who go in for keeping up Provincialism as it is — who re* gard it sacrilege to attempt to meddle with it at all ; others desire to remodel Provincial Institutions, so as. to simplify their action and reduce their cost ; some would take away all legislative powers, and others would extend them. Amongst such variations of opinion, you may be sure that the bond of union is not very s«v«>ng amongst them. The debate was opened by Mr Fox, who expressed hia strong objects >n to the Bill on principle. He considered it an improper thing for the Parliament of the Colony to be occupied with legislation that was purely cf a Provincial character. Ho— «bjwtcd —to the TCTiaTTsTOTenT~clauses of the Bill, and, in fact, considered it altogether an unnecessary measure. Mr Fox moved that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee. The Speaker ruling that the Bill must first be read a second time before its reference to a Select Committee, the debate proceeded. Mr Macandrew agreed with the principles of the Bill ; but he thought that the Provincial Legislature could deal more eliectually wiih the question. Mr Brandon — a staunch opponent to the Ministry — condemned the Bill as bi:ing " vicious in principle." Mr Reid, of Otago, supported the Bill, although lie considered it capable of amendment. Mr Yogel, strangely enough, supported the second reading, because it did not provide that the Road Boards should be subsidised out of the Colonial portion of the revenue. Durin^ the course of his remarks, he took occasion to draw attention to the fact that no portion of the revenue of Westland had been set apart for immigration pin poses. I well remember that during the prosperity of the Otago gold fields, whtn the Provincial Council of that Province was voting large sums for immigration, Mr Yogel, in his paper, the Daily Times, strongly repudiated the idea, and urged the expenditure of the money in opening up the country to the miners, who were the most profitable immigrants the Province could have. But Mr Yogel is now a Provincial Executive officer, and that makes a wonderful difference. Mr Travera supported the second reading, but would propose modifications in Committee. Mr O'Neill (Auckland) showed, by the sad experience of the country districts of his Province, that some measure of giving local powers of government to outlying districts was absolutely necessary. Major Heaphy, another Auckland member, supported the Bill, as, in fact, did all the mem bers from that Province. Mr Mervyn, member for Manuherikia, proved the inadequacy of the present system of government to meet the wants of the country districts. He instanced the case of his own district, which, out of the revenue it contributed to the provincial chest of £43,000 per annum, had only received about one- half that sum. The Hon. J. C. Richmond, in remarking upon the almost general consent of the House to the second reading of the Bill, said "it makes this day a jubilee for the outlying districts, and a jubilee for the Colony at large." He denied that the Ministry had any intention to cut down or destroy Provincial Institutions. No doubt they had reason to think that they would not exist very long ; but, so long as they did exist, the Government would allow them to exercise their legitimate functions. All the Government desired to do, was to meet the cases of particular districts as they might arise. There was a loud cry for more local power from many districts, and they were not going to shut their ears to that cry. If Provincial Institutions fell, they would be struck down by the people, and not by the Government. The Hon. John Hall, of course, stood up manfully in defence of his own Bill, and summed lip its nature very forcibly. He. said, "It asserts a

great principle — that the people of the outlying districts have a right to come to this House to demand a fair consideration for their claims ; and it asserts also that the outlying districts are not to have a portion of the land fund only on the sufferance of the Provincial Councils." Mr Jollie, one of the Timaru members, cordially supported the Bill ; whilst Mr Rolleston, the new Superintendent of Canterbury, opposed it. Mr Stafford replied, and the Bill was then ordered to be referred to a Select Committee, to be chosen by ballot. To-morrow, Mr Fox moves a motion j amounting to a "want of confidence I motion " to the following effect : — " That all business be suspended until the Ministry explained their definite policy on both domestic and native affairs." The event is looked forward to with great interest, not only on account of the. nature of the motion, but the fact that it is to be, moved by Mr Fox, who is expected to make a great speech. Friday, July 31. . Last night, the Road Boards Bill was referred to a Select Committee, the choice of which led to a considerable display of party warfare. Great uffence had been given to the Provincial Party by the omission of the names of both Mr Yogel and Mr Dillon Bell from the Committee ; and, of course, when the ballot came on, great efforts were made to secure the election of those two gentlemen. The result was, that'nearly all theProvincialista plumped for them ; and, although they thus secured their object so far, it had another result, namely, of placing a preponderating number of Ministerial supporters on the Committee. When the object of the opposition was to pull the. Bill to pieces in Committee, you can understand their chagrin at the turn mat-, ters had taken. The House presented a brilliant appearance to-day. Every seat in the members, part of the building was occupied, and the ladies' gallery and Speaker's room were filled with* fashionably dressed auditors of the gentle sex. The intermediate business was rapidly got out of the way, and Mr Fox rose to move the motion standing in his name. Of course, it would be impossible to give a really good idea of the speech in a bar© ivsume, such as my notice of it must necessarily be. Mr Fox disclaimed any factious motives. He said that the task he had undertaken had been forced upon, him by a large section of the House. Ho felt that in the absence of any decided policy on the part of the Government, the affairs of the Colony were being allowed to drift towards a future which no man can foretell. H.e taxed the Government with having departed from the constitutional practice of embodying in the speech from the G overnor the policy they intended to pursue. They had left the House ancl the country entirely in the dark, and he could not even in the recoida of their proceedings or the nature of the measures they had introduced, discover what the Ministry's pojicy was, if it had one at all. He denounced the legislation by which the Wesiland Act anil the Timaru and Gladstone Act had been passed, a$ wish Qliievous and unconstitutional $ and I may here remark that the hon. member betrayed his ignorance by stating that the people of Westland and Timaru were asking to be constituted provinces. He insisted that the whole object of the Government was to centralise all ' power of legislation and administration in the hands of the General Government, and to keep in their handa the appropriation of the revenue, of thosQ districts. Mr Hall several times interrupted and corrected Mr Fox, who proceeded to argue on entirely a wrong conception of the principle of the Act under which. Westland is governed. He said the Government were afraid to attack th§ Provinces boldly and sought to sap then{ insidiously, by such measures as the Police Bill and Roads Bill. Much more he said after the same fashion in a speech which it was a great treat to listen to, but which I fea.r has not much aided the cause of his party. He was followed by Mr Stafford, who very ably defended the course he and his colleagues had taken. He traced the. history of the Constitution, and the many amendments that had been made in it and showed thajt instead of the General. Government having crippled the powers of the Provinces, the Provinces had in. reality received all their most important advantages from the General Government. He boldly declared what the opinions of the Government were, and as they give a key to the policy of the Government I may repeat them as I took them down. He said that the Government were'not going to propose some general scheme to. supplant the Provinces, for it was now too late to do that— too late financially ancl politically. Nor did he think that the mind of the country was going in that direction. It had become evident that it was impossible to have a cast iron constitution tLat will work well, and that was. why Provincial Institutions had not worked well. They suited some portions of the colony and not others. The Go-, vernment would consider from time to time when they were asked so to do by a numerous body of people what maybe required in each particular case. They did it so last year with Westland, and they would do the same with similar applications. He took a hopeful view cf native matters, and had faith that the existing difficulties would be surmounted, Mr Stafford was followed by MrTravers, who inflicted a long and tedious speech on Native a? airs upon the House. ■ Saturday. Last evening the debate was resumed by Major Brown, of Taranaki, who con-« lined himself chiefly to Native matters. Major Atkinson, also of Taranaki, followed in the sune strain, and made the sensible proposition that the whole male population of the North Island should be trained to arms. Mr Stephens, who is looked upon as likely to fill the post of Colonial Treasurer some day, delivered himself of somQ very good ideas of finance, the tendency of which however was evidently in the opposite direction to that in which the Opposition would wish them to go. He proposes that the partnership between the> Provinces and the General Government should cease, and that no more Customs; revenue should be raised than will suffice to pay the cost of administration. He showed that the present plan of giving half the consolidated revenue to the Provinces promoted taxation, for every extra pound required by the General Goven> inent another pound had to be raised to give to the Provinces. This promising young member was listened to throughout with great attention, and was loudly applauded. Major Heaphy, and Mr Harrison of Wanganui, said a few words, and the debate was again adjourned until Tuesday. .

Wednesday, August 5. The debate was resumed yesterday afternoon by the hon. J. C. Richmond, who, in a lucid ana logical speech of two hours and a half, defended the actions and policy of the Government on both domestic and native affairs. With regard to the alleged design of the Government to effect some organic change in the Constitution of the Colony, he said that whilst it must be evident that a change in the existing machinery of Government was absolutely required, it did not follow that the Constitution of the Colony \v;is to be impaired. What was the Cons itution but Liberty — the liberty to govern the peojile by the voice of the people. He compared the Constitution of New Zea- i land to the steam engine, which had only reached its present slate of efficiency through successive amendments and discoveries, although the first principles of the morive power remained the same. To his mind the beat feature of our Constitution "was that 'it gave us power to effect improvements in it and to increase the usefulness of Government without the n cessity of changing the principles of Government. He thought that the altered circumstances of tho colony were such as to x'endf r it exceedingly desirable that our system of Government should bo adapted to them. The condition of some of the provinces was deplorable, and the Government was bound to provide for them and the rural districts of the colony a machinery of government which would give them all the advantages without exposing them to the evils of provincialism. The Ro:ids Bill was a step in that direction, and he repeated what he had before stated — that the second reading of that Bill was a jubilee for the country districts. Of course Mr Richmond was greatest upon the affairs of his own department, and he gave the House a very calm, and, I think, candid explanation of the present position and future prospects of Native affairs, and forcibly pointed out the difficulties which encompassed the Government in dealing with the Maoris. He gave a well deserved reproof to Mr Rolleston, who had expressed, in a very impressive manner, opinions with regard to Native matters, which that gentleman had not, during the long time that he was the permanent Under Secretary of the Native Department, given either him (Mr Richmond) or the Government to understand he held. Mr Richmond plainly put the whole Native question in a nutshell. Was the colony to give up the lands it had conquered at such enormous cost and sa3rifice, and to retire back to our old frontiers? If the Government allowed the outposts as it were to be retaken by the rebellious tribes, did the House think that such a step would either conciliate the natives or deter them from making fresh advances ? No one who had the slightest knowledge of the Native character could doubt to give way now would be the most disastrous thing that could happen to the Colony. He went through the history of the recent disturbances in the Patia district, on the West Coast, and showed by various documents that the Government had acted both, justly and firmly towards the natives of that district. He denied that there was any " conflict of authority" between the civil and military authorities there, although he ad- . mitted that the mutual jealousy of Colonel M'Djinell and Mr Parris had acted prejudicia'ly in some instances. Although he c msidered the present position of our relations with the Native race to be such a to cause grave anxiety, and to demand t c utmost care, vigilance, and foresight, he did not think the prospect altogether a black one. He was not without hopes, aid strong hopes,' that the existingdiffic ilties would be surmounted without iuvolving the colony in the horrors of another general Native war. In describing the difficulties which embarrass the Government in desiling with the natives he mentioned among the most troublesome the land jobbers, who, since the Native Lands Court Act has come int > effect, have been prowling about the country trafficing with the Natives for land. I must here tell you that one of the Auckland members, Mr Geo. Graham, is n r >ted for his strong pro-Maori proclivities, and also for leing one of the largest purchasers of Native land in the colony. Mr Richmond read to the House a letti r which he had received from a genrlemau in the Tauranga district, giving an account of the doings and utterances of Mr Graham some months ago in that district. I wish I could remember the letter verbatim, as it was a most racy production. The writer— a Mr Black — seated that when Mr Graham and some other gentlenieu were in Tauranga, Mr G. went about among the natives abusing the Govern, ment for having made war upon them, and said other things of the same import in order to ingratiate himself with the Natives. All the time this philo-Maorist and his companions were arranging amongst themselves not to give above a certain price — 4s an acre I think — for certain large blocks of land these gentry eweted. The upshot of the affair however was that Mr Black put the natives on their guard, and they would not aell a single acre. The reading of the letter created great fun in the House, as the writer freely indulged in epithets, which, if used by any hon. member to the unfortunate subject of them, would be exceedingly unparliamentary. In the evening, the debate was resumed by — whom, do you think — one of the Native members from Hawke's Bay, Tareha by name. It had been previously arranged that the Native members should have the services of an interpreter, who was present, and repeated sentence by sentence what the sable orator had to say. The scene was highly amusing, but at the same time highly suggestive. The substance of Tareha's speech was, his gratification at having been permitted to join the Assembly, and his satisfaction with the laws it had passed from time to time. He urged the Assembly to " continue to do good, and if evil come, still continue to do good." He complained of the action of the Native Lands Court, because it enabled fictitious claims to be made by tribes that had no right. After rambling for some time about various matters, he at last said, " Now, I will say something about matters at Napier" — a remark which elicited loud cries of " hear, hear," from all parts of the House. For you must know that affairs in the Napier district are rather serious just now, and as Tareha is a very influential chief, of course everyone expected he was going to show how the difficulties are to be got over. You can imagine the amusement that was created when it turned out that all this chief had to say was to make a complaint

of the existence of a public pound in Napier, into which some of his cattle, &c, are occasionally driven ! He was exceedingly vehement in. his eloquence on this subject. He wound up by a very proper remark, he said "go on doing good, let there be one law for both Maori and Pakeha." When he sat down, np got Meti Kingi— the gallant hero of Motua, who saved the settlement of Wanganui by gallantly defeating a large body of the Han Haus who were descending the river to attack the town. This chief is one of the staunchest allies of tho Europeans, and has provod his friendship and loyalty under many trying circumstances. He spoke very deliberately, and very sensibly. He defended the course taken by the Government in relation to the wars, and laid the entire blame of the various wars from Heko's down to the present time on the shoulders of the Maoris. Ho recoun'.ed the efforts he had made from time to tune to bring about peace, and said sufficient io show the House that there is still a number of really loyal tribes who may bo depended upon. With regard to the late murders at Patea, he advised that peace should be offered to the offenders — not that he thought they would accept it — but it would show that if they refused it they were actuated by unworthy motives, and would not receive the sympathy of their followers. The speech of the evening was Mr Vogel'3. It was amusing, sarcastic, forcible and even at times eloquent. But it was as clever a mixture of bunkum as ever I listened to. He attacked the Government right and left, and pleaded urgently the cause of the Provinces. He bestowed particular attention upon Westlaud, and tried to convince the House that the County System there has been a failure. He insisted that there was nothing that the Government contemplated to do for outlying districts that coiild not be provided by the Provincial Governments, and ia a very high-flown peroration he solemnly warned the Government that if they destroyed the Provinces the day would come when thej r would remember the warning he had given them, and vainly wish they had been guided by him. The debate adjourned on the motion of the member for Westland Boroughs, who wi'l open the ball again this evening. The House adjourned for a couple of hours last evening, on account of the delivery by Sir George Bowen of the Inaugural Address of the New Zealand Institute — a Colonial Scientific Society lately existing under the name of the New Zealand Society. The address was delivered in the Museum, and was listened to by a large and fashionable audience, of whom a great many were ladies. I didn't think much of the address, and therefore don'c consider it worth while saying anything more about it. The Museum is really a credit to the Colony ; its contents are admirably arranged and classified, and have lately been very considerably enriched.