THE GOVERNOR, HIS ALTERED POLICY

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume V, Issue 233, 1 March 1865, Page 3

THE GOVERNOR, HIS ALTERED POLICY

(From the Sydney Moning Herald .) Sir George Grey may retort upon Mr Cardwell the obscurity of his own policy. He may complain that the despatch of the Secretary of State was intended rather to screen the British Government from responsibility than to give any clear and decisive expression of its views. On the other hand, Mr Cardwell will naturally throw upon, the failure of the Governor the blame of misapprehension. He will doubtless expect — for all in his office have done so—that those who are entrusted with such a command, and have interests so large at stake, should exercise their own understanding and interpret the language of the Minister of the hour by the invariable and recognised principles of the British Constitut ion. Mr Cardwell will ask whether it was conceivable that he did not intend an enemy unsubdued should he treated as an enemy?—whether he meant that prisoners of great importance should have been placed where escape was not only easy but apparently intended ?—whether the enormous charges incurred for the creation of military settlements approved by the Secretary of State ought not to have been followed by vigorous efforts for their establishment ?—whether in short the great business of a Governor holding under the British Crown was not to secure as the first condition of peace and reconcilement, the submission of the enemy ? Had it been possible to smooth every

difficulty by temporising measures, to stop the incursions of the natives, and to silence the fears ot the settlers, it is not improbable that complilnents would have been showered upon the head of the great pacificator. But how will all these wan derings of an uncertain, not to say insincere and tortuous policy, appear when examined after events such as onr mail will carry home.

It is so far gratifying to see (hat Sir George Grey, though he has 'changed Ids Ministry, has nevertheless noio adopted their measures. These measures are such as common sense naturally dictated in the circumstances. Sir George. Grey, we understand, claims the credit of their conception, but they are simply those which every civilised Power has found necessary in dealing with a barbarous people, and such as were recommended in this journal long before the arrival of Sir George Grey. There is indeed no great honor in the scheme. The credit must be achieved in its accomplishment. To adont it, was to copy from the greatest Empire the world has known : to accomplish it, would deserve approbation and even fame. The credit of the design therefore Sir George Grey may share with his Ministry. He did hot permit them to see it effected,, and there is but little to boast considering the long delay, the'waste of public money, and the many misfortunes which in consequence have befallen the colony. We have, however, from time to time set forth the circumstances of New Zealand with a precision and accurrcy which discharges at least the responsibility of the Press. That which was foretold has been fulfilled to the letter, and now there is nothing for the British Government but to abandon its sovereignty in New Zealand, or that part at least where the natives are numerous or to instruct those who have the control of our Forces, that their business is not to sneer at the progress of colonisation, to celebrate the virtues of native enemies, to mock the valour and discipline of the Volunteer Forces, to write letters deprecating their duties and cursing the war, but that it is the business of the Governor and those whose military arm he wields, to accomplish the delivery of the settlers from a heavy yoke, and to treat loyal and faithful subjects of the Crown as if they deserved its protection.