To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, September 14, 1848.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 327, 16 September 1848, Page 3

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator. Wellington, September 14, 1848.

Sir, — On Tuesday evening last I attended a public meeting held at the Britannia Saloon, for the purpose of adopting a respectful address to our esteemed Governor-in-Chief, requesting the privilege of Representative In~ stitutions for the management of our local affairs and interests, &c. I was aware that at a meeting held at the same place on the preceding Thursday, a memorial had been agreed to by the majority of persons present, expressing the same desire indeed for representation, but in language which I and many other persons considered very unfit to be addressed to the representative of the British Government, inasmuch as it wa3 disrespectful and exaggerated, and by no means conveyed to Governor Grey our impressions of his conduct or policy. Despite of its numerous imperfections, however, the first memorial (that of Thursday) received many signatures, and was presented to his Excellency on the morning of Tuesday last, some hours before the meeting first mentioned commenced, and had been courteously received by the Governor. As the gentlemen who approved of the first memorial had effected its presentation, had received an answer to it, and had, besides, expressed their own private opinions and im« pressions of his actions and conduct to the GoIjernor, without hindrance to us who disapproved of their mode of trying to obtain the end desired as much by us as by them, we considered it a matter of course that they would shew us a like courtesy. Judge then of our surprise, when we heard a furious attack on those convening the meeting, as disturbers of the unanimity of the people on the subject. A gentleman, with many laboured attempts at wit, and i

with much uncalled for personal virulence, gave the meeting to understand that he had compiled the former address or memorial to the Governor, that rmny persons had signed it, that it had passed without opposition at the former meeting, that his memoiial expressed also a desire for Local Representation ; and lastly, that he and other gentlemen had presented his memorial to Governor Grey that morning. From all these premises, in which I believe he spoke the truth, he drew the astounding inference that all who did not entirely coincide' with his production were what he termed cringers, place hunters, &c, &c, &c. I differ in ideas from this selfelected dictator. His address certainly states, though coarsely, our wish for free institutions, but it does not in any other respect convey our opinions, describe our feelings, or express our ~ sentiments to Governor Grey. It is an odd , jumble of statements, vague and reckless assertions, unfair insinuations, and winds up with a warning and a protest, and is, taking it altogether, the strangest document presented by a body of Englishmen to a British Governor. In fact, many persons who, owing to their eager desire for Representative Government, signed the first memorial without observing its harsh and peremptory style, and who, on a subsequent more deliberate perusal of that document, felt convinced that it was calculated to wound the feelings of Governor Grey, were desirous, in order to prevent any mistaken impiession in his mind, by a second and more respectful address to ask for the same object, but in a more courteous manner. I conceive we should shewstrikingly our unfitness for free institutions, if we submitted to the autocratic dictation of the compiler of the first address. He appears to think a better address than the first could not be devised; I think a worse could scarcely be concocted. If, however, his ideas of freedom are, that none may presume to differ in thought or mode * of expression fiom himself, we should enjoy as little liberty as the subjects of Nicholas of Russia under such representatives as he fain would be. , Happily however, in spite of the opposition of the faction to which that gentleman belongs, a memorial was adopted conveying the real feelings of the inhabitants of Wellington to his Excellency, from the presentation of which we may perhaps obtain the much desired result of free institutions. Hoping which, I remain, Sir, your humble servant, An Artizan.