ANOTHER CONSTITUTION FOR NEW ZEALAND. (From the Spectator.)

New Zealander, Volume 3, Issue 203, 10 May 1848, Page 4

ANOTHER CONSTITUTION FOR NEW ZEALAND. (From the Spectator.)

The last new Colonial constitution ii waste paperGovernor Grey has " suspended the constitution of New Zealand, and Minuters are asking Parliament to register hit edict. The workmanship of that great piece of lawgiving is emphatically claimed by Mr. Labouchere for Lord Giey: it has befoie bf en imputed by a rumour to n gentleman now " on leave of absence ;" but from this prompt \\ vocation, if we judge l>y preepdent, we should say that the work is Lord Gvey's own — one of his " pentimenti." The conduct of the whole business, from first to last, has been most curiously absurd. A. constitution more pragmatically regardless of existing circumstances was never offered by Sieyes for the refusal of the French Dictator ; but Governor Grey was duly " instructed to carry it out. Governor Grey obeys about as much as Santa Anna obeys the government at Mexico — he declines to carry out the law 1 And no sooner doei good Lord Grey receive the strictures of his namesake, than he sets to work " trying again," patching up a modified constitution in the hope of pleaiing that able and absolute Governor. " Better luck next time" it the motto of Lord Grey's diligent experimental legislation on the colonies : if he live long enough, he may at last hit upon a successful measure, as treasure seekeri at last rejoice their grey-haired indigence with a golden discovery. We say in the hope of pleasing Captain Grey, because Lord Grey's new bill ii merely a response to Captain Grey's objections — a literal response, and nol a new act of original legislation applicable to the new light thrown on the subject. Captain Grey's objection to the fonstitutioa tent to him by post is uot without a plau&iblt* aspect. He objects to a system of representative government for the white colonists, that it would empower the white minority to levy taxes which would be pi«t by the black majority, and according to his account, that black majority not only possesses the intelligence to feel bucli a political wrong, but also the energy to vindicate its rights vi et armis : Captain Grey dreads certain Black Hampdens and Eliots, and declines to play the part of a Charles the First in the Britain of the southern hemisphere. Assuming that lie is right in his view of Maori intelligence and patriotism, we think his objection is sound ; but the statistics on which it is founded are not of recent discovery, and Lord Grey should have taken them into account before. And we do not see that the bill introduced by Mr. liabouchere for Lord Grey meets the difficulty. It simply abolishes the part of the measure which went to establish a representative government; leaving it to the discretion of the Governor to continue the old council, to appoint a representative body, or to authorize the election of one : in short, it delegates to the Governor a power for his edicts equivalent to those possesied by King Frederick William of Prussia or diaries Albert of Sardinia ; the British colonists are to await the pleasure of their local sovereign ai patiently as the Prussians or Piedmontese have waited. Bungling is to be mended by more complicated bungling. Lord Grey lends out a grand " constitution :" Captain Grey finds a flaw in it ; whereupon incontinently Lord Grey tears up his comtitution, and hands the decreeing pru to the Govenor ! Is this decently respertful to the colonists, or to the authority of Parliament ? Is it decently intelligent as the application of a specific to a grievance ? Nothing is alleged against the expediency of securing to the British subjects in Now Zealand the enjoyment of i their customary rights of representation ; but the allegation is a special difficulty in giving the representative body a right to tax the aborigines. Clearly that special difficulty is to be dealt with specially, by imposing a corresponding limit on the power of taxation : which might be done in various wayi. For instance, although taxation of the whites were delegated to a representative assembly, the right to tax the aborigines might be reserved to the paternal authority of the Governor in Council; or the aborigines might be altogether exempt from taxation, except as a condition to t.'ieir being admitted, at their own desire, to the rights of British citizenship. The attempt to withhold representative institutions from the British colonists until the aborigines shall be Anglicispd is absurd, not only because it is inapposite, but because it is impracticable If Lord Grey sue ceedc! this year in carrying his bill by favour of the other subjecto which distract parliamentary attention, the will Lava to bring in a third Bill next year, once more to undo his handiwork.