THE SOUTHERN PRESS ON MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN NATIVE AFFAIRS.

New Zealander, Volume XVIII, Issue 1712, 7 August 1862, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN PRESS ON MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN NATIVE AFFAIRS.

It will be seeu from our Parliamentary intelligence that the House, the greater part of Friday, was discussing this question. The whole of yesterday it was similarly occupied; and the result of tho two days' debate left the matter iu tho same position it was iu before so much debating power had been devoted to its elucidation. Amidst the heaps of arguments for and against the motion, tho littlo resolution itself was completely hidden from view. There was great danger, indeed, of it being lost sight of altogether. Yet with all this talking, the kernel of the whole matter could have heen put in a nut-shell; and tho question the House was asked by tho Ministry

to decide, the three parties most directly interested had, without the leave of the House, decided for themselves, and in a manner not in accordance with Ministerial views on the subject. If the Home Government did not intend that Sir George Grey should administer Native affairs, why did they send him here? If the Natives did not think he was to administer them, would they have Welcomed his arrival? If the colonists did not wish ho should do so, why did they also rejoice at his coming? It was not because he was a great General that he was sent here to terminate the war, but because he was the man of all others best qualified to solve the Native difficulty. This was why he was sent by the Home Government, and this was the reason why his re-appointment to the administration of the affairs of this Colony was hailed with such lively feelings of satisfaction alike by settlers and Natives. There is nothing to prevent Ministers giving Sir G. Grey advice on Native, as on other questions, and there Avas nothing in Mr. Fox's resolution that would have compelled him to be guided by it if he did not choose to be so. Sir Georgo Grey says, in effect, if tho Ministers insist upon a Native policy that meets not my approval, I shall have to resort to other advisers. He will not be a tool or his Ministers, however willing Ministers may bo to bo tools of his. Ho could not if he would; and quite right, too, under the present circumstances of the Colony, and ' having regard to the special purpose for which ho was sent to it by the Home Government. If a peace, " not temporary and precarious, but well-grounded aud lasting," had been secured, then the administration of the whole internal affairs of the Colony might be confided to Responsible Ministers, but such a peace has not yet been achieved. Sir George Grey tells us, in one of his despatches to the Duke of Newcastle, why he wished to place Native affairs under the nominal administration of Responsible Advisers, and those Advisers well know that so far as a Native policy is concerned their power would be only nominal. They had no ambition to take the administration of Native affairs out of Sir Georgo Grey's hands; it was tho patronage only that they were anxious to retain in their own. If we are mistaken in this, wo are not mistaken in believing that, in the opinion of a large majority of the settlers in New Zealand, such Native policy as they would initiate would be ruinous to the Colony. As iu times past His Excellency called to his aid a Nominee Council, virtually without power, to divide with him the responsibility of legislating for the Colony, so now he would accept the services of an Executive Council, similarly circumstanced, to administer Native affairs, and for a similar purpose.— Advertizer, July 29.

Tho debate on Mr. Fox's motion relative to Ministerial Responsibility, which commenced on Friday morning, terminated last night at half-past 11 o'clock in a virtual defeat of the Ministry, aud in less than a quarter of an afterwards they had resigned.

Unless Ministers had chosen to do as the Stafford Ministry so often did in 1861—> abandon their resolution aud accept that of their opponents, —no other course but resignation was open to them. As we stated in last Friday's issue, Ministers had resolved upou a strictly parliamentary course; and we aro happy to find that they did not avail themselves of the loophole afforded by moving the " previous question," although it was ostensibly done by an opposition member for that very purpose.

The late hour at which the debato terminated prevents us from reporting it to-day, however briefly. Wo thereforo meanwhile place before our readers the surroundings of the resolution. Last session after the announcement of Sir George Grey's re-appointment, the Assembly became alarmed lest he should suspend tho Constitution. He had never worked with a responsible Ministry during any of Ins Governorships, and a large portion of the Assembly believed he would not do so now—that under the peculiar circumstances of the Colony, he would rule with a high hand and entrust the Government to permanent officers, irresponsible to any one but himself. They voted £IO,OOO for his immediate use in carrying out such a native policy as he might frame, but its expenditure was only to take place under the advice of his Executive Council. They also passed resolutions for tho guidance of the Ministry when Sir George Grey arrived, distinctly affirming the necessity of subjecting native affairs to ministerial responsibility. When Sir George Grey arrived, the first thing he did was to consult Ministers on the desirability of entrusting native affairs to their management. The resolution of tho Assembly was fully acted up to by him, and from that day to this, he has consulted Ministers on every thing; entirely sweeping away the old and irresponsible Native Department. On the system of responsibility in natives affairs the Government of the country has been carried on for the last eight or ten months; but judging from last night's division it may probably continue to be so carried on no longer. Tho Opposition, last week, wanted to know the exact relations in which Ministers were to stand towards his Excellency for the future. On Thursday, Mr. Fox tabled a motion, essentially the same as that of last Session under which they had been acting. The Opposition took exception to it, and declared that they would have nothing to do with Native Affairs—Sir George Grey ought to advise himself, at any rate they would not take upou themselves tho responsibility of advising him. They would vote him money to spend as he liked and as much as he wanted. They would consent to his being a Dictator for a year, liko tho old Roman Dictators; with tho exception that unliko them, if he did not do what was right, they had no intention of proposing to cut off his head. Such men as Mr. Stafford and Mr. Weld, forgetting all their work of years to effect the subjugation of Native matters under the control of the colonists, thus met the offers of his Excellency to consult the colonists'representatives on all occasions. Turning their backs on the man, who of all others is the man for his position as Governor in an emergency like this, they profess to bo willing to offer him the few thousand pounds he asks; (less by the way, than what they voted in previous sessions) but tell him that he must bear all tho burden of the care, anxiety, and responsibility connected with restoring this country to peace, without looking to his ministry for other than money help. Can we wonder if Sir George were to express in words, what certainly he must feel in his heart, " thy money perish with thee." The Opposition moved no amendment, to Mr. Fox's resolution. They would not comI mit themselves to nuytluug; no, not as it

afterwards appeared, even to a negativing of Mr. Fox's resolution. Late last evening Mr. Curtis, of Nelson, moved "the previous question," which, when put by the Speaker at half-past eleven, was carried—the votes being equal (22); tho Speaker giving his casting vote (as he was bound by parliamentary usage to do, no less than by his individual views) iu favour of Mr. Curtis. The "previous question" is a form of motion used to get rid of another motion without negativing it. By many members on all sides this Was looked upon as a loop hole for the Ministry—that by deciding, as the House did • last night, that Mr. Fox's resolution should not be put, all chance of defeat was got rid of; placing Ministers in the flame position as they were before Mr. Fox's resolution was tabled. Several members who have overy wish that the Ministry should remain iu power, voted with Mr. Curtis under this impression. But as we said last Friday, Ministers were not willing to be content with merely escaping from actual defeat, they desired to carry their resolution; and as the House has now decided that Mr. Fox's resolution is not to be put to it for an expression of their opinion—as the Ministry have not carried it, they could do nothing else than resign. They could only resolve to conduct the business of the country with the hearty consent of the House, and not on an implied sufferance.— lndependent, July 29.

THE SECRET. The Opposition, led by Mr. Stafford and Mr. Weld, and personified by a Mr. Curtis, who moved the amendment, have been asked again and again why they are nt»w stultifying themselves, and after having steadily for ten or twelve years clamoured for constitutional rights and Ministerial responsibility, why they now repudiate even the amount of responsibility they had in the last session obtained and accepted? Not one of them ventured to give an explanation of their inconsistency. Twitted and bearded with their flagrant political treachery, they held their unruly tongues so far as the secret was concerned, and indulged those same tongues in vituperating the individual members of the Cabinet, according to the old lawyer's maxim, " a bad case, abuse the plaintiffs attorney." It must have been a hard and tough hide that did not wince under Mr. Fitzherbert's lash when he reminded the House on Monday night that the very day on which the appointment of Sir George Grey to the Governorship was announced last year to the House, they proceeded to vote £IO,OOO for Native purposes, and added the remarkable rider that the money waa to be expended by the Governor in Council, that is, with the advice of his Ministers. And again, several supporters of the Government resolution asserting the great principle of Ministerial responsibility, reminded the Opposition that the terms of the resolution were almost identical with their own resolutions of last session as proposed by Mr. Dillon Bell. In vain did Mr. Fox remind Mr. Stafford of his rhetorical flourish in a speech in the debate on the reply to the address in 185(5,* in which he said that a man of an '' aspiring" mind would not condescend to take office unless he had a clear voice in the management of Native affairs. It was all in vain ; —no one would let the cat out of the bag—no one would speak out to the real meaning of this political treachery. Mr. Fitzgerald indeed made a good gues3 at the secret; and Mr. Carter and Mr. Fitzherbert followed close upon the same scent, when they said that the fear of having to pay the cost was at the bottom of it, and for base considerations of money those high constitutionalists Messrs. Stafford ami Weld, and ''the coming man," the mover of the amendment, Vlr. Curtis, had sold their political birthrights. Aye, but this is oidy half tne secret. Honourable members of Legislature do not dare to say all they think ; even the pluckiest fence at truth. The fourth estate, the Press, is freer to speak out, and reveal the whole we know. We are behind the scenes ; and we are the real Mr. Punch inside the box, laughing and singing and talking to our heart's content, while Messrs. Stafford and Cracroft Wilson, CB., are the figures that dance before the public, and Mr. I urtis is the little dog chat barks. But the secret, the whole secret, — what is it ? It is neither more nor less than this, that the Opposition have forgotten the panic of last year, and want to plunge the country again into War at Taranaki, and at the Imperial expense, without a particle of Colonial Responsibility. The BKCRKT is out.

The debate on Mr. Fox's resolution on Ministerial responsibility in Native affairs which was adjourned to Mouday at noon, was resumed on that day and continued until near midnight, before it was finally brought to a close. About eight o'clock in the evening the previous question was moved by Mr. Curtis of Nelson, and when at midnight a divisi >n took place, the numbers were found to be equal, being 22 on either side, and the Speaker gave his casting vote with the noes (that is for the previous question) according to Parliamentary usage which, he said, in this instance agreed with his own views as a representative. The House then adjourned. Yesterday, at 12 o'clock, after some formal business, Mr. Fox explained to the House that in consequence of the vote of the previous night, the Ministry had felt it due to their own self-respect and to the expression of opinion by the House, to tender their resignations to His Excellency, who had been pleased to accept them, and that they only held office until the appointment of their successors. The tenor of the late debate and the conferences they had had with their supporters had convinced them they were unable to command the support of a majority of the House sufficient to enable them to carry out their Native policy, and under these circumstances they had felt bound to adopt this course. His Excellency had been advised to send for Mr. Stafford because he was formerly Prime Minister and because he was the leader of the party opposed to the policy of the Ministry, and as that gentleman was not there in his place, he supposed he was engaged with His Excellency. The House then adjourned to five o'clock to-morrow (this evening). In the Legislative Council, Mr. Sewell made a similar announce.i ment to its members.

Formation op the Ministry.—Various reports are in circulation with reference to the formation of the Ministry, but up to the pre-

* As the passage it worth preserving, we extract it from the report of Mr. Stafford'* speech in the New Zealantler, of May 14, l«nO:—'*Thcn as 10 the reservation by His Excellency of the administration of Native affairs, fur contenting to which my hoti. friend has been taunted, 1 would on.eive tliat had I, in accordance with the aspiring character with which the lion, member for Wangaoul has ascribed to me, been desirous of administering the government of iho Colony, I frankly admit that that reservation woulu have prevented me from undertaking ir. For the Native question being abstracted, I can scarcely recognize, after the routine conduct of the Government has emerged from the confuiion in which it lias been for some time enshrouded, any subject left to the General Government to deal wi:h of sufficient importance to attract one aspiring for office."

sent time we believe no definite arrangements have been made. All that is known at present is that Mr. Stafford was sent for, aud has been unablejto form a Ministry, and Mr. Fitzgerald has since been in communication with His Excellency. We presume the arrangements will be completed before the meeting of the House this evening, but it seems'probable that the Fox Ministry will be reinstated m office with greater strength than Spectator, 80th.

[From Ihe " Nelson Examiner'.* Corre»pond<mt.] July, 29th, 1862. As I am writing a Ministerial crisis is upon us. Mr. Fox this morning announced, in the House of Representatives, that he and his colleagues had tendered their resignation, and that it had been accepted by his Excellency. The immediate cause was a division ou a hazy resolution, proposed by Ministers with reference to the question of " responsibility." The motion was met by the previous question, and the division was' against Ministers by the Speaker's castiug vote, the numbers being twenty-two on each side, two paired off and six members absent. Mr. Fox, in announcing his resignation to the House, stated that il was not merely on account of the defeat of the previous night, but owing to the wsmt of a sufficient ;mdi compact support in the Legislature, and the consequent impossibility of carrying on the necessary business of the session with any satisfaction to himself, the Governor, or the country. The history of the affair is this. Mr. Wood, the Colonial Treasurer, overflowing with figures and praiseworthy eagerness for distinction, had expressed his intention of executing suel, the financial statement, at an early day, but had been met by the reminder had it is usual for a Ministry to take an early opportunity of giving some general information as to their past action, present position, and future intentions; and as no such information had been given on the occasion of the address in answer to the Governor's speech, which, as one of them described it, was an " indistinct utterance," it was rh'ht that some other occasion shoukd be taken before Mr. Wood's statement was laid before the House. To this Mr. Fox readily consented, and named the first reading of the " Native Lands Bill" as the occasion. He made his statement accordingly on Tuesday evening, the 22nd inst. You will find this speech fully reported in the Wellington papers, and evidently corrected by the speaker. It was a temperate speech, not at all provocate of party spirit, if such had been ever so wakeful. But it indicated much uncertainty if not confusion of idea, on the " responsibility" question, and though no debate arose upon it at the time, this dubious stßfce of relations between the Governor and his Ministers as to the authorship and responsibility of native policy attracted attention, and added to the uneasiness which had arisen before to all readers of the memoranda and despatches laid on the table by Miuisters. On the following day Major Richardson, Superintendent of Otago, introduced some resolutions on the state of Taranaki. His speech was a little discursive, but generous in spirit and full of sense and humour. It was delivered in excellent style. One amusing passage was a comparison between the present native policy, as published to exotric disciples, and the theory of Lord,Monboddo or his modern follower, Mr. Charles D.irwi.i, the naturalist, which Major Richardson described as the theory that if you throw a hen overboard some distance off shore it will become a duck in its efforts to reach the land. And he concluded with eloquent warnings from Indian history on the wisdom of self-assertion, and the folly of placing confidence in half civilized races that have not had conviction of our power. To return from this digression. During the debate on Major Richardson's motion, the doubt which existed as to the actual position of Miuisters found voice, and, in answer to an appeal from Mr. Weld, the Postmaster-General spo'ce of some resolutions which the Ministers, on assuming office, had prepared for their owa guidance, and it was ag r eed that these or th,'ir substance should be proposed to the House for acceptance. Mr. Fox reiterated his advice to the House not to attempt to define what, he said, was, in its nature, undefinable. But the House at large seemed to consider the variation between the impressions of Mr. C. Fortescue and Sir George Grey, who hold that Government in native matters is being conducted on the same plan as in all other affairs, and those of the Ministers, was too great to be left without discussion. And so, on Friday, a resolution was brought down. A debate ensued, which was adjourned near midnight, and resumed on Monday in a special sitting, and ended, at about midnight, by the motion for the previous question being carried against the Ministry. The debate was very well sustained. Few of the speeches were at all declamatory, the subject was treated, as it needed to be, in an argumentative way in twenty out of the twenty-five speeches. Against the motion the best speeches were those of Messrs. FitzGerald, Weld, Gillies, Domett, and Carleton; and, in its favour, Messrs. Bell, Fitzherbert, audFeatherston. The arguments of its supporters may be summed up in this, the colony had consistently claimed to conduct native affairs from the first" meeting of the Assembly till the end of last session; that Sir George Grey had reckoned or. the existing arrangements; an I that such was the intermixture of the races that no one could distinguish Maori from European affairs, or Colonial from Imperial questions ; that the colony had a duty, a trusteeship, which it could not lay down without disgrace; that the participation of the European colonists in the native government was essential to the success of any policy; jand that to abdicate this participation would be misconstrued by the natives. It would also be interpreted by the Home authorities merely as a sneaking attempt to wriggle out, ou money considerations, of a position long coveted and struggled for; aud the boast of the colony, that its Legislature was of a higher stamp than those of the sister colonies, would be ridiculously falsified. On the other side, it was contended that, from the earliest days, the colonists had not been allowed to control the Government in its relations with the natives; thn a party in the colony, including Bishop Selwyn, Sir W. Martin, and others, had represented the granting of such control as a step fatal to the Maori; tlutt, out of this policy and these representations, the present disaffection aud trouble arose ; and that the whole colonization of the country had been shaped in part by and under the influence of them. That, as long as Imperial troops were needed for our internal defence, it was a mere sham to say that we had control, or could have it. The Imperial voico, speaking through the Governor, must be potential as long as troops were here. If any evidence of this were needed, we had it in the very fact that Sir George Grey, and no other man, had been sent eut as Governor. We might talk of responsibility, and might and must have it, but it was folly to contend that we had active control. To devise

schemes and pass resolutions for giving it wsj to deceive ourselves, and to screen the Governor from that responsibility to public opinion here and at home, which is the only real hold on him the colony possesses. At the same time, the colony must meet the financial side of the matter not in a huxtering spirit but "with confidence in the Imperial Govern, ment, and in z liberal manner, and must help his Excellency in the departmental administra! tion responsibility to him, as far as our judgments would allow us to co-operate. 11 , July 80. It was known, almost immediately after the division, that Ministers would resign, although Mr. Wood had risen and announced his financial statement for the following day. It Ba jj among those whojknow most about it, that Mr Sewell had foreseen before the debate began! certainly betore it ended, that a change of some sort must take place. No business couM be got through the Lower House, and the Upper was little better. Ministers had not got the leadership ; every one on all sides undertook to criticise what was brought before the house in the shape of bills; and the unfortunate minister in charge of one, was all but deserted by his colleagues when in committee. Thus the Crown Grants Bill, intended to • empower local boards to sign on belialf of the Crown, was torn «lraost to pieces. A Crown Lands Bill, affecting, in some degree, the Provincial powers over the waste lands, and conferring certain powers on the Commisioneri for ejecting uul awful occupants, &c., met so determined an opposition from Mr. FitzGerald. a supporter or at least a * frienu" of the Ministers, that it had come to a dead standstill. In the other house, the criticisms of the Chief Justice bad produced a similar congestion among the law bdis of Mr. Sewell, and'loomingin the immediate future, stood the pro. position to grant the sum of £50,000 for native purposes, for five years, over which a wrangle was inevitable. Then, Mr. Ward is understood to be leaving New Zealand shortly; and the administrative power of the Ministry, which, even with him, has not proved equal to "face to face" visitations, and the claims of the European settlements at the same time, weald have received a serious diminution, and one not easily replaced in the loss of that active and painstaking gentleman. So the Ministry used a sort of tactic 3 familiar to the admirers of the ring, it •? went down" to avoid the blow that it could not meet ; and so concluded a fresh round of the political fights of th« colony. Mr. Stafford was sent for by his Excellency, and is understood to have stated tltat his party was not stronger than that of Mr. Fox, and could not reckon on the influential middle party with any more certainty. He is supposed to have suggested Mr, FitzGerald, as occupying an independent position, personally popular, and esteemed for his brilliant parts. That gentleman is believed to have endeavoured for some time to form a coalition Ministry, of which he hi nisei f declined to be a member on the score of bad health and other private circumstances. On the meeting of the house this evening no statement or report of progress was made, but it is understood now that Mr. Domett has been requested to form a Government, and k it is even rumoured that he may make overtures to Mr. pox, and that, under the circumstances, the presence of the late Colonial Secretary will he acquiesced in by a majority of the late opposition, if by that means the services of Mr. Domett can be obtained. Few men in the house are so likely to disarm opposition. If Mr. Domett can succeed at all, and get through the urgent business of the session, it is nearly certain that a dissolution would strengthen hia hands in another Parliament.

The questions that the House deems urgent are, first and foremost, the condition of Taranaki and its people ; second, the legislation for enabling- the Governor to redeem promises made to natives, and for other parposes affecting the Maoris : third, the ameadment of the Miners Franchise Act ; &ni, fourth, the conferring of additional representation on Otago. Great troubles lie ahead, and it wiU be very difficult for any Ministry to weather the seat of Government qnestion ; but, if the present session be permitted to pass without bursting that shell in the legislature, earnest activity in the recess may supersede it, until at least the native difficulties are reduced within less formidable dimensions. Mr. Tancred has come to join .the Upper House, and Messrs. Cookson and Thompson the Lower Hous», by the Lord Worsley, this

afternoon,