ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. Quand Peau courbe un baton la raison le redresse. Un Animal dans la lune.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 589, 6 December 1851, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. Quand Peau courbe un baton la raison le redresse. Un Animal dans la lune.

To the Editor of the New Zealakder. Sir, — Whim Goldsmith was smarting under the lash of a writer of his day, his friend and patron, the great rough moralist, administered to him the following somewhat rude consolation :—: — " A man, whose business it is to be talked of, is much helped by being attacked. Fame, Sir, is a shuttlecock — if it be struck only at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground ; to keep it up, it must be struck at both ends." If incessant attacks — seldom judicious or well sustained, but often vigorous and bold — were necessary elements of public distinction, the character of Sir George Grey ought certainly to be placed upon the very pinnacle of fame ; no man can be " better abused." At one end of the room the shuttlecock has never been in danger of coming to the ground ; players have congregated there, and many sturdy arms, during the last five years, have banged the poor toy about, without having as yet succeeded in damaging » single feather. The last, and incomparably the most skilful and elegant performer, has been " keeping it up" with unwearied spirit, for many weeks, in the taproom of the Southern Cross ; and as he appearsto enjoy himself intensely, and being, as he says, a stranger, with no othei object, intent, or motive, than a pure love of the game which he plays so cleverly, no one has had the heart to break in upon his pleasures, and I shall not set an example. He has vowed to play till he spoils the shuttlecock, and — nons verrons. As there has been no period since the commencement of his administration at which a greater amount of vituperation has been bestowed upon His Excellency, and he has, in my estimation at least, at no period deserved better of the colonists, I propose, if you will afford me space in your journal, to pass shortly in review the most important acts of his government, in order that we, the colonists of New Zealand, may see what lias been done for us ; what disposition has been shown to promote our interests ; what measures have been. taken to secure the foundation of our colony ; and how it has occurred that we have been enabled, from the unfortunate condition in which he found us, to raise ourselves during his administration to a pitch of prosperity, which is admitted, on all hands, not to be fictitious or passing, but to have its roots in the extended cultivation of the soil, in the development of our internal resources, and in the wonderful advances in civilization and industry of our native fellow-subjects. It will not be necessary to this inquiry to decide upon the question now mooted of flis Excellency's official veracity, to fix the intended meaning of ambiguous sentences, or to maintain that, in his long contests with unscrupulous opponents in which he has sometimes unhappily descended to fight with their own weapons, he has always escaped without a scratch. Nopne — nofc even the most adroit political preux— could hope to keep the lists for such a period against a host of " combattans acharncs," without sometimes losing his seat. Plain men, however, will be content to judge of him by the good which he has achieved, and which will remain after him, rather than by " curiosities of official literature," even if preserved, like flies in amber, by the letters of "Metoikos." Six years have now elapsed since his arrival in Auckland. lie found war in the North ; and discontent, which speedily became hostility, amongst the Natives in the South ; terror in the capital ; public credit lost 5 the revenue annihilated ; the Treasury bankrupt; the public lands being scrambled for by persons whose object in general was gain, not colonization: agriculture suspended; the town swarming with petty shopkeepers, living upon, (or, I should rather "say) starving, each other; and an overgrown NativeTrotectorate sitting, like an ugly nightmare, upon the prostrate Government. I suppose that no one will be found to maintain that Sir George Grey had any hand in producing this state of things ? What do we see now ? Let us look around. Where is the war ? where is the discontent ? Do we hear the " assembly" in our streets- s at midnight ? Do we see fathers of families at work in the trenches of our fortifications, aiding to build up ramparts for the protection of their wives and children ? — or is the valuable time of our citizens occupied in playing at soldiers, to their own great inconvenience, and to the delight of their mocking opponents alone ? What is our revenue ? Wo raise in this town of Auckland fne or six tomes a s much as was collected in the whole of ISew Zealand at that time, hi the Treasury solvent ?

Does any one hesitate to [take the notes of the Government at their declared value ? lb our excellent Treasurer ever obliged, in these days, to offer the public creditor a pinch of snufl' instead of his money, and request him to " call again, tomorrow ?" And the land — how is the land ? The l.aud is, I rejoice to say, no longer being scrambled for ; Sir George Grey nobly placed himself in the gap, and turned back the tide of cupidity and selfishness which the penny and ten shillings an acre proclamation had let in upon the Native lands and upon the Native people. Here was fought the great battle of his Government; from the vanquished in such a contest he could expect nothing but bitter hatred, and the measure has been filled and oversowed. Time has shewn, and will still further prove the wisdom of that proceeding, and when the personal animosities which it produced shall have been buried or forgotten, it will be universally allowed that he has done his duty. With reference to the pecuniary aspect, the least important, of this vexed question, I may note, in passing, that land divided only by a roadway from some ten shilling purchases, realized for the revenue, the other day, some £15 or £20 per acre. Well, as I have said, the scramble is done ; the naughtiest boys, who were loudest in their cries for " more," have got knocked over the knuckles, and are very wroth : a Land Fund is again in existence. Now, although the present employment of that Fund is an improper one, and its proposed XiutXire Application an imperial fraud, it would be -as unjust to charge Sir George Grey with the fault of a system which he lias no power to alter, as to say that he was accountable for the misfortunes under which we lay when he arrived amongst us. He is reported to have called himself " the great Public Officer of a great Empire;" but we all know that his actual condition in reference to his immediate masters of the Colonial Office might be described in terms less sounding but more true. It will be conceded that at no time was agriculture in a more prosperous condition. The land which was, six years ago, a barren waste, is now a smiling garden ; and the surprised traveller finds miles of admirable road running between thriving hedgerows, through rich pasture stocked with cattle, and fields of grain, giving such promise as makes glad the heart of the husbandman. Liberal, most liberal arrangements have been made to encourage the pastoral interests, and in no colony or country, of which I have heard, are such inducements held out for the discovery of mines and the exploitation of minerals— a lease for 21 years, at a nominal rent, and with a trilling royalty, being offered to the individual who shall j first prefer acclaim to any spot containing these treasures. Where is the Protectorate ? Demolished ; and in its place have been established Colleges where the Native youths receive every necessary instruction, and whence issue apostles of civilization and industry, who scatter good seed throughout the land. Instead of expending the proceeds of their labour, as under former lauded Governments they were induced to do, in purchase of guns and ammunition, the Arms Imputation Ordinance, which Sir George Grey had iirst the courage to proclaim, by putting a stop to that traffic, has allowed them to apply their means to better uses, and they have now acquired large property in sailing-vessels, in cattle and horses, mills, and in abundant European clothing, which is fast displacing the filthy blanket and the daubing of ochre. Hospitals have been erected at the great centres of population, where kind treatment and medical care are assured to them, and the judicious admixture of firmness and benevolence which has characterised his Excellency's policy towards then* has converted open foes, or doubtful and lukewarm adherents, into firm friends, has enabled them to advance from comparative barbarism to the rank of industrious and useful people, and from being the terror of the colonists has rai&ud them up to be the righthand and the hope of the colony. I fear, sir, that I should trespass too much upon your space did I proceed further in the enumeration of the acts which have been done, having a tendency to the promotion of our material prosperity. It will be sufficient for the present pnrpose if I have shown that all has not been barren, — that permanent peace has been secured, — that public credit has been re-established, — that tlic revenue has been revived and vastly increased, — that the Land question has been disposed of, — that every possible encouragement, by the construction of roads, and facilities for internal communication has been afforded to the agricultural interests, — that inducements the most liberal are offered to those who would engage in pastoral pursuits, — that care has been taken that those who add to the public wealth by the discovery of minerals shall not lose their labour, and that the interests and advancement of the aborigines — by far the most important sectionjof the people — have been watchfully guarded and faithfully promoted. If I add, that in pursuance of -what we nitist suppose to be a comprehensive plan of action carefully developed in the first instance, and manfully worked out in the midst of distractions, and in the face of an opposition which required no common courage or firmness to resist, His Excellency is now, having removed almost every obstable to its progress, about to hand over the provincial, as he has already handed over the Municipal Government, to the people themselves, I think I may venture to entreat the consideration of the colonists to this view of the subject. The question of the success or failure of Sir George Grey's Government will be decided, in that quarter where it is most important to him that a right conclusion shall be arrived at, by the grand results of his administration, and nothing that a newspaper shall publish, an individual write, or a packed meeting resolve, will be able effectually to shake the brilliant testimony of these witnesses ; but a grave charge of injustice and ingratitude will fairly lie against us if we accept, by a silent acquiescence in it, the judgment pronounced by a small^ party, as being the general and genuine expression of public feeling with regard to the matter in issue, or permit it to be recorded that we reojnited substantial service by continued abuse, fw" an enlightened and earnest desire to promote our interests by a sullen and stupid determination $6 obstruct every project, because it happened to be initiated by the Governor. It has occurred that, on one or two former occasions, 1 have ventured to offer my opinion upon current political topics, and those who condescended to reply to me have, in the approved style, attributed unworthy motives, and used very hard words : I have been called a " creature," and a " timescrver," and a "placehunter," &c, &c— The vocabulary is rich. I notice this matter only because I am anxious, on the present occasion, to appear as an unbiassed witness, and it will not therefore, I hope, be deemed impertinent, if I declare that I have no personal acquaintance with Sir George Grey ; that I have never, excepting the salutations of the day, exchanged a dozen \vord3 with him ; that if I have any personal feeling towards him, it is one not of liking ; and that I neither seek nor require place, office, distinction, or patronage whatever. I hold, moreover, the somewhat heterodox opinion that, looking at the way in which oflices have been filled and distinctions conferred by Government during the past twelve years, when a man of talent and honesty accepts the one or the other, the honour and advantage are at least mutual. My object in this communication is to give the shuttlecock a fillip from this end of the room— and if I am not singular, and I know I ara not, in my views, to induce others to come to my aid, to remind my fellow-colonists how readily, how naturally almost, political acts the most praiseworthy are distorted when viewed through the medium of prejudice or passion : and, remembering the old tale of the astronomer, who astoni&hccl the world

by declaring that he had observed an elephant in the moon, but which proved to be no more than a mouse which had insinuated itself between the glasses of his instrument, modestly to suggestto our local discoverers of political monstrosities that there may possibly be something wrong in their telescopes, I am, Sir, yours, &c,