REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT FOR NEW ZEALAND—OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT, JUNE 1845.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume II, Issue 92, 17 June 1846, Page 3

REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT FOR NEW ZEALAND— OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THE DEBATES IN PARLIAMENT, JUNE 1845.

" New Zealand can never be speure of good Government, until its English settlers are put in possession of their birthright of Representative self government." — (Mr. Charles Buller.J "Whatever might be the dispositions of the persons appointed to the administration of affairs in the colonies, there would be danger of failing in obtaining improvement, if the whole administration of the colony emanated from authorities at home j no matter how judicious the person might be, who should be sent as a governor to the colony. Persons were often appointed to such offices, who had no experience in authority, and who often came into a description of society for which they were totally unfit, who had power over persons frequently of better education than themselves, such persons (the settlers) being in these cases obliged to live under as, degrading a despotism as it was possible for Englishmen to submit to." — (Mr. Moncktou MilnesJ " What I complain of is this, that instead of announcing a change in your measures — an alteration of the policy which, if it has not produced, has certainly not prevented this state of things, you are merely going to make a change in your Governor." " Let the settlers have something more resembling an Englishman's ideas of Representative Institutions than the Council of Land Jobbers which has hitherto served but to register the Governor's arbitrary ideas." — (Mr. Barkley.) " Let the House look to the origin of all the great colonies springing from this country. The old Colonies of America were charter colonies ; they had great and independent powers — powers of taxation — of making all appointments ; in fact, they were self-govern-ing colonies. Look at the results, they were founded in freedom, and only lost w, en that freedom was interfered with. Then, again, look to Canada and the West Indies, where Crown and Colonial office management prevailed. We had but recently, in the case of Canada a rebellion, and in the case of the West Indies constant troubles and constant expense. The future history of New Zealand would either resemble that of Canada, or in prosperity, that of the American colonies, just as we governed upon the principles of the Colonial office with its constant interference and meddling, or intrusted the powers of Government to local authority, to be guided by local and not party interests at horna — he came to the remedy to be applied — Her Majesty's Ministers were about to appoint a new Governor — he was to be appointed with large and discretionary powers, and not to be fettered with instructions. So far it was well, and it would have been better if one — though he was far from intending in any way to disparage Captain Grey — of higher standing, of known reputation, of higher rank had been appointed. Do what they would, however, they must emancipate the colony from the Colonial office ; they must lay the foundation of local Government, which, when left as free as possible, would like other coionies to which he had alluded, soon display the original energy oi the parent stock, and re-establish the settlers in their former prosperous state. All he condended for was this, that nothing could so speedily and so surely accelerate the ; prosperity of the colonies as their emancipa- j tion from the hands of the Colonial authorities at home, and their being left as free agents to j govern themselves, with as little interference ! from home as the | olitical relations of the mo- i ther country would permit." — {Mr. Hawes.) " I think that the Government should extend to New Zealand at a convenient time, and the sooner the better, that higher order of Co- i lonial Government termed Provincial Esta- ] blishments, which gives the power (as 1 have ; already stated) by Royal Commission and , Royal instructions, to make local Ordinances, to establish Courts of Law, Municipal lasti-

1 turions and ultimately to constitute Provincial Assemblies, and which forms altogether the Representative Constituiion of the British Colonies. I feel convinced that it will he impossible to organise and establish order in New Zealand, to rescue it from the serious evils with which that colony is menaced but by sending out a Governor or Governor-Gen-eral, with full powers to bring it lorward in this manner." — {Sir Howard Douglas.) '* They were told that the present Governor of South Australia was to be sent to New Zealand. He could not consider the selection made by the Government as altogether a wise one. One most essential thing in the New Governor would be, that he should have very little scruple in dismissing the highly pai J and incapable servants of the Government, by whose misconduct the present state of things had been produced. The duties of Government required in an infant settlement might be discharged by the colonists themselves, who had a stake in its welfare, either gratuitously, for the honour such functions conferred, or at all events for a small remuneration. The New Governor would require large and unlimited powers to restore order and the dominion of law in the colony. When that was accomplished, he hoped they would revert to the ancient wise policy of their ancestor?, arid allow the colonist to govern themselves. When he looked at what their ancestors accomplished two centuries ago under this system, and coutrasted it with the results of attempting to govern from Downing Street, a settlement at the antipodes, he must say experience was decidedly in favour of allowing a colony to govern itself. The Under Secretary for the colonies said there would then be no security for the natives ; it would have been well for the natives of New Zealand, if the colony had been self-gaverned Nothing could be worse for them than the state of anarchy that had been produced. Were that got rid of, nothing would be easier than to give them proper security. — (Lord Howick.J " What are to be your future Institutions'!! Our old habits and associations with respect to Colonial Government have been completely lost sight of, subsequent to the Quebec Act. Since that time we have only learnt to maintain in conquered colonies, the French, Spanish and Dutch Institutions we found there, and to establish penal colonies, the administration of all which had been been conducted by Orders in Council, giving power to absolute authorities to levy taxes, and execute the laws in force by treaty, or sanctioned by the Colonial Office without reference to popular control and opinion. Is it intended, as has here' to/ore been the case— for your Council is a mere mockery — to jersevere in this system with your colony of New Zealand ? It would be better, Sir, as far as the interets of this country are concerned, to allow the missionaries and the natives to re-assume their divided empire. Whatever blame may be justly imputable to Captain Fitzroy, it must be admitted that no other Governor could have succeeded under timilar circumstances. His successor, were he angel will fail with the same instructions and in attempting to carry on an absolute administration under the direction of the Colonial Office. Do you iuteud to persevere in the system of governing New Zealand from the Colonial Office, or as a penal settlement 1 Do you intend to extend to these settlers the right of British subjects of taxing themselves and of controlling the public expenditure ? Are they to have Municipal and Representative Institutions? Are you to continue your administration under the powers gi anted by thp 3rd and 4th of Victoria for the government of New South Wales and its dependencies, considering New Zealand as one of these dependencies, or are you to bring in a bill providing lor this new and independent colony ? The two cases most neaily resembling the establishment of our settlers in New Zealand, are those of the Wood Cutters, as they are called, in the Bay of Honduras, and of the Proprietary Government of the Hudson's Bay Company. You left the i Wood Cutters in the Bay of Honduras to manage their own affairs, levy their own taxes, appoint their Magistrates and Executive officers, and conduct the administration of justice, for many years under the nominal control of the Governor of Jamaica, appointing merely a Superintendent to command the military protection you sent them, and to see that no measures were taken contrary to the general principles of your law aud regulations respecting trade. Till questions arising from the state of slavery made interference on that point necessary, the administration was conducted satisfactorily to the colonists and their conventions in this country, and without expence or trouble to the Government at home. Troubles occurred some years ago in the Hudson's Bay Territory. The colonial administration of that day, acting with discretion and temper brought about a compromise of differences between rival parties, limited their interference to the arrangements, and confined in the hands, of that proprietary the self-government

of their own affairs, and of the immense region over which their authority extends, and you have had no appeal since, either for legislative measures, or money, or military assistance to control the native tribes and secure the lives and properties of your subjects in the country. And when I mention these two cases and compare the instruments of local administration in the settlers in Honduras | and Hudson's Bay, with the higher class of ! emigrants who went to New Zealand under the auspices of the Near Zealand Company, 1 can have no doubt that if you had acted on the same principle, and intrusted them with management of the affairs in the infant colony, you would have avoided the difficulties in which we are now placed. But how long is this absurd system to last ? Until further reinforcements are required, beyond the regiment you are now sending to check the threatened outrages of the natives, to suppress resistance from your own subjects to a yoke rendered intolerable by petty tyranny and oppression ? Ido not know that I should even counsel them to submission under a continuance of the vexatious folly that has brought them and their fortunes to the brink of ruin." — ( Mr. Edward Ellice.) " We are asked what are the institutions under which New Zealand is to be governed? And I say at once it is the wish of the Government here to give, on application being made, municipal institutions to all the settlements of the New Zealand Company. But it will be said that this is still an imperfect popular Government, and that after all representation may be necessary. lam not prepared to combat that proposition ; but I must ask the House to consider the peculiar circumstances of the case." — {Sir Jame* Graham.) ** I stated (when the colony of New Zealand was first founded) that a municipal constitution might be a proper prelude to a representative constitution. I regret that this has not been done. But if you propose to make your municipal institutions the preliminary to introducing in a year or eighteen months hence a representative constitution, then I say, you should fix your capital where the great body of the settlers are fixed, and then have your representative body headed by the Governor and those official persons in whom he can confide, sitting and voting in concert together. I bel eve, seeing what has been done by Captain Hobson, by Mr. Shonland, and latterly by Captain Fltzroy — blaming Captain Fitzroy, who was appointed by Lord Stanley, not more than the two other Governors, who were appointed by the preceding Government— but seeing the errors into which they have fallen — he dangers into which they have thrown the colony, I am of opinion that the voice of the settlers themselves — speaking through their own representatives — cau alone extricate you from the difficulties and embarrassments in which the colony is now plunged. You tell us that Captain Grey is to be the Governor of New Zealand ; and herein I differ from those who say that a man who has greater authority from having had a longer experience in command, should be appointed to the office. I think if you appointed a man of the rank and fame of Sir H. Pottinger for example, you must give him absolute authority ; you must give him for a time despotic power, And I for one, would rather have a man of inferior rank and name, not having so many years of experience, but assisted by the people of New Zealand themselves, than a person of higher authorities, who is to wield absolute and despotk authority. With a man like Captain Grey, if you give him good institutions to irork with, you may succeed in extricating the colony from its embarrassments, and in gaining the confidence and good will of the settlers from this country, and of the aboriginal natives." — {Lord John Russell.) With respect to the future Government o' this colony, I must say, that looking at thi distance at which it is removed from the sea* of Government at home, and considering tin great difficulty of issuing orders for its government in this country, I am for one strongly inclined to think, that a representative government is suited for the condition of the people of that colony. It has not the objections that might be applied to a penal colony. Speaking therefore on general principles, I think the government of that colony, in conversation with those immediately interested in its local prosperity, assigning to them the administration of its affairs, is a form of government well adapted for New Zealand. But considering the extent of the islands, it is no easy matter to introduce the principle of representative government, according to the construction we place upon it, lam strongly induced to think that the germ of a representative government ought to be in municipalities, widening their sphere by degrees according as the land becomes settled and peopled. 1 doubt whether that would not be a safer mode than that of establishing among so thin a population a representative government, that^ would require the people of Auckland and

Wellington to meet together, separated as they ate by such a great distance. That will be one of the subjects which will be referred to the consideration of the able man, whom we have appointed to govern that colony." — {Sir R. Peel.)

The Sweets of Office in Spain. — Queen Isabel has au extraordinary collection of sweets,—the most perfect museum of confectionary in Europe. Her Royal repository is perpetually vanishing, but not less frequently renewed ; and her conservators stuff something much better than beasts or birds—their Sovereign mistress. This pastrycook museum, which extends -over every apartment of the Palace, contains some most interesting specimens, —the tortas, -or tarts of Moron, the most celebrated in Spain, —the panes pintados, or painted buns of Salamanca,—ihe paschal ojalones, or carnival and Easter dainties,—the hard turrones of Alicante, composed of almonds, nutkernels, filberts and roasted chestnuts, intermixed with honey and sugar,—dulces of cocoa nut frosted with sugar,—roasted almonds—avellanas, a a peculiarly nice sort of filbert, whole and in powder,—cinnamon, pineapple kernels, jelly, blancmange, and custard,—gingerbread in its several varieties, and sugared rice in its sundry convolutions,—marmalade, jam, and blando de huevos, or sweetened yolks of eggs, — capuchinas, guindas (cherry brandy), barleysugar, imitation-walnuts, and sugarstick, alfajor, or spiced bread, and the delicious cheese jijona, pomegranate jelly, melocotones, Madrono strawberries, and other curious specimens. Perhaps the most striking characteristic of the youthful Majesty of Spain is, her relish and constant use of these bonbons and sweetmeats. Her papers on comfits strew the Palace, her bags of sugarplums visit the Council chamber, her dulces line the throne. The books of heraldry are not in her case * vain, which, as females have nothing to do with shields, inscribe their armoiial bearings *in a lozenge. If she is not ' the loveliest' she is inJeed ' the sweetest' Princess. When she is in a good humour, th 3 most remarkable cvi- * dence of amiability which she affords is distributing these bonbons freely amongst her ministers and the Palace Grandees. She does not ask whether these gentlemen have ' a sweet tooth,' but very naturally infers that what she likes herself must be pleasing to all the world. The degrees of Ministerial favour may be estimated by the number of presents of confectionary, and the minister of the Interior is first fiddle by right of four bags of sugarplums, till the minister of Grace and Justice produces five sticks of barleysugar. When she despatches business with her Ministers (which she does twice a-week), she despatches a prodigious quantity of sweets at the same time : and the confection of decrees, and discussion of dainties, proceed paripassu. On the night of the alleged violence, she gave a paper of bonbons to Olozaga; and the latter having mentioned this fact as a proof of his correct demeanour, the Palace put forth its version, which was, that the sweet meats dropped on the floor, and Olozaga picked them up and kept them.—Hughes' Revelations of Spain.

Australian and Polynesian Islands. —At a meeting of the Academy of Sciences, M. Serres presented a report on the observations and collections of Admiral Dumont D'Urville, on the inhabitants of the islands of the Southern and Eastern Oceans. The Admiral was of opinion that the inhabitants of New Holland, New Zealand, and otheis of the Australian and Polynesian groups belonged to the Ethiopic family (one ot the three great primitive divisions of the human race, viz., the Caucasian, or white division ; the Mongolian, or yellow division ; the Ethiopic, or black division). The Malays, and other people of the islands more properly Asiatic, belonged to the Mongolian division, or to I crosses between this and the Ethiopic. The fifty casts of heads which the Admiral had brought home from different parts were observed by M. Serres to be of the utmost value in determining the true character of these ! tribes ; and were the more important in a scientific point of view, since the aborigines were fast disappearing before the increase of the white and mixed races. Thus there are now only forty individuals existing of the aboriginal population of Van Diemen's Land, and only one birth took place among them in 1839 ; so that there is no doubt but that they will ultimately become extinct. It was true that the natives of other islands were of tribes very nearly aJHed to them. The Admiral considered that the various languages spoken in the Polynesian and Australian groups were only the remnants of dialects of a primitive tongue, common perhaps to them all, but now tptally lost. He observed that the superior races of the human species were at all points gaining rapidly on the inferior, and that the physical improvement of the human race was in progress.—Atheneeum.

Tresh Air. —Man acts strangely. Although a current of fresh air is the very life of his lungs, he seems indefatigable in the ex-

ercise of his inventive powers to deprive himself of this heavenly blessing. Thus he carefully closes every cranny of his bed-chamber against its entrance, and lie prefers that his lungs should receive the mixed effluvium from his cellar and larder, and from a patent little modern aquarius in lieu of it. Why should man be so terrified at the admission of night air into any of his apaitments ? It is nature's overflowing current, and never carries the destroying angel with it. See how soundly the the delicate little wren and tender robin sleep under its full and immediate influence, and how fresh and vigorous and joyous they rise amid the surrounding dew drops of the morning. Although exposed all night long to the air of heaven, their lungs are never out of order, and this we know by the daily repetition of their song. Look at the newly-born hare, without any nest to go to. It lives and thrives, and becomes strong and playful under the unmitigated inclemency of the falling dews of night. I have here a fine male turkey, full eight years old, and he has not passed a single night in shelter. He roosts in a cherry tree, and always is in primest health the year throughout. Three dunghill fowls, preferring i -this cherry tree to the warm perches in the henhouse, took up their airy quarters with him early in October, and have never gone to any | other roosting place. The cow and the horse sleep safely on the cold damp ground, and the roebuck lies down to rest in the heather, on the dewy mountain's top. I myself can sleep all night long, bareheaded, under the full moon's watery beams, without any fear of danger, and pass the day in wet shoes without catching cold. Coughs and cold are generally caught at the transition from an over-heated room to a cold apartment; but there would be no danger in this movement, if ventilation were properly attended to —a precaution little thought of now-a-days. —WatertotCs Essays | on Natural History.

Antonio's Taie. — M Monsieur," said Antonio, as we rode out of Colunga, " you are anxious to know the history of the gentleman whom you saw embrace me at the iun. Know, mon maitre, that these Carlist and Christino wars have been the cause of much misery and misfortune in this country, but a being so thoroughly unfortunate as that poor young gentleman of the inn, I do not believe is to be found in Spain, and his misfortunes proceed entirely from the spirit of party and faction which for some time past has been so prevalent. " Mon maitre, as I have often told you, I have lived in many houses and served many masters, and it chanced that about ten years ago I served the father of this gentleman, who was then a mere boy. It was a very high family, for monsieur the father was a general in the army, and a man of large possessions. The family consisted of the general, his lady, and two sons; the youngest of whom is the person you have just seen, the other was several years older. Pardieu! I felt myself very comfortable in that house, and every individual of the family had all kind of complaisance for me. It is singular enough, that though I have been turned out of so many families, I was never turned out of that; and though I left it thrice, it was of my own free will. I became dissatisfied with the other servants, or with the dog or the cat. The last time I left was on account of the quail which was hung out of the window of madame, and which waked me in the morning with its call. Eh Men, mon maiire, things went on in this way during the three years that I continued in the family, out and in ; at the end of which time it was determined that the young gentleman should travel, and it was proposed that I should attend him as valet; this I wished very much to do. However, par malheur, I was at this time very much dissatisfied with madame his mother about the quail, and I insisted that before I accompanied him the bird should be slaughtered for the kitchen. To this madame would by no means consent; and even the young gentleman, who had always taken my part on other occasions, said that I was unreasonable ; so I left the house in a huff, and never entered it again. j " Eh Men, mon maitre, the young gentleman went upon his travels, and continued abroad several years ; and from the time of his departure until we met him at Colunga, I have not set eyes upon, nor indeed heard of him. I have heard enough, however, of his family; of monsieur the father, of madame, and of the brother, who was an officer of cavalry. A short time before the troubles, I mean before the death of Ferdinand, monsieur the father was appointed captain-general of Coruna. Now monsieur, though a good master, was rather a proud man, and fond of discipline, and all that kind of thing, and of obedience. He was, moreover, no friend to the populace, to the canaille, and he had a particular aversion to the nationals. So, when Ferdinand died, it was whispered about at Coruna that the general was no liberal, and that he was a better friend to Carlos than Christina. Eh Men, it chanced that there was a grand fete, or festival, at Coruna, on the

water, and the nationals were there, and the soldiers. And I know not how it befell, but there was an emeute, and the nationals laid hands on monsieur the general, and tying a rope round his neck, flung him overboard from the barge in which he was, and then dragged him astern about the harbour until he was drowned. They then went to his house, and pillaged it, and so ill treated madame, who at that time happened to be enceinte, that in a few hours she expired. " I tell you what, raon maitre, when I heard of the misfortune of madame and the general, you would scarcely believe it, but I actually shed tears, and was sorry that I had parted with them in unkindiiess on account of that pernicious quail. " Eh Men, mon maitre, nous poursuivrons noire histoire. The eldest son, as I told you before, was a cavalry officer, and a man of resolution, and when he heard of the death of his father and mother, he vowed revenge. Poor fellow ! So what does he do but desert, with two or three discontented spirits of his troop, and going to the frontier of Galicia, he raised a small faction, and proclaimed Don Carlos. For some little time he did considerable damage to the liberals, burning and destroying their possessions, and putting to death several nationals that fell into his hands. However, this did not last long ; his faction ! was soon dispersed, and he himself taken and hanged, and his head stuck on a pole. " Nous tommes d4ja presque au bout. When we arrived at the inn, the young man took me above, as you saw, and there for some time he could do nothing but weep and sob. His story is soon told : — he returned from his travels, and the first intelligence which awaited him on his arrival in Spain was, that his father was drowned, his mother dead, and his brother hanged, and, moreover, all the possessions of his family confiscated. This was not all : wherever he went, he found himself considered in the light of a factious and discontented person, and was frequently ! assailed by the nationals with blows of sabres and cudgels. He applied to his relations, and some of these, who were of the Carlist persuasion, advised him to betake himself to the army of Don Carlos, and the Pretender himself, who was a friend of his father, and remembered the services of his brother, offered to give him a command in his army. But, mon maitre, as I told you before, he was a pacific young gentleman, and as mild as a lamb, and hated the idea of shedding blood. He was, moreover, not of the Carlist opinion, for during his studies he had read books written a long time ago by countrymen of mine, all about republics and liberties, and the rights of man, so that he was much more inclined to the liberal than the Carlist system ; he therefore declined the offer of Don Carlos, whereupon all his relations deserted him, whilst the liberals hunted him from one place to another like a wild beast. At last, he sold some little property which still remained to him, and with the proceeds he came to this remote place of Colunga, where no one knew him, and where he has been residing for several months, in a most melancholy manner, with no other amusement than that which he derives from a book or two, or occasionally hunting a leveret with his spaniel. " He asked me for counsel, but I had none to give him, and could only weep with him. At last he said, * Dear Antonio, I see there is no remedy. You say your master is below, beg him, I pray, to stay till to-morrow, and we will send for the maidens of the neighbourhood, and for a violin and bagpipe, and we will dance and cast away care for a moment.' And then he said something in old Greek, which I scarcely understood, but which I think was equivalent to, ' Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die !' " Eh Men, mon maitre, I told him that you were a serious gentleman, who never took any amusement, and that you were in a hurry. Whereupon he wept again, and embraced me, and bade me farewell. And now, mon maitre, I hare told you the history of the young man of the inn." — Borrov's Bible in Spain. The wife of a noble Venetian having witnessed the death of an only son, gave herself up to the most violent grief. A priest endeavoured to console her : — ■" Recollect, said he, the case of Abraham, whom God commanded to plunge his knife into the bosom of his only son and he was ready to obey without a murmur." " Ah, my good friend (she replied) God gave this command to ; he would not have required such a sacrifice from a mother."