"TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE GREY, K.C.B., GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF, N.Z., ETC.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 52, 3 January 1852, Page 6

"TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR GEORGE GREY, X.C.8., GOVERNOR-IN-CHIEF, N.Z., ETC.

" The Memorial of the undersigned Magistrates, Landed Proprietors, Farmers, Merchants, Householders, and other inhabitants of the Canterbury Settlement, " Humbly Sheiveth, " That in the opinion of your memorialists, the erection of Cantdnrury into a separate province would materially promote the welfare of the settlement, by securing attention to its local interests; by confining as far as possible the expenditure of its local revenue to local objects ; above all by giving to its people a direct participation in political affairs, and thereby supplying them with worthy objects of ambition, interest, and action. " That your memorialists believe that by a strict economy, by the avoidance of pageantry and display, and by the provisional combination of offices, (whenever such combination shall be possible) this change may be effected without any material increase in the public establishments. " That your memorialists do not presume to point out to your Excellency the proper boundaries of thejproposed province ; but that they disclaim any desire to encroach on territory to which other settlements may have a fair claim. "That your memorialists, while urging their claim to a local Government for Canterbury, desire to guard themselves carefully against being supposed to imply assent to or approval of the measure for establishing Provincial Councils which has lately been enacted, inasmuch as that measure does not give to the people of this country any real or efficient control over the management: of their own affairs, and the expenditure of their own revenues. " That your memorialists are anxious to convey to your Excellency their sincere thanks for the gracious and constitutional manner in which you have referred this question to those whom it mainly, if not alone, concerns. " And, that your memorialists accordingly do pray that your Excellency will, if the power be left in your hands, be pleased to take the necessary steps for immediately constituting this district into a separate province."

" Colonial Secretary's Office, Wellington. D.-i. 11, I*s!. " Sir, —Having received ;uul laid before the Gc.veriior-in-Chief yout- letter of the 3rd inst , I am directed by His Excellency to inform you that he lias delayed answering your letter of the 25th Sept.

last, on the subject of erecting the Canterbury Settlement into a separate province, because lie had hoped to have received the royal instructions, authorizing him to divide New Zealand into provinces, in which case, His .Excellency could have given a definite reply to the memorial which accompanied your letter. " As the royal instructions have not yet reached His Excellency, and lie is therefore unaware of their precise tenor, he can at present, consequently, only generally reply to the memorial above alluded to, that if the power of constituting the Canterbury district into a separate province is left in his hands, it will afford His Excellency great pleasure to comply with the wish of the memorialists by constituting the Canterbury district a separate province with as little delay as possible. " I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant, (for the Colonial Secretary,) (Signed) " J. E. Grimstone." " J. R. Goiiley, Esq., Agent Canterbury Association."