THE Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 6th FEBRUARY, 1865.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 223, 6 February 1865, Page 2

THE Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, MONDAY, 6th FEBRUARY, 1865.

A considerable time Las elapsed since we stated our intention to give a condensed outline of Mr. Fox’s letter to his constituents. A pressure of matter of equal importance, and which would not so well brook delay, has hitherto prevented our doing this, and though we regret that this should be so, as our views on the several questions discussed by Mr. Fox have been to some extent already placed before our readers, we have felt it best to postpone this in favor of more urgent matters.

The address in question has now had time to circulate throughout the various settlements of the colony, and it has been commented on by the press in the most diverse manner according to the various predilections of its critics. While there are some who look upon the document as worthy of preservation in the historical records of the colony, that posterity may have an opportunity of passing a more correct judgment on the vacillating conduct of Governor Sir George Grey ; there are others who consider its publication as an ill-advised step, and think that the differences that have unfortunately existed between our Governor and his Ministers should have been buried in oblivion. There is beyond a doubt one point in which Mr. Fox has laid himself open to the shafts of his enemies, and they have not failed to take every advantage of this vulnerable spot upon his escutcheon. It is pretty well known that up to the time of the departure of Col. Gore Browne and the reinstatement of Sir George Grey as Governor, Mr. Fox had shown but few symptoms of being anything but a consistent politician. We then find him accepting office under Sir George, and attempting to carry out a truckling sugar and flour policy in direct antagonism with all his previous course of conduct and published writings, and, as we yet believe, in opposition to his own opinions. It is no part of our intention to attempt his vindication in this matter; in fiict we do not know that he himself has ever attempted it; we only wonder that he did not then make complete shipwreck of his political reputation, and consider that his having succeeded in saving it so far as he has done is a striking proof of his diplomatic skill. But when a man with antecedents such as we have referred to, can write of the Governor’s vacilation as he does in the following paragraph, we cannot wonder that big foes take up this as their point of attack instead of attempting to reply to his arguments :

While the summer campaign was going on no practical question arose about confiscation, but news from England arrived from time to time which showed that confiscation was unpalatable there, and we were soon able to trace the effect of this on the-Governor’s mind. You know that it is always his practice to watch public opinion at home, and to guide Ins proceedings in the colony by what he perceives to be the prevalent opinion of the moment in Great Britain. On this occasion his mind underwent the most extraordinary changes; it would have been amusing in the

highest degree as a metaphysical study to have •watched it, had not the results been so serious to the colony and ourselves. I have seen a diild ! s toy which consists of a certain bird floating on a basin of water, and which is drawn round and round by a magnet concealed in the hand of the exhibitor. Xn the same manner, as every mail arrived bringing a letter from the Aborigines Protection Society, a despatch from Mr. Card"vvell, a report of a'debate in Parliament, or a slashing leader in the condemning the land-grasping colonists, the Governor would go helplessly floating round the basin, till at last we found him irretrievably landed with his face in exactly the opposite direction to that in which it had pointed when he forwarded to the Colonial ’Office tha famous plan “ based on that which he had adopted in British Gaffraria,” and which formed the foundation of the policy which wehis unfortunate and deluded Ministers had undertaken to carry out. Of course this -would have been quite correct front one who could point to a uniform course of consistency himself, but was not so in the ease of Mr. Fox. Accordingly we find the Lyttelton Times replying as follows ;

But there is one sentence in Mr. Fox’s letter which is surpassingly amusing. His greatest source of bitterness against the Governor is—can it be believed ?—because his Excellency’s mind underwent extraordinary changes!” What! Mr. Eox complain of any one changing their mind ! Does he possess a Royal patent of inconsistency? Has he a parliamentary monopoly of tergiversation? May no one rat but himself? Alas! we wish it were so; for this versatile politician supplies quite enough of the article to drug any ordinary political market. Most men treat with some degree of tenderness the faults to which they are prone or the weaknesses to which they have fallen victims. Not so Mr, Fox. Having worked with and abused every party in the colony alternately ; having tried every sort of principle, and been ” everything by turns and nothing long,” the one vice in the Governor which he assaults is —his Excellency’s changeableness ! The New Zealander and some others are even more caustic than the above, and we are sorry that it should he in any degree deserved, as it can only act in detracting from the usefulness of a man of undoubted ability, and, as we believe, holding correct views generally on colonial questions. The following shows that in spite of all efforts to maintain the colonial constitution. Sir George has won the Held, and now occupies the position, practically, of dictator, and this without any interference on the part of Downing-street in the way of separating the North from the South, or of suspending the constitution. Sir George does not need anything of that kind : The* new Ministry has now practically aban' doned responsible government in native affairs—that is, it does not pretend to govern. The Assembly has succumbed to the position. It is sad to see men who have in former years fought as we fought for. self-government, abandoning its outworks. I would never be a party to that; and had Mr. Wold boon driven to a division on hia resolutions, I should have been compelled to vote against him. It was the finance question which forced the Assembly to submit. While Sir George could afford to wait, the Colony could not. The price demanded by Sir G. Grey for the confiscation of Waikato and a campaign at Taranaki, was the abandonment by the Ministry of selfgovernment in native affairs. The sacrifice was made, and, practically, perhaps the Colony had no other course to pursue. But when the pacification arrives which Sir George Grey has so long delayed, be and not his ministers will claim the credit. Sir George Grey will never work cordially with responsible government. It came to him too late in life. It is too foreign to his temper and habits. Responsible government demands a large amount of mutual confidence between the Governor and his Ministers. Sir George Grey trusts no man, and after Ins fourteen years administration,,l know no man in N.ew Zealand who trusts him. lie has a wonderful talent for raising difficulties and obstructing, the work of other men. He never allows success when he cannot appropriate the credit of it to himself. He has not sufficient force of character to control events ; but lie has great adroitness in turning to his own advantage events which he has not controlled.