REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS. Mr. J. R. Godley's Speech.

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 487, 14 December 1850, Page 3

REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS. Mr. J. R. Godley's Speech.

The following is the Speech of J. R. Godley, Esq., (Agent of the Canterbury Association,) at the Wellington Meeting, in opposition to the proposed measure of the New Zealand Government, to which we refer in another column. Mr. Godlky, in proposing the first resolution, said, that although incapable of addressing you for more than a very few minutes, I cannot resist the temptation of this opportunity to express my sentiments on the important question now offered for your considemtioti. And in doing; so, I am above all things anxious to impress upon you the recollection, that the words and actions of this meeting will inevitably form the subject of careful attention and criticism at home, tint, if they be wise and worthy, they will support and strengthen the hands of those wno arc struggling for your rights in Parliament to an extent which can hdidly be over stated, whereas, if you betray either feebleness or irresolution on the one hand, or want of calmness, temper, and moderation on the other, you may be very certain that your errors will be promptly taken advantage of, and that in answer to your claims and prayers you will have the old sns-er at the unfitness for selfGovermnent which you show in your efforts to attain it. The business before you to-day is to pronounce your opinion on the Bill winch Sir George Giey offers lor your acceptance : now, before you do so, and in order that yon may do so with justice and effect, I want you to ask yourselves what this great political object is that you have been stiiving after, for many long and anxious yean, and of which this measure professes to be the real. zii ion. There are some who will tell you that it is "Representative Institutions," for it is the fashion to say that all colonial reformers want "Representative Institutions." If this be so, then I admit that the Bill ought to satisfy you, for it certainly gives you, in a measuie, and after a sort, Representative Institutions. But I deny that Representative Institutions are it hat we have striven and grayed for; we have representative institutions enough already, and can vanke as many more as we like ; this meeting is a representative institution, os soon as we have elected a chairman ; but the next question is what we can do with them when we have them. There is no magic in the word "representative;" no people was ever redeemed or regenerated by the meic election of delegates— No sir, the object which the colonists of New Zealand have given their energies to obtain, and which they will obtain, if they be true to themselves, is something very different from the mere form of a constitution ; it is the substance which all such forms are but methods of exercising ; in a word, it is political power ; the power of virtually administering their own affairsi appointing their own officers, disposing of their own revenues, and governing their own countiy. Compared with, this object all questions which concern the allocation of power among different classes of c ilonitts, fade into utter insignificance, whatever nn poi'tance they may assume at the proper time and pro« per place. Such questions will be settled among our. selves, when we shall have got the power of governing ourselves. Do not weaLen your coL^ctive influence by disputing about them now. The contest in which we are now engaged, and which requires our undivided energies to conduct it successfully, is with the cential authoiity of Downing Street, whether exercised through the medium of Governors, or of Nominees, or of Colonial Office instructions. Let us finish that before we begin to quarrel, as of course we BhaH quarrel like other people, among ourselves, as soon as we have got substantial power to quarrel about. But never forget tint the end we aim at is the power of self Government ; R»present<Uive Institutions are merely the most conveuitnt and desirable means of exercising it. (Cheers.) To give us Representative Institutions without lull powers, is worse than a mockery and a delusion it is a careful ami deliberate provision for keeping the machine of government at a perpetual dead-lock ; or if that be avoided through the weakness of the assembly, for constituting a political debatiug»club of the worst kind, and investting it with the dignity and the Claims ol a National L gislature. (f.heers ) 1 have insisted thus stiongly upon this preliminary point, because it is clear to me that, if it were not for this juggle and woid-ploy about Representative Institutions, nobody could have seriously proposed that you should accept such a measure as this of Sir George Grey's as the Charter of your liberties. It is a measure for constituting Provincial De» buting-clubs ; that is all. The resolution lam about to propose asks you to reject the Bill, because it does not give you the management of your own affairs ; this ii the ground upon which I trust that you will

adopt it. (Cheers.) Those who come after me will examine I more at length than 1 have physical powers to do, the provisions of the Bill, and will shew its short-comings in detail. I will content myself with stating that it withholds from you the disposal of the greater part of the revenue, and consequently of all practical control over the Executive ; that it compels you to conform your legislation to Colonial Oflice instructions ; (hat it contains that ridiculous and inexph:able provision against making any law repugnant to til ti law of England ; that it makes the pemkious element of Nomineeism part and parcel of jour Constitution; and that, besides all tins, it gives a veto upon all local legislation to a Governor not responsible to yourselve-. If you think that the privilege of electing representative! to do nothing be sufficient to compensate for such defects as these; if your ambition be to enjoy the name of a constitutional country, while the real power of governing you resides l(i,000 miles oil', then, I say, throw up your hats, and cheer for the Constitution. But if you thin'c with me, that this Bill will be merely a stumbling-block and an obstacle in your way ; if you believe, as I do, that by uccep i'g and sanctioning it you will debar yourselves for an iti« definite time Irom getting i»ny thin;* better ; tht.t you willtompromiae every principle that you have been asserting, and make it evident to friends and foes that yoa havp been fijuing for names and not for lenhties— above all, if you feel convinced, us I do, that if you refuse to be put off with the sludow, y u will assmedly get the substance, then I ask you to assert those sentiments and views by on emphatic condemnation of the Bill. (Cheers.) Ido not blame Sir Geoige Giey for offering it ; I believe (hat he is bona fide anxious to make every possible concession to you, and indeed that he believes he has already done so; but the fact i", that he has not the power of giving you a good Constitution, if lie were ever so well disposed; ho is fettered by Acts of Parliament and instructions, which only fresh acts and fresh instructions can revoke. lie has no power to give up the civil list, no power to give up the veto, no power to give you what is called Responsible Government, that is, the virtual administration of your own affairs. Now, we want no provisional relaxation of arbitrary power, depending on the casual favour of the man who may happen to exercise it ; we want the sanction of irrevocable laws for our rights, and this we can only get from (he fountain of law for the British Empire— the Imperial Parliament. Never forget, that the battle of our Constitution must be fought in London; it is by the iu 1 flueuce which we can exeicise, or the trouble we can give, there, alone that we can hope to obtain our local independence ; it is because as yet not one of the Australian Colonies has taken a stand which entitles and enables it to ba heard in London, that not one of them has got local independence yet. I trust that we shall set a brighter example ; I trust that we shall shew New Zealand standing preeminent and alone among the Colonies of England, pioclaiming that her people will have nothing to do with counterfeits or half measures ; that they will have things in New Zealand called by their proper names— real despotism or real liberty. (Cueers.) For my own part, I would far rather live under the avowed despotism of one able and energetic man, noting on his own responsibility, according to his own pleasure, than under such a legmen as it| is the fashion in Downing Street to call Constitutional and Representative ; a regimen in which the people exercise no real power, and the Government incurs no effective responsibility ; in which the utmost privilege granted to the colonists is that of obstructing the action of their own Government, and in which the rights of perpetual agitation is dignified with the name of freedom. (Cheeis 1 ) Mr Godley then proposed the following Resolution. 1. That the constitutional measure! which Sir GeoGrey is understood to be about to offer to the colonists, and wh eh has been already published by him in the shape of a draft Ordinance, does not deserve their approval or acceptance, inasmuch as it docs not confer upon them an effectual control over the management of their own affairs. That the apparent liberality of its provisions with respect to the c ection and duiati<m of Assemblies, is rendered completely nugatory by the limitations imposed npon their jurisdiction and powers. That while no Constitution can be said to confer real powers of self»government upon a people which does not vest in their representatives the disposal of their own revenue, the Civil List reserved under the pioposed metsure, which amounts already to nearly one-third of the R-venue and which Sir George Grey has rtcommeuded to be increased to nearly one-half, is withdrawn from (he jurisdiction of the colonists altogether ; and a power is further ijiven to a Nominee Council of taking whatever proportion of the remainder they may think (it for the purposes of the Ganeral Government; so that in fact the balance left to the disposal of the Provincial Councils will be little more then nominal. And that lastly the institution of a Legislative Council, composed partly of Representatives of the people and partly of Nominees of the Crown, is not only incompatible with good government, but appears as if expressly calculated for the purpose of producing discord and mutual obstiuction. For the fore^oin^ reasons, therefore, this meeting rejects the measure in question, and pledges itself to resist its introduction by every constitutional means.