SIR GEORGE GREY’S PETITION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4251, 4 November 1874, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY’S PETITION.

(From the Westland Register, October 24.) The petition against the proposed constitutional changes in New Zealand, drawn up by Sir George Grey, and published on the 22nd, is not of a kind which will add largely to our former Governor’s fame as a statesmau, or which will find much favor with the colonists. In the first place, the document is unnecessarily wordy, so much so that it is impossible to gather from it the precise grounds upon which Sir G. Grey bases his advocacy of provincial institutions. In almost the first paragraph it is stated that the Governor is appointed to exercise powers belonging to the Queen by prerogative, as well as the powers conferred upon the Governor of the country, or in pursuance of the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act. This, it appears to us, involves a contradiction in terms, inasmuch as it is only as Governor of the country that the officer referred to is in any way entitled to exercise the Royal prerogative. The latter power cannot be distinguished from the former, hut is entirely dependent on it, and ceases to exist whenever any officer ceases to be the Governor of the colony. Far, therefore, from its being unconstitutional for a Governor to exercise his powers as such in carrying out the wishes of his responsible Executive, it would be clearly unconstitutional if in a country where representative government is established, he at any time refused to do this. Unless, therefore, it can he shown that the several Provincial Governments existing in New Zealand are of superior authority, as representative institutions, to the General Assembly, there can be no plea of justification found for a Governor talcing upon himself to ignore the wishes of the latter in order that he may protect the former from an imagined oppression. If the General Assembly has in it the constitutional power to vary or to do away with provincial institutions, the Governor has no legal discretion as to whether he will or will not sanction such changes. Sir George Grey argues, however, that the Governor is for some acts responsible to the General Assembly and for some to the Provincial Governments, and must not seek to rob one of the estates at the expense of the other. On precisely similar grounds it might he argued that a Provincial Council is not entitled to pass laws affecting the constitutions and powers of Road Boards, or educational districts, and that the Superintendent, who should, with the advice of his Executive, endeavor to carry out such laws, would be acting unconstitutionally. The misconception is in reality based upon the assumption that the Constitution Act assures the existence of provincial institutions as bodies independent of the Assembly. Such may perhaps have been the intention of Sir George Grey when drafting the Act, and it is probable that the measure sufficiently carried out this intention. He forgets, however, or appears to forget, that the Act has been since amended by the Imperial Parliament, and that in consequence the New Zealand Parliament has for years past exercised the undisputed power of varying the constitutions and limits of the provinces. How otherwise could it have been legal to permit the separation of Southland and Marlborough from then- parent pi evinces, and the re-au-nexation of the former ? How was it lawful to experiment upon the "Westland district, by creating it first a separate county, and then a province ? It is not true, therefore, as Sir George Grey contends, that “ at the various elections for the General Assembly the people of the colony for many years past returned members to the House of Representatives to exercise the powers conferred upon such representatives by the New Zealand Representative Constitution Act, and no other powers.” If, in theplace of the words “no other powers,” the words “ its amendments ” had been inserted, the arguments so far would have been sound. This, however, would not have suited the further deductions which Sir George Grey wished to draw.. Without following this eminent gentleman through the two columns of strange wanderings which constitute his socalled petition, we may point to the concluding sentence as affording a sufficient explanation of the sudden plunge into print which the Recluse of the Kawau, so long silent, has made. It is there said that the petitioner prays his Excellency to “ send a telegraphic message to Her Majesty’s Government, pointing out that at the present time there is no person constitutionally, in point of fact, qualified to negotiate or communicate with Her Majesty’s Government on the subject of the abolition of the provincial institutions of this country, and thafransgotiation for such purpose at present entered upon would be illegal on the part of 1 oth parties to such negotiation.” From which it appears that Sir George Grey is not only prepared to teach the Governor—an infinitely more able man than himself —his duty, but is also prepared to tell the Imperial Government when they are acting illegally, and to rescue them from that blunder. From the abovequoted sentence it will be readily gleaned that the petitioner has allowed some of those absurd rumours which have been zealously circulated concerning Mr. Vogel’s mission to England to get into his head, and that the Premier is the person who is “ not qualified to negotiate,” &c. It is quite easy to understand why Sir George Grey should wish to preserve intact the Constitution of which he was the author ; it is not, however, so easy to realise that a few years’ retirement from public affairs has rendered a man who in former times displayed considerable cleverness and coolheadeduess, so wild and foggy in his ideas of administrative government, as to suppose Mr. Vogel could go home and bend the Imperial Government to his wishes and will, no matter what desperate wickedness he might project. (From the Thames Advertiser, Oct. 26.) We do not see why Sir George Grey, taking into ’ consideration his strong opinions on the disasters impending over the country from the changes which will soon come to pass, should not become a member of the Assembly, and assume the leadership of the four or five Auckland members who will stick to the sinking ship of provincialism to the last. He would no doubt get an Auckland constituency to elect him, and then he could air his constitutional opinions, his political theories, and historical parallels, in the House of Representatives. In his recent manifesto, Sir George praised the provincial system for a number of splendid tendencies which he said that it had ; but without following him into disquisitions into what might be, or might have been, colonists will, as usual, be content with the practical, and judge provincialism by what it has done, and the fact is patent that it has caused dissatisfaction everywhere except in the provincial capitals. Up to within a few years ago, the out-districts petitioned the House of Representatives every session against the corruption and mismanagement of the provincial capitals, and these petitions have only ceased because the General Government, by the public works scheme, has absorbed the functions of the provinces and left them useless. It is curious to observe, however, that Sir George Grey, when first writing of the Constitution which would bo most suitable for New Zealand, seemed to favor the plan of local bodies which Mr. Vogel now proposes to substitute for the provincial organisation. In writing to the Home authorities in 1851, Sir George Grey proposes to divide the settlements into three classes of municipalities—viz., small municipalities, which are called hundreds, and which may be regarded as road districts ; pastoral districts ; and large municipalities, possessing increased powers. Sir George said ho “ relied greatly upon municipal institutions as a very important element in the Constitution of the country,” and he proposed that one-third of the gross proceeds realised from the sale of land in the respective districts should be placed under the control of these mumeipal bodies. In urging the municipal system, and the proposed desti-

nation of part of the laud sales, Sir George sets forth the following as one of the objects ho had in view :—“ To try to induce persons to take an interest in the administration of their own affairs, by enabling them to perform ordinary municipal duties in their own districts, without compelling them to raise funds sufficient for the purpose by additional and distinct taxation.” It is a great pity that Mr. Vogel did not put his hand on these early despatches of Sir George Grey’s when introducing his resolutions, but if Sir George finds admission into the House of Representatives, he will no doubt have an opportunity of explaining them away. Mr. Vogel’s plan of endowed local bodies was precisely what Sir George Grey contemplated, and we cannot conceive how he has now changed his opinion into something -directly contrary, especially when the system he now advocates has conspicuously failed in practice. Sir G eorge Grey, in the same despatch, says I think groat benefit would result from regulations, by which it should be provided that such portions of the funds derived from the sale of Crown lands within a hundred as were applicable to the execution of public works, such ns roads, bridges, &c., should bo so applied under the direction of officers elected by the inhabitants of the hundred.” If such a plan had been brought into operation, and if proper steps had been taken in the early days to acquire native laud, this colony would have been much further advanced than it is now, without having anything like its present debt. But even now, burdened as we arc, a vast improvement would be found to he the result of the destruction of the provincial system. What is now provincial revenue would come into the bauds of local bodies, who would administer it in a much better manner than the provincial authorities now do, while the waste lands which still remain, and which appear not to be profitable either to the General or Provincial Governments, would be made conducive to the benefit of the districts.

(From the Bidlcv News, Oct. 28.) When Sir George Grey says that the abolition of the provinces contravenes the New Zealand Constitution Act, he is correct, but the Legislature has found an amended Constitution Act necessary ere now, and if the progress of the country and the exigencies of the times demand, we must alter the Constitution Act again. The time is past when men considered it expedient and right to subordinate everything for a piece of musty parchment. Nor is there any danger that the liberties of the people, or that independent representation will be injuriously affected by the new order of things. Sir George Grey and the other ardent provincialists remind one of the sworn advocates of the old Brown Bess. Even the Duke of Wellington believed that the clumsy old firelock was a superior weapon to the rifle. x Men have an old fashioned fondness for old associations, especially for the instruments of their success. Sir George Grey has a parental interest in provincialism. So had Mr. Fox, but he knew the signs of times, and had not wasted his genius in sullen isolation. Attachment to provincialism is no doubt natural and proper in Sir George Grey, but all bis weighty reasoning as to the constitutional character of the question is so much waste of learning. - No Constitution Act should he like the laws of the Medes and Persians, and ours was framed for a state of things that has been outgrown. When communities were isolated, and the country being settled at many points, such local government as the provincial system provides was necessary, but in the present state of the colony a central government is best. The defect of the provincial system has been its inordinate greed, its coercion of the General Government. If it has developed a class of politicians, it has also raised a class of political footpads. Sir George Grey wants Parliament summoned together “with the least possible delay." He very broadly hints that, since the rising of Parliament, influences have been used of which the people should be informed. At first sight the proposal to summon Parliament in the absence of Mr. Vogel, savours of political manoeuvre, and as Parliament has already strongly pronounced in favor of abolishing the provinces, we cannot see that any good end would he served by asking it to reconsider its verdict at this stage. The recess will give people time to think and discuss the proposed change, and when Parliament again meets the measure will have been digested.

(From the I Vest Coast Times, Oct. 24.) Amongst the many extraordinary documents that have from time to time come before the public, the petition prepared by ex-Governor Grey, on the proposed Constitutional changes, must occupy a most prominent position. Though Sir George Grey was once, indeed twice, ruler over this colony, and though, during that time, he deservedly gained the respect of the colonists, his late move has certainly not assisted in the maintenance of his past prestige, and it has rather incurred censure of no measured kind. That, even in the best cause possible, an officer, no matter of what rank, should presume to read the existing Government, and an overwhelming majority of the oj Jy elective branch of the Legislature, a lecture of the kind contained in the petition, would he deemed in most people an unmeasured piece of impertinence ; and no other verdict can be arrived at, even though the inditer he Sir George Grey. That the oxGovemor is a Conservative in the most literal meaning is evident, and that during his retirement at” Kawan he has not gained in common sense, must he apparent to every one. His petition—for his it is specially—if sifted, will he found to allege that as the Constitution Act provided for four estates, to use his own phrase, the fourth, on this occasion, being the Provincial Governments, no possible amendment or alteration can be made without incurring what nearly approaches to an act of high treason. Nothing could well he more palpably absurd than the reasoning, based on the hypothesis that the Constitution Act, as passed by the Imperial Parliament, was unalterable, that runs throughout the whole petition referred to. It is somewhat strange that a man with the reputed political capacity of the exGovernor should have launched such a document before the world, for it is certain that any credit for ability.,he once possessed has been hopelessly shattered by his late highly injudicious manifesto. It must be noted especially that in the petition ho does not combat the arguments used by the Premier, or by others, as to the desirability, under the changed circumstances of the colony, for a changed form of government. Ho says nothing of the duplicate cost of administration, which is unnecessary ; ho does not refer to the fact of the telegraph penetrating every part of the colony, and rendering instantaneous communication with the head-quarters of the Government possible. He fails to remember that in the days when Provincial Governments were created, and, what is more, were needed, communication between the various provinces existed only by the uncertain sailing, and still more uncertain arrival, of small craft of all kinds ; and that under those circumstances, local authority, of the kind conferred by provincial institutions, was a necessity. Now, not only ia the telegraph ready at a moment’s notice, but the whole of the seaports of New Zealand arc connected by regular lines of steamers, and 8 5, in fact, all the old circumstances that gave rise to tho federation spoken of are swept away, with many other effete relics of the past. It would seem from the document that Sir George has prepared, that provincial institutions are to be .regarded as immutable and unchangeable, and, that any opinion to the contrary is the direst kind of political sacrilege. Even such a staunch antediluvian as himself must surely admit that the public know as well what suits them and what is likely to bo to their advantage, as ho can tell them. A majority of two-thirds of the House of Representatives have already affirmed the desirability of sweeping away at least a large proportion of the institution he is so anxious to preserve, and as they are tho direct representatives of the people, surely that vote should outweigh his opinion. No one had tho slightest idea that the proposed changes could be effected without Imperial sanction, and why the fact of Mr. Vogel going home should put tho Kawau hermit into such a flutter is singular to a degree. What possible deterrent effect summoning Parliament could have, wo fail to see, even if the present or prospective Governor were idiot sufficient

to adopt the suggestion. As to affording information to the inhabitants of the colony, they have had ample means of gaining it already, and as all that could be done in such a case would be to ask the members of the House of Bcpresentatives to re-affirm resolutions that they endorsed only a short time ago, we fail to see the utility of such a course. A climax of absurdity is reached in the concluding paragraph, in which Sir George suggests that the Governor should telegraph to the Home Government to put a stop to the alleged unconstitutional practices that are either commenced or contemplated.