EARL GREY'S MEASURES.

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 110, 19 June 1847, Page 4

EARL GREY'S MEASURES.

The despatch nhieh Eail Grey has addressed to the Governor of New Zealand is, unquestionably, a document ot great ab lity and importance. As a Colony, New Zeaiatid presents features of rcmaikable interest to the contemplation ot the Englishman. Jt is-rei>dered peculiarly striking by a consideration ol its points of close icsemblance to those which are prominent in the British isles. By its geographical and insular position, by its geological characteristics and resources, its capacious and excellent harbours, its healthy climate, lenile soil, and large afforested tracts of land, New Zealand seeme to have been maikeil out by nature to fulfil the same glorious destiny in the other hemisphere, which, in our own in patticuLir— not lo speak of her natiouai triumphs of civilization in more distant parts of the uuiveise— lias been so magnificently accomplished by the imperial sway of Great Britain. Dependent as we are for our national supremacy upon the extent and strength of our colonies, lhe reckless indifference with which the home authorities have at times regarded them, particularly during their int'autile stale, is highly censurable, and scarcely to be believed. The consequence h is been, that perplexing evils of considerable magnitude have sprung up, which could easily have been avertid hid the mother country paid but ordinary attention to the solemn duties naturally incident to, and coincident with, the assumption of sovereignty over territories either newly discovered or conquered by the sons of civilization.— Cc rresti est qiie le premier pas quicoute; and had the governance of New Zealand, shortly after its attachment to the crown ol these realms, been placed in the hands of men well skilled in national jurisprudence, anl pnpeily versed in the principles ot our constitution, we should have already been reaping the fruits of a gradual, systematic, and felicitous development of the physical resources and the social prosperity of the numerous emigrants to thif. important colony. Instead ot this, we have throughout only witnessed miserable distractions and perpetual heartburnings between the governors and the governed of a kindred race. The truth is, that the Executive and the Legislature of Great Britain remained culpably inactive with respect to the welfare of New Zealand, and displayed naught but a sluggish indifference to the establishment of any sound and permanent bodies politic, till the genius and enterprise of the British merchant and capitalist had invested her with an importauce that effectually demanded the zealous attention of the responsible advisers of the Ciown to the growing wants of an illorganised yet rapidly increasing community. When the home authorities had, by these means, been quickened into action, a petty, piecemeal, and intermeddling spirit was exhibited in the place of any comprehensive, well digested scheme of Colonial administration. Nothing of vigour pervaded our