GOVERNOR GREY AND THE " HERALD." [From the Maitland Mercury, Feb. 3 ]

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 289, 10 March 1849, Page 3

GOVERNOR GREY AND THE " HERALD." [From the Maitland Mercury, Feb. 3 ]

Our contemporary the Sydney Morning Herald has taken Governor Grey to account for hit recent pro. csedings in New Zealand. We, too, have been watching the Governor's late proceeding* with some interest and as we think that his Excellency hai received some* what scurvy treatment at the hands of our contemporary, we feel impelled to say a few wordi in his behalf. The Piovincial Councils Bill was, we must tdmit, passed iti unseemly haste. But we are at a loss to understand how the constitutional rights of the lettlert in Cook's Straits have been compromised by that Bill.— Previous to its pasting they were under the control of the Governor and a nominee Council at Auckland : they hare now a Nominee Council of their own to manage their local affairs. The alteration is certainly an improvement. The immediate question was not between a nominee and a representative Council ; but between a nominee Council, or none at all. And a ! nominee legislature U, after all, no bad preparative for representative government. It serves as an excellent mediu < of communication between the Governor and the people ; and although the members are appointed by the government, they are practically scarcely less under the influence of public opinion than if they were elected. The history of our own, the Van Diemen's Land, and the South Australian nominee legislatures' show that subserviency to the Government, or indifference to the interest* of their fellow colonists, are not characteristics of crown-made legislators. In the present case, too, it is obvioui that (he Wellington Provincial Council is appointed to prepare the way for

I representative government— to accelerate, rather than to retard, the boon which the colonists are so anxious to obtain. Our contemporary not only finds fault with Governor Grey for establishing the first Provincial Council, but for the manner in which he has filled up the appointments With bow much rtaion we will let our contemporary himself show :— " Whilst Governor Grey's bill was under the discussion of the colonists, he wai busily engaged in making out his list of nominee! ; and to appease iritation and win over the affections of bis opponents, seats in the new Council were offered to thoie who had been Governor Grey' 9 staunchest enemies. The bait was not swallowed. Those who at firat were solicited to take seats in the Council were men who had taken a prominent political position, they were among the most intelligent, wealthy, and influential of this little band of settlers. They rejected Governor Grey's overtures, preferring a position in which they could agicate for political freedom rather than have their mouths sealed by being hi« nominees in Council!. Governor Grey nothing daunted by the refusal of the elite of the settlers, whom he had hopi'd to prevail upon to become his tools, issues fresh invitations ; his endeavours are attended with success, and the New Zealand Government Gazette, of the 2lsl December, furnishes us w.th the information that Messrs. W. M. Iknnatyne, F D. Bell, W. Ilickson, G\ Hunter, A. Ludlam, and G. Moore, are the Member A of the Legislative Council of the Province of New M muter. If Governor Guy had th own the names of every settler in Fort Nichoi10 i into a baa; and determined upon having for his Council those tix whoie names weie first drawn, he could not have drawn out men remaikable for less intelligence, less influence, or possessing smaller stakes in the colony, than thoie whom he has selected, and who have accepted. If it was Governor Grey's inten - tion that a diversity of interests should be represented j in bit Council he has completely succeeded. He baa nominees who arc owners of land, and nominees who j do not possess an inch of real property in the colony. He has an ex-Under Secretary of the New Zealand Company, and a partizan of the late Colonel Wakefield. He has merchant', and a retail dealer in tapes ; but with the exception of Mr. Hickson, they have never shone out in political relief.'.' Is Governor Grey then to be held responsible for the donkeyiam of the "elite of the settlers" at Wellington ? If they refused to assist the government in managing the affairs of the settlement, what was his Excellency to do but to take the next best he could get, even though one of his selections should lie under the enormity of being a " retail dealer in tapes ? "— What better guarantee for honesty of purpose in establishing the Council could Governor Giey give than the offer of seats to " his staunchest enemies ; " and these opponents, too, the most prominent amongst the little band of settlers for their intelligence, wealth, and influ' nee. Our friend of the Herald and the " elite of the settlers" in New Zealand are hard to satisfy. Did a seat in our nominee Council prevent Messn. Macarthur, Blaxland, and Jamison from "agitating for political freedom ?" Or rather, did not their position in tuat Council enable them to asaist their fellow-coloniits all the more effectually in winning representative government? Look, Bgain, to Messrs. Morphett, Bagot, and Hai?en, in South Australia. Have the mouths of these nominee* been senled by the acceptance of a seat in the legislatures of their respective coloniei ? Or are they not invariably ia the van of their fellow colonists when any measure on behalf of freedom is to be acheived ? The plea for non. acceptance on the part of the "elite of the settlers" of Wellington i%, then, us hollow as the complaint against Governor Grey for finding the best substitutes he could is unreasonable. Before our contemporary undertook to dissect and dispose of the new constitution which Governor Grey his suggested for New Zealand, he should have made himself master of its details. He would then hare avoided falling into the b under that " the General Le« gMature is to be composed ot a portion of the several Provincial Legislative Council" This is not the case: for Governor Grey is of opinion that it " might be desirable to return to the Provincial Council* persons who would not be suitable for the General Assembly." The members of the representative chamber of the General Assembly will be elected directly by the various constituencies of the colony, as will also the representative members of the Provincial Councils. Nor do we find anything in Governor Grey's written outline of the proposed constitution, or in his verbal I explanation of its provisions, to warrant the Herald's assertion that, "as in olden times in England, when the Parliament assembled in provincial cities alternately with Westminster, so Governor Grey has proposed that the General Legislative Council shall assemble alternately in the northern and sou bern portions of New Zealand." Prom the general tenor of the Go-, vernor's minute and speech, we should infer that the meetings of the General Assembly will be held permanently in the capital of New Zealaad ; and the es™ Üblishment in each province of a Legislative Couucit with rather ample powers would seem to render it unnecessary for the General Assembly to travel from one part of the colony to another. From want of local knowledge, we are not qualified to offer an opinion as to whether the constitution sketched out by Governor Grey is or is not the best that could be devised for New Zealand in its present circumstances. We have some doubts whether the supreme and the provincial legislative assemblies will work well together } and whether in an infant colony it would not have been better to have entrusted the whole of the legislation to one assembly. But whatever doubts we feel on these points, we feel none as to the decided superiority of Governor Grey's constitution over the one which it is intended to supersede.— In every respect, we think we may say, it is better than Earl Grey'n : it is more practicable, more simple, and more liberal and constitutional. It distincly recognises and preserves the invaluab c principle of direct election ; it confers the elective franchise on the great bulk of the European population, and on such of the natives as are likely to use it judiciously ; and while it provides for the establishment of municipal institutions in districts where the inhabitants desire them, it guards against these institutions being forced on districts to which they are unsuitable or unpalatable. — Whatever defects, therefore, there may be in Governor Grey's proposed constitution, it embodies too many sound, valuable principles, to be condemned on slight matters of detail, mere especially if, as in the case of the Herald, tbese objections arise at least as much from the misapprehension of the critic as from the mistake of the statesman. Colonial Governors like Sir Gaorge Grey are not plentiful as blackberries. Where we fiad a Governor who has the courage to suspend a constitution seat out by the Sfuinii Ministry and Parliament became he thinks it would be injurious to those under his authority — and who, by his statesmanship and energy, has conducted one colony iroin a state of depression to almost unexampled actirity and prosperity, and is fast extricating another from a mesh of most perplexing difficulties — we are in common justice bound to fairly represent his actions and policj, and to place a candid if not a generous, construction ou his motives and intentions."