GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NEW ZEALAND.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume III, Issue 146, 30 October 1863, Page 4

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NEW ZEALAND.

The legislative Council and House of Representatives were opened on Monday, the 19th instant. A guard of honor of 100 Volunteers, with their band, was in attendance. At about half-past two his Excellency Sir, George Grey entered the Legislative Council, in full uniform, attended by MajorGeneral Galloway, the hon. Reader Wood, Major Whitmore, Alfred Domett, Esq., bis Excellency’s Private Secretary, and others, and was received by the assemblage standing. The Speaker having vacated the chair in his Excellency’s favor, the House of Representatives were summoned to attend in the Legislative Council Chamber, the proclamations of his Excellency proroguing and ultimately announcing the day of opening of the Assembly having been previously read to the Council by the Clerk. The Speaker of the other house then entered, followed by the members of the House of Representatives, when his Excellency proceeded very lucidly and distinctly to read— THE SPEECH. Honorable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives— The recent course of events in this Colony has compelled me to seek your advice and assistance at an earlier period than -was contemplated on the last occasion of your meeting. The resumption of a block of land by my orders at Taranaki, which had long previously to the late war been peacefully occupied by our settlers, but which the continued threats of the natives had prevented their return to, was followed by the entirely unprovoked murder of nearly the whole of a small escort of her Majesty’s troops. This murder was instigated and directed by the tribes of Waikato ; the same tribes who had already expelled from their own districts the missionaries and all other European residents ; forcibly taken away the half-caste families of the latter; and evinced in many ways their determination to provoke a war of races. They have for some time past been endeavoring to form a general combination of the natives, having for its avowed object the indiscriminate slaughter of the European inhabitants of the Colony. Their plans of attack upon Auckland and its neighboring settlements have been frustrated by the defensive measures adopted ; but they have assassinated out-settlers, and soldiers engaged in escort duty. No effort to gain over these tribes has been omitted. Every endeavor has been made to remove any even apparent ground of complaint; to do them them the fullest justice, and to promote in every way their welfare and improvement. Yet no means have been found effectual to induce them to relinquish their schemes of conquest and plunder. They have deliberately resolved upon war, and to try their strength with the British race.

In accordance with this desire to deprive the natives of every pretext for rebellion, and prevent if possible the then threatening insurrection from becoming general; in the hope, also, of securing unanimity and the cordial support of all classes of her Majesty’s subjects thus forced upon us ; and for other reasons detailed in the papers which will be laid before you, I thought it my duty, notwithstanding some obvious objections to such a course, to declare ray intention not to attempt to complete the purchase of the block of land at the Waitara. When, from the assassination of our officers and soldiers, it was clear that the war, which such efforts had been made to avoid, was inevitable, the Imperial Government was immediately applied to for additional military assistance. The promptitude and liberality with which that application was responded to, demand your special recognition, and I feel confident that the aid thus given by England to the colony in its time of danger and difficulty, will strengthen those sentiments of affection and loyalty towards the mother country which have always animated the settlers of New Zealand.

The neighboring colonies to which I applied for such military aid as they could afford, have rendered every assistance in their power, and my thanks are in a special manner due to the Governor of Tasmania for the great promptitude with which every available soldier was despatched at once to this colony. Meantime, active measures had been taken in the colony itself for the defence of the settlements of the Northern Island. The Militia and Volunteers have been called out, armed, and trained, to the number of upwards of nine thousand men. Volunteer companies, both of. horse and foot, have been formed in the different provinces—some of them in Auckland and Taranaki, for the especial purpose of scouring the forest country. Mounted forces, under the Colonial Defence Act of last session, have been raised and stationed in Auckland, Hawke’s Bay, Wellington and Wanganui. A steam gunboat, adapted for navigation of shallow rivers, has been built, and brought over from Sydney, for especial service on the Waikato Biver. No -exertions have been spared by the Colony in contributing to the utmost extent of its power towards its own defence.

To provide in the most certain manner for the future protection of the settlers, —to leave the regular troops more free for offensive operations, by releasing them from a portion of their garrison duly,—as well as to enable the Licut.-Gen. Commanding' to undertake those operations at an early period, a large number of Volunteers have been introduced from Australia and the Middle Island to servo for a certain period as Militia, eventually to form military settlements in the interior, bn condition of receiving free grants of land for their services. The very lino body of men that have thus volunteered to assist in fight-

ing the battles of the colony will greatly facilitate the prosecution of the war. Her Majesty’s ship of war on this station has already rendered valuable services; and the conspicuous gallantry of her Majesty’s troops, under their distinguished General, on every occasion the war has hitherto afforded for its display, has been recognized throughout the Colony with admiration and gratitude. It is with the most lively satisfaction I have remarked how repeatedly and honorably General Cameron has mentioned the zeal and courage which our Militia and Volunteers have on many occasions so nobly evinced against the enemy by whom their families and homes were being assailed ; and I desire to express my own sense of the admirable manner in which, both in Auckland and Taranaki, the colonial forces have borne the, hardships and privations of service in the field, and cooperation with her Majesty’s troops, have shown themselves capable of encountering all the difficulties of forest warfare, and afforded additional proof that our countrymen were qualified to grapple with danger under all circumstances, in every kind of country. With the additions to our forces first mentioned, and with the reinforcements —naval and military —already arrived, or immediately expected from England, directed by such commanders as are now in New Zealand, I trust that this war with be brought, at no very distant date, to a successful issue. Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, —

A large expenditure has been incurred in mating provision for the defence of the country, which the urgency of the crisis rendered immediately necessary. Measures will be submitted to you to enable the colony to meet this outlay, as well as that which, unfortunately, will still have to be made on account of the war, without, I trust, too seriously pressing upon its resources, or preventing the employment of a large portion of its revenues on the many useful objects on which they are expended at present. The estimates for the current financial year will be laid before you without delay, together with an Act for raising a loan, to enable me to carry out the plans which have been initiated for the future security of the country. Honorable Gentlemen of the Legislative Council and Gentlemen of the House of Representatives,— The resolutions defining the relations between the Governor and Ministers adopted at the last meeting of the Assembly, and in the spirit of which I consented to act until the instructions of the Secretary of State should reach me, have not received the sanction of Her Majesty’s Government. On the contrary, Her Majesty’s Government has declared his intention, to adhere to its previous decision, that the direction of native policy and the management of native affairs should, except in certain contingencies, bo placed under the control of the General Assembly. In any ordinary circumstances of the colony, my responsible advisers, .on the receipt of this decision, would have recommended your being immediately called together to deliberate and decide upon the course to be taken on a subject of such importance. But at the time the decision was received, the position of the colony in respect to the natives was such as to demand immediate and energetic measures to ensure its safety, which required the whole attention of the Government. It appeared, then, that to summon the Assembly at that moment would have been to incur the risk of paralyzing the efficient action so necessary in the then present crisis, while measures for making provision to meet the less immediate consequences of the native insurrection could not possibly have been matured sufficiently to be submitted for your deliberation and adoption. The Ministers accordingly undertook to be responsible for the adoption of a plan of operations for the defence of a district about Auckland, which I had proposed to them, and for the occupation by Military Settlers of the laud of hostile natives in its neighbourhood, pending the summoning of the Assembly, and the expression of your opinion on the whole subject of responsibility in native affairs. They undertook this amount of responsibility from a sense of duty, and from the strong conviction that these plans formed part of a policy calculated effectually to deal with the difficulties before us, and, as such, to meet with your thorough approval and sanction. 1 would now recommend your acceptance of the responsibility with her Majesty’s decision has placed upon the colony. The measures to which your attention will be principally directed, will be those which have for their object the suppression of the present and the prevention of future rebellions. I rely with confidence on your cordial support in my endeavours to carry on the present war with vigour, and to make it, if possible, the last which shall afflict the European and aboriginal inhabitants of New Zealand. To do this—to provide a material guarantee for the preservation of peace—such measures will be necessary as w-ill render future insurrections of the native hopeless. The most obvious and effective of such measures are the construction of roads through the interior of the country, and the introduction into the disaffected districts especially, of an amount of armed population, sufficient to defend itself against all aggression. It should be distributed in military settlements along the frontiers of the settled districts and elsewhere, so as to afford protection to the inhabitants of these districts. A considerable number of volunteers for such settlements have been introduced, as I have already stated, and Bills will be submitted for your consideration to authorise and make provision for the carrying out of these objects on as extensive a scale as seems practicable at present. This will necessarily involve the occupation of a portion of the waste lands of the rebellious natives; but while ample land will be left for their own requirements, it is only just that they should be made to feel some of the evil consequences of plunging the country, by wanton and unprovoked aggressions, into the expenses and miseries incidental to civil war; and thus it is hoped to afford a warning to other tribes to abstain from conduct which will bo attended with the kind of punishment they are most apprehensive of.

I trust that these measures, ■which I am compelled reluctantly to adopt, will ultimately prove a great furtherance to the operation of those for the improvement and civilization of the Aboriginal Natives which have occupied so much of your attention of late years, and which I am well aware nothing that has taken place will prevent you from still prosecuting with a generous regard for the future welfare of this people. Some measures to facilitate the operation of former Acts of the Assembly; a Bill for the annexation of Stewart’s Island to the Province of Southland, in order to extend the advantages of local government to that Island ; and a plan for the formation of an Electric Telegraph from the Southern extremity of the Middle Island to Auckland—will he laid before you, and receive, I trust, your favourable consideration. The prosperity of the Colony, in every respect, with the exception of the state of the aboriginal Natives, continues undiminished. Especially it is most gratifying to remark, the almost unexampled progress in wealth and population made by the settlements in the Middle Island, the inhabitants of which, while themselves undisturbed by any difficulties with a Native race, have shewn so deep a sympathy with, and so generous a regard for, the sufferings and dangers which have fallen on their fellow-colonists in this Island. I have now only to express an earnest hope that your counsels, informed with the spirit of wisdom, may, with the blessing of the Almighty Disposer of events, tend to the deliverance of the Colony from its present difficulties, and to the permanent welfare of all its inhabitants. ADDRESS IN REPLY. In the House of Representatives, on the 21st, the following address in reply to his Excellency’s opening speech was proposed hy Mr. Robert Graham, the debate on which was adjourned for a week: — Mat it please Your Excellency,— We, Her Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the House of Representatives, in Parliament assembled, tender our thanks to your Excellency for the speech with which your Excellency has opened the present session of the General Assembly. We learn with regret that the resumption of a block of land at Taranaki, which had long previously to the late war been peacefully occupied by our settlers, had resulted in an unprovoked murder by the natives of a small escort of Her Majesty’s troops ; that the Waikato tribes had endeavoured to form a general combination of natives, with the avowed object of indiscriminate slaughter of the European inhabitants of the colony ; and that, although frustrated in their plans of attack upon Auckland, they have assassinated out-settlers, and soldiers engaged on escort duty. We recognise that jour Excellency has made every endeavour to leave the natives no ground of complaint, and to deprive them of every pretext of rebellion ; and we regret that no means have been found effectual to induce them to relinquish their schemes of conquest and plunder. We cordially unite with your Excellency in a grateful recognition of the promptitude* and liberality with which the application to the Imperial Government for additional military assistance has been responded to, and in thanking the Australian Governments, and especially the Governor of Tasmania, for the military aid rendered by them to this colony. We also, together with your Excellency, beg to express our acknowledgment for the services rendered by Her Majesty’s naval and military forces in this colony, and to record our admiration of the conspicuous gallantry', on every occasion the war has hitherto afforded for its display, of the troops under their distinguished General; and of the zeal and devotion eminently displayed by the settlers of the provinces of Auckland and Taranaki in their co-operation with Her Majesty’s troops, and in the endurance of hardship and privation. We receive, with an anxious desire to settle the question on a satisfactory basis, your Excellency’s intimation that her Majesty’s Government lias decided that responsibility for native policy and for the administration of native affairs should be placed upon the General Assembly. We assure your Excellency that it is our earnest wish to co-operate with your Excellency in the suppression of the present, and in the prevention of future rebellions, and in the advancement of the interests of both races in these islands ; and any measures laid by your Excellency before us with those objects shall receive our most serious attention.

We join your E»cellency in the prayer that our counsels may, with the blessing of Almighty God, tend to the deliverance of the colony from its present difficulties, and to the permanent welfare of all its inhabitants.