GOVERNOR FITZROY.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 36, 14 June 1845, Page 3

GOVERNOR FITZROY.

[From the Morning Chronicle, December 13.] ' Does any one know anything of Captain Fitzroy, the Governor of New Zealand'? Where .was he educated f Where has he lived all his 'ftavs ? OF a truth we do not ask these questions without reason : for, from all we hear of his proceedings, he seems to us to be a phenomenon* whose 1 rearing, in these days of ours, must tie well worth studying. We know that when a colonial government is vacant, Lord Stanley never fills it up in a hurry, but conscientiously takes pains to find out the most incompetent man there is to be got ; but we did riot conceive' it possible for him to have found, at this time of day, a man who could venture on absurdities so outrageous as those which Captain Fitzroy has been enacting. What do you think of starting a young colony with a Bank Restriction Act ? This is his- last feat. On looking into the financial condition of his island, he discovered an unpleasant discrepancy between the income and the expenditure. The former could by no means be made to keep within £15,000 of the latter. A plain, common-sense man, such as colonial governors used to be in the days of good Queen Bess, would have thought it most natural to bring the expenditure down to the income : for, after all, it would seem as if £20,000 a-year was enough to be spent by a colony containing less than 15,000 souls — at least when it has not more to spend. But Captain Fitzroy seems to think that young colonies, like young men of quality, ought to commence their career by running in debt. So he determines to run in debt to the tune of £15,000; and in order to do so, he issues his 1.0.U.'5, or. as he calls them, " debentures" to that amount. The colonists, to whom these things were offered, naturally began to consider how long it would be before they were likely to be turned into cash. The state of New Zealand is (thanks to the Colonial Office !) anything but such as to give promise of an increase of revenue that would admit of a payment of debts out of the resources of the colony : and as £2,000 worth bills drawn by the preceding Governor had just come back dishonoured by the Home Government, it did not seem very certain that the new debt would be discharged by the mother country. In short, the debentures were depreciated as soon as issued. The Governor determined that this depreciation must be stopped ; so he convokes his Legislative Council, composed of three government officers, one newspaper editor, one auctioneer, and one general merchant ; and bids them pass a bill for making these debentures a legal tender ! Standing orders are suspended ; the next day but one the Bill is law, and New Zealand is blessed with an inconvertible paper currency ! — No ; that phrase is not strong enough — with an issue of " assignats 7" That this should be done in the year 1844 by any man who had ever heard talk of a Bunk Restriction Act, or who had ever looked into a book about the French Revolution, and read of the assignats and their fearful results — that it should be done, not by an inmate of Bedlam, or Birmingham, but by an ex-member .of Parliament, appointed by a Government of which Sir Robert Peel is the head — is enough to excite wonder and indignation. That any man should be found who can believe that making assignats a legal tender will prevent their depreciation, is almost inconceivable. But the crowning monstrosity of the whole remains to be told. We have long seen, in this country, that if you are to have paper money at all, you must allow its issue only in notes of such an amount that they will not be likely to come into the circulation of the poor. We have seen, in the United States, the fatal consequences of allowing the dollar or half-dollar notes, which, in the slang of the day, were called " shin-plasters," to circulate even among those who need only take them if they , chose. What think you, then, is the denomination of these inconvertible notes, which Governor Fitzroy forces by law on the poor people of New Zealand i* In the act itself it is provided that they shall he Jive shilling and two shilling notes r Now only imagine the consequences of such a paper money. From the low denomination of these notes it is morally certain they must circulate largely among the labouring class and smaller shopkeepers. It is just as certain that from the hour of their issue there must be the •most fearful fluctuations in their value, just as the news of the day leads to the belief that the notes will be paid by the Home Government, or that they will not. Let it be supposed that the Home Government will pay them, and (unless the Governor gets reckless of money so easily coined, and depreciates them by issuing afresh batch after batch) they will be pretty nearly at par ; but let a report come that they will not be paid from home, and that the holder will have to keep them till the colony can pay them off, and what will they be worth ? Will the two -shilling note purchase a pennyworth of any commodity ? Why, Penn&ylvanian Bonds will be as -ingots compared to them. And, as they say was the case with the assignats, a housewife will have to carry her pocket full of them to pay for her day's marketing. We begun by laughing at this folly ; but is it

not more calculated to make one weep to see? such calamities brought* down on a whole community, by placing its destinies in the hands of a roan wbo could dream of committing such an. enormity as this ? We hate to use harsh language, and call names ; but what is the most charitable explanation you can give of Captain. Fitzroy's acts, except to set bun down for something very like an idiot ? In charity, let us believe that he has, as he tells us, thought the subject over as well as he can, and that the measure which he has proposed, and the reasoning by which he supports it, are really the best of which he is capable. Let us dismiss his condust with the pity which the mournful aspect of mental infirmity must excite in well regulated minds. But what feelings must we have towards the Minister who gave such a trust to such a man, knowing him to be- what he is, or who could place it in his hands without discovering him to be what he is ? "What shall we think of the levity of one who, entrusted with the grave responsibility of selecting those to whose wisdom and virtue he may best confide the weighty task of administering despotic power at the antipodes, tosses the trust into the hands of one who believes he is doing right in issuing inconvertible two-shilling notes. And what a commentary does it afford on the mode on' which we govern our colonies, if we contrast the principles which were being embodied in the legislation of the mother country at the veFy moment in which the colony was then administered on Captain Fitzroy's barbarous notions of political economy ! It will be seen that it was in May that the New Zealand Bank Restriction Act passed,- and it was inHhe same mouth of May that Sir Robert Peel, amid the applause of political economists, was upholding the convertibility of Bank paper. Why does Sir Robert Peel allow his principles- to be set at naught by the subordinate officers of his Government ? Or is he indifferent to the principles that are adopted, or the results that take place in our colonies ?

New Zealand. — We gave a specimen yesterday of Captain Fitzroy's wisdom in the government of New Zealand. He is a real Saneho Panza in his " island," only we have yet to see Captain Fitzroy exhibit those strokes of motherwit, which' elicit oar admiration for his prototype amid all his absurdities. But we cannot resist giving our readers some further account of the mode in which legislation is carried on in New Zealand, as appears from the colonial newspapers. What a pity, that in order to heighten the comedy of his story, Cervantes did not think of making Sancho meet his Parliament ! In a parliament composed of three officials, one newspaper editor, one auctioneer, and one general merchant, with the Governor having a vote, it is not to be apprehended that the opposition would be very unmanageable. But it would seem that the Constitution of New Zealand makes abundant provisions for checking the vagaries of opposition. * * * — Morning Chronicle, December 14.

We reprint, from the Nelson Examiner, the following adaptation of Mr. Clarke's despatch on the Wairau Massacre to the recent events at Korararika, merely changing the names, but leaving his arguments' entire. It is a complete reductio ad absurdum, and coupled with the calamitous events which are daily occurring, the consequences of the advice of this Missionary Ahithophel furnishes the best answer to the twaddle of the Australian, and Sydney Morning Herald : we are surprized to find so much ignorance and so many misstatements where we might hope for better things. We may also take this oportunity to express our astonishment at the presumption of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, who, in a letter addressed to Lord Stanley, censure the report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons in no measured terms. The letter (written by Mr. Dandeson Coates) concludes by stating "that without doubting the rightfnl claims of the natives, the only safe and satisfactory course to be adopted, if further information was required, would be, by a careful investigation of the claims on the spot, by competent persons, in whom the natives could be fairly expected to confide." Tn other words, that the creatures of Mr. Dandeson Coates and his Society should be invested with full powers over the destinies of New Zealand. Will these traders in religion never learn their proper position, and cease from intermeddling in matters out of their vocation ? — Have we not, already had enough of Land Cpmmissions ?—? — The Chief Protector of Aborigines to the Colonial Secretary of New Zealand. Sir, — It is my painful duty to enclose, for the information of his Excellency the Governor, a copy of the Report of the Protector of Russel district, relative to a serious affray which took place between her Majesty's European and aboriginal subjects at Kororarika, occasioned by the obstinate maintenance of a flag-staff by the Government authorities contrary to the express wish of the natives; and while I feel the deepest sympathy for the unfortunate sufferers and their sorrowing relatives, I cannot help deprecating and regretting the unconstitutional and murderous proceeding of the police magistrate, Captain Robertson, and their colleagues, in. attacking an inoffensive people, killing many of them, and forcing the remainder, in self-deience, in turn

; to attack their assailants, which terminates, asyou will perceive by reference to the enclosed' 'report, in the destruction of a great many Eu- • ropeans and aborigines, in the sacking and burn--ing of the town, and which threatens to bring about a general collision with the aborigines of 'the colony. The assertion of the aboriginal * chief -Heki •(who headed the native party), that-his hostility '-was only with the flag-staff, and to try the strength of the block-house, shows that he had *no wish to quarrel with the Europeans ; and *the subsequent conduct of the natives in allow--ing several white men to escape after the town had been sacked, and while any other savages would have been wild with unsubsided fury, -substantiates the same fact. I cannot say I am surprised at what has 1 taken place. I rather wonder at the -long for- ' bearance of the natives in the neighbourhood of *Kororarika, receiving, as they have done, such -deep provocation in the erection of a-flag-staff, 'in the imposition of <Justom duties, -and the • establishment of a police ; and I can only ticcount for this forbearance on the ground of his ■ Excellency having about six months ago abol- • ished the obnoxious Customs, and given them assurance that henceforward they should be 1 exempt from pa5 r ment of them. I am satisfied that such an unhappy affair as' -that of Kbrorarika would never have occurred < had not the natives been urged to it by' extreme provocation. It is a principle -with the natives,, in all cases of extremity between themselves and* -the Europeans, to act only on the defensive. ' " We will not," say they, " fire a ,gun at a Eur opean till the see our, people first murdered." The parties engaged in this rash and inhuman affray have inflicted a deadly wound on the interests of the colony by means of theunfortun-, ate impression with regard to native character which this circumstance, even after the fullest explanation, will create. They have occasioned • a breach of that confidence Jiitherto existing in the northern parts of New Zealand, which must ..prove alike injurious to both parties, and which 'time only will -repair^ and while I -entertain the 'fullest confidence in the integrity of the -natives, and am under no apprehension that any undue advantage will be taken by^theraof their late success, I at the same time experience the -greatest apprehension of danger from a small number of our countrymen, who, I fear, are using every possible means to induce his Excellency to reimpose the obnoxious Custom duties, and to persevere in maintaining the flag-staff and police, so odious in the eyes of the aborigines. The only step which I could suggest to her Majesty's Xsovernment in the present painful dilemma in which they are placed by this disastrous occurrence, is to avow in the strongest terms their disapproval of the resistance offered to the natives by the settlers >at Kororarika, and their deep horror of the very severe measures pursued by the aborigines. I think this concession (accompanied by the removal of all military display, the presence of soldiers serving no purpose but to -excite the 1 passions of the natives), humiliating as such a course might appear, more honorable and worthy the dignity of the British Crown than any other line of policy which could be devised, andthat most calculated to heal the breach and restore confidence. Whatever may be the intentions of her Majesty's Government relative to this unhappy affair, I need scarcely suggest to his Excellency the necessity of rigorous -measures to prevent an indiscriminate -revenge j by Europeans on natives, or point oat to him the pains that will be taken to circulate injurious reports of the aborigines residing in the vicinity of the Government settlement ; and I would also submit that inquiry should be instituted into the conduct of the survivors who took an active part in the affray, and, if found guilty, punished according to law, that the equitable manner in -which her -Majesty's Government view their recent proceedings, may be apparent to all, and especially to the natives. — I have the honor, &c, George Clarke, Chief Protector of Aborigines.