EARL GREY'S MEASURES.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume III, Issue 201, 3 July 1847, Page 2

EARL GREY'S MEASURES.

The despatch which Earl Grey has addressed to the Governor of New Zealand is, unquestionably, a document of great ability and importance. As a colony New Zealand presents features of remarkable interest to the contemplation of the Englishman. It is rendered peculiarly striking by a consideration of its points of close resemblance to those which are prominent in the British isles. By its geographical and insular position, by its geological characteristics and resources, its capacious and excellent harbours, its healthy climate, fertile soil, and large afforested tracts of land, New Zealand seems to have been marked out by nature to fulfil the same glorious destiny in the other hemisphere, which, in our own particular — not to «peak of her national triumphs of civilization in more distant parts of thi universe — has been so magnificently accomplished by the imperial sway of Great Britain. Dependent as we are for our national supremacy upon the extent and strength of our colonies, the reckless indifference with which the home authorities have at times regarded them, particularly during their infantile state, is highly censurable, and scarcely to be believed. The consequence has been, that perplexing evils of considerable magnitude have sprung up, which could easily have been averted had the mother country paid but ordinary attention to the solemn duties naturally incident to, and coincident with, the assumption of sovereignty over territories either newly discovered or conquered by the sons of civilization. Cc nest que le premier pas gui coute ; and had the governance of New Zealand, shortly after its attachment to the Crown of the realms, been placed in the hands of men well skilled in national jurisprudence, and properly versed in the principles of our constitution, we should have already been reaping the fruits of a gradual, systematic, and felicitous development of the physical resources and the social prosperity of the numerous emigrants to this important colony. Instead of this, we have throughout only witnessed miserable distractions and perpetual heartburnings between the Governors and the governed of a kindred race. The truth is, that the Executive and the Legislature of Great Britain remained culpably inactive with respect to the welfare of New Zealand, and displayed nought but a sluggish indifference to the establishment of any sound and permanent bodies politic, till the genius and enterprise of the British merchant and capitalists had invested her with an importance that effectually demanded the zealous attention of the responsible advisers of the Crown to the growing wants of an ill-organized yet rapidly increasing community. When the home authorities had, by these means, been quickened into action, a petty, peacemeal, and intermeddling spirit was exhibited in the place of any comprehensive, "well-digested scheme of Colonial administration. Nothing of vigour pervaded our councils in Downing^street. No bold outlines of policy were traced for extrication from past difficulties and errors, and for giving stability to the political progress of jthe English settlers. Contrariwise, our State nurses resorted to timorous, weak, and ineffective measures ; ill calculated to dissolve anarchic factions and still the swelling animosities between the aborigines and the emigrants on the one hand, and the Government and the emigrants on the other* In ls4o a charter was granted devoid of symmetrical authority. It had the negative merit of distributing power between the New Zealand Company and the Colonial Department, so as efficaciously to prevent all harmonious operation for the advantage of the settlers. Antagonistic forces were ingeniously planned and created with so little of just correspondence to the object in view, that all efficient control for Colonial exigencies was placed beyond the reach of either. This unseemly and pernicious state of things was happily put an end to in the last session of Parliament; the charter of 1840 was repealed, and an* act passed for the improved government of New Zealand. By virtue of the latter her Majesty has just granted a new charter, the precise nature whereof, and the spirit in which it is meant to be carried into effect, is accurately stated, and elaborately and most ably elucidated, by the instructions contained in the despatch of Earl Grey, to which we have, in the outset, alluded. As we gave this, and its accompanying documents, in extenso, in our columns of the day before yesterday, suffice it, for a summary of them, that the change about to be wrought is a fundamental one ; that it adheres, as

closely as circumstances will allow, to the model of oar English institutions; that, in one word, it is framed upon the principle of allowing " the settlers to participate much more largely in the business of legislation and local self-government." Independently of the intrinsic value of Lord Grey's instructions to the colony to which they hear immediate reference, we derive intense satisfaction from the reflection that there are embodied, in them principles of Colonial administration of such sound, liberal, and comprehensive significance, that we feel justified in congratulating the country that a new Colonial era is auspiciously dawning upon us. To the fruitful topic of discussion — whether the aboriginal inhabitants of any country are entitled to every portion of its soil beyond what they occupy, or have been accustomed to use, vast and fertile as the uncultivated remainder may be —Earl Grey has addressed H3 mind with consummate ability^ and (as it seems to us) \vith Jtinequlvofc&l sue-** cess. But as this is a subject in which it would be futile to expect a unanimous concurrence of opinion^ as it is one which, if it bad been rightly understooii in the first instance by our countrymen in New Zealand, would have sawed them from many unhappy and profitless discussions ; and as it is one of the greatest consequence to some of our existing, and may be to many of our furure, dependencies, we shall take an early opportunity of giving it a fuller consideration than could be afforded to it within our present limits. — Sun.

New Zealand Charter. —We are not aware that it is at all desirable that we should offer any opinion as to the details of the New Zealand Charter. In fact, it is quite clear that to be able to form any judgment worth putting upon record, an intimate knowledge of the actual state, and want, and circumstances of the colony must be possessed, which scarcely a Colonial Under Secretary himself can be supposed to have acquired. Such measures as this must necessarily be —while concocted twelve thousand miles from the theatre of operations—little more than guesses: and experience itself, the only safe guide, can only be realised after the failure of many attempts. Looking, therefore, only at the outline, and regarding the matter in the most generalising way, we can only observe, that we recognise in it a step in the right direction.,, ft pays an increased degree of regard and attention, to this, noble colony; and, in so far, it promises well. The grand fault of all British Governments during the present generation, in their colonial operations has been, that they seem to have regarded colonization merely as a sort of necessary evil; —a thing that must be ; and which it was therefore their duty to look after; but by no means as possessing any great public interest, or claiming any large amount of thought or attention. Could there be a more striking instance of this, than has already been exhibited in the history of this very colony — New Zealand. A magnificent possession, capable of receiving all that " surplus population" of which our political economists are so fond of complaining ; a splendid climate, exactly suited to the English constitution; a people, few in number, but of a noble kind, and not hostilely disposed ; and ail this, free from dis- } ute by French or Columbian rivals. One would have thought the picture sure to captivate the thoughts of a Colonial Secretary, and to' rivet his attention; filling his days with schemes, and his nights with visions. But what has been the case ? ~ The work — the great duty of colonization, —has been left by the Government to parties of adventurers. The New Zealand Company has perhaps done no worse than similar associations before it had done; but this, if it be so, is a sufficient proof, in itself, that such a work ought to be discharged by the Government, (j safely be left to any body of adventurers, however personally estimable or respectable. The New Zealand Company was formed, or rather re-formed, some seven or eight years since, at a meeting held in the city,. Immediately its staff had been organized, it began, with the usual haste of such enterprises, to sell land in New Zealand ; having, all the while, not a foot of land to sell. And before a twelvemonth had elapsed it had freighted more than forty merchant vessels with emigrants and merchandise, without knowing what was to be done with these people when they landed! But the managers had sent before an experienced man, who was empowered to buy land, and to have it in readiness for the settlers, when they arrived. Here again, however, all was haste and confusion. This gentleman, knowing that the emigrants were immediately behind him, necessarily acted with great precipitation. He got together some of the chiefs on the deck of his vessel, showed them a heap of guns, tobacco, goldlaced hats, and worsted nightcaps, and demanded whether they would sell him all that land, ," From those hills down to that river?" A bargain was struck, the goods banded over, and the natives had a scramble for the booty.

But it soon proved that bargains of this kind, made in a hurry, might be repented of at leisure. The settlers came ; and the Company's agents endeavoured to give them possession of the lands. But it soon appeared that the buyers and sellers had put a different interpretation on the articles of sale. The Company's agent supposed that he had bought a piece of territory, with all that was upon it. But the natives only intended to sell a permission to settle there. Soon a strife began, — violence was at tempted, blood was shed, * and to thu day the mischief is not ended. The root of the whole evil we take to be,— the non-interference of the Government ; and the permission given to ship off from England thousands of industrious farmers and mechanics, without the least certainty of what would become of them when they reached New Zealand. The result of this inaction on the part of the Government has been, — the sacrifice of a great amount of British mercantile capital— the v shipwreck of the fortunes of, many hundreds of worthy and estimable English families, — and a civil war in New Zealand, which has already lasted three or four years. Our moral is, therefore, that our rulers ought to regard colonies and colonization with more serious attention than they have ever yet done. Had the British Government resolved to lay out half a million sterling, at the outset, in bringing New Zealand into proper form and order, would there have been the least risk of losing one penny of the money? Not the slightest. The land which the natives have to spare, and which a competent British representative might honestly buy of them for £1 00,000, would be found, under English cultivation, to be worth millions. Danger of loss, therefore, there is none. All that is needed is a bolder scope and purpose than our statesmen have ever entertained. Instead of a half-pay captain, at a stipend of £1,000 a year, New Zealand ought to have had, eight years since, one of the best men that England could supply ; with powers to draw for any sum under a million, that he could prudently and beneficially lay out in bringing the country into proper order for the settlement of Englishmen. — Morning Herald.