Military Establishment.

New Zealander, Volume 7, Issue 590, 10 December 1851, Page 3

Military Establishment.

Copy of a Despatch from the Right Honorable Earl Grf,v, to Governor Sir Charles A. Fna Roy. Military.— No. 50. Downing-street, 7tb April, 1851. Sir,— -I have duly received and laid before the Queen, your Despatch No. 180, of the 10th of October la«t, with the address therein enclosed from the LegislatiTe Council of the colony of New South Wales ; but I have to express my regret that I have not been able to advise Her Majesty to accede to its prayer. If it be true that the necessity of an efficient Police is owing to the former penal character of the colony, and to its vicinity to another colony to which convicts are still sent, an opinion which, I believe, would on investigation be found to be erroneous, the Legislative Council baa omitted, on the other side, to remember tliat the great wealth and prosperity which the colony of New South Wales has attained, '.ire mainly owing to the large expenditure of this country in maintaining the former Convict Establishment, and to th<? cheap convict labour of which the colonists had the benefit for so many years. Looking to the rate of wages and of interest on capital in the colony, winch are both much higher than at home, while the taxation is much lighter, I do not think that it would bo consistent with justice that Pailiament i should be asked to vote money derived from the taxes paid by the people of Great Britain and Ireland, for the purpose of relieving the inhabitants of New South. Wales from a charge incurred for their own benefit, and which they are well able to bear. — 1 have, &c, Grey. Governor Sir Charles A. Fttz Roy, &o.