The New Zealander. MR. FOX AGAIN.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 654, 21 July 1852, Page 3

The New Zealander.

MR. FOX AGAIN.

Be just and fear nut: Let all the ends thou ann'st at, foe thy Country's, Thy God's, and Truths.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, JULY 21, 1852.

AMONGST a few English papers which have reached us by the Raven, we have a New Zealand Journal of the 14th February, in ■which we find Mr. William Fox figuring very conspicuously, and—at all events, as far as Auckland is concerned —in a style scarcely, if at all, less discreditable than that in which he exposed himself in his slanderous book —" The Six Colonies of New Zealand." Our London contemporary publishes a long and formal document entitled " Minute on the Present Position of the Question of Self-Govern-ment in New Zealand; submitted to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, by the Honorary Agent of the Wellington Colonists." It would be a •waste of the restricted space at our present disposal to copy this in extenso. Those ■who know Mr. Fox's usual method of boasting 1, exaggerating, and insinuating mischief, will have little difficulty in correctly conjecturing- its staple. They will take for granted, without being told, that Mr. Fox describes the Settlers' Constitutional Association at Wellington as " the mouth-piece of the great bulk of the colonists, representing the opinions of at least four-fifths of the inhabitants;" and himself as the unanimously chosen and implicitly trusted oracle to " put Her Majesty's Government and the English public in possession of the views and wishes of the colonists." Mr. Fox's sketch of the history of " what has been going on in New Zealand," especially in relation to the subject of Self-Government, is, of course, only an epitome of what he has spoken at political meetings, written in the Independent, and afterwards reproduced in his book, about which most of the colonists know quite as much as tends to either pleasure or edification. We therefore pass all this by without comment. The main object of the Minute is to show that the Provincial Councils measure, (which is now about to come into operation), is regarded by the people of the entire colony with " repugnance," that in all the Settlements it has been "rejected," and that, if it be brought into effect, its " imposition" will be "against the express and almost unanimous wish" of the people. We cannot stop to follow Mr. Fox through his statements respecting the meetings held and the resolutions adopted on the subject in the South; our immediate object being —not to enter upon any new discussion of the question in its general aspects—but to exhibit Mr. Fox once more as a historian (save the mark!) of Auckland. In what professes to be an accurate narrative of movements, in the several Settlements, against the measure, the following paragraph appears :— "At Auckland, one of the largest public meetings ever there held, condemned Sir George's measure almost unanimously, and a memorial emanating from it to the Home Government, was most numerously signed, which cannot be further referred to because it is not printed with the other documents in the recent Parliamentary papers." Here, no production of the ingenious pencil of Mr. William Ferdinand Kendez Pinto Fox can excite much surprise: —the Auckland settlers who know how that ffenUeman has in his mendacious " Six Colonies" vilified their moral character, and traduced the agricultural and commercial capabilities and progress of their Settlement—and done so in defiance of the most demonstrable and notorious facts,—, will not wonder at anything proceeding from him. But what will the honorable and truth-loving people of England think of this man, who thrusts upon them vaunting claims to be recognised as a trusted and trust-worthy representative of New Zealand, when they learn that the whole of this statement, from beginning to end. is one unmingled tissue of unmitigated fiction ? There never was a Public Meeting, large or small, held in Auckland for the consideration of the Provincial Councils measure. We need not add, there never was a Memorial on the subject issued from one ! The case is in no degree altered by the circumstance that, in 1850, a Petition which—(amongst other things, particularly Provincial Separation)--prayed for a form of

Constitution modelled according to certain views expressed in Parliament by SirWm. Molesworth with reference to New South Wales, was signed by a number of the inhabitants ; for— passing by the point that that Petition did not directly or indirectly emanate from a Public Meeting — we have the conclusive fact that the Petition had been prepared, printed in the columns of the Southern Cross, and submitted for signature, before the first draft of the Provincial Councils measure was promulgated, and before it was publicly known that the scheme even existed in Sir George Grey's intention. No more striking evidence of this need be adduced than the fact (which doubtless is in the recollection of many of our readers) that, amongst the imputations thrown out by those who on its first appearance opposed the measure, one was tliat the draft had been published sooner than it otherwise would have been, in order to damage and counteract this very Memorial. Then, as to the reception which the measure meets with here at present, we are warranted in asserting in the broadest | terms that it is acceptance not rejection. No party claims for it perfection^ or regards it as more than a valuable instalment of Free Institutions and Self-Government : all parties ai*e now agreed in admitting that it possesses this degree of merit, and unitedly avow a willingness and a desire to work it for the good of the country. Any reader locally acquainted with Auckland and New Ulster will be convinced of this by looking through the sheet in which these remarks meet his eye. He will see that men of the most opposite political sentiments — including the very men whose names may first occur to him as probable (or at one time actual) opponents of the measure, — are now candidates for seats in the Povincial Council, or requisitionists to others to become candidates, or both. We refer to this in no paltry spirit of exultation because the views which we from the outset maintained have now come to be, substantially and practically, the views of the whole community. The gratification with which we regard it is derived from the belief which we did and do entertain that the measure is' capable of being turned to beneficial account for the general weal, and from the declared readiness of all parties to make the most and the best of it for that patriotic purpose. The same number of the New Zealand Journal states, on the authority of a pamphlet written by Mr. Fox " for circulation amongst the friends of New Zealand," that he (Mr. Fox) had in his " representative" capacity applied to Lord Grey for an interview, and that " his Lordship declined to recognise him as the representative of the colonists, or to receive any communication otherwise than in writing ;" whereupon the Journal proceeds to animadvert severely on Lord Grey's "haughty and arrogant treatment" of a gentleman whom the colonists had "delegated home." We need not say we concur in the strongest general condemnation of Lord Grey's overbearing and insulting conduct towards the colonies ; but in this particular instance, we can easily conceive that even a less dictatorial and more conciliatory ruler might have learned enough of the individual who sought the interview to induce his keeping him at as a great distance as possible, and requiring that Ms statements should be made in writing, so as that they might be subsequently examined and refuted if necessary — as we are thus able to refute that portion of his " Minute" which referf'to the district in which we are especially interested.