SIR GEORGE GREY'S SECOND PETITION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4260, 14 November 1874, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY'S SECOND PETITION.

(From the Lyttclio-Q, Times, November 7.) The Auckland correspondent of the Press Telegraph Agency must surely haye perpetrated a hoax, or attempted to do so, in sending the summary of a second "petition" from Sir Geor c, e Grey which appears in another column. It is inconceivable that Sir George Grey could have written such an extraordinary document, on the ground that no one has enjoyed better opportunities of making himself ■ acquainted with the history of New Zealand,' politically and socially. We are, therefore, unable to believe that he should have first learnt from a recent issue of the Lyltdton Time&the nature and origin of the land compact of 1856, and must come to the conclusion that there has been " some mistake somewhere." The compact, whether right or wrong, ju3t, or unjust, has been frequently referred to—must have been quoted during Sir George Grey's last term of office—and it seems to us impossible that he can now say he was not before acquainted with its nature and origin. , (From the Otago Guardian, November 6.) His ex-Governorship is fickle in his loves, and on this occasion he lays his votive offering at the feet of—the Superintendent of Auckland ! His first object he abandons. His •jriginal cry wa3—" Our liberties in danger !" ""Bally round the old Constitution !" _ And some well-meaning but silly people in the -ilfvth nattered themselves that they had secured an irresistible champion for their cause. Alas ! how very much disappointed -will they be when they read Sir George's latest thing out. He has shifted his ground (probably because he found it untenable) from the broad platform of provinciab'sm, and now comes forth as an opponent of the " compact" of 1856, and the defender of the " rights"—or what he is pleased to term such of the Province of Auckland. We have neither time nor space at our command to discuss this precious document just now, nor would it be fair to do so, because, as we are advised, the telegraphic summary of Sir George's paper wired to us iB imperfect and incomplete. But we shall return to it again. Meantime, enough surely has been said to disillusionise the late enthusiastic admirers of the Champion of the Constitution. (From the Martborowjh Times, Nov. 10.) _. Sir George Grey has issued another manifesto on the-subject of provincialism, and so far as we could understand the telegraphic summary of it, the production is neither calculated to enhance his reputation as a statesman, nor assist the cause he advocates. When his first petition was made public there was certainly some reason to fear that it would have an injurious' influence, notwithstanding the. fallacies it contained and the incorrectness of the principal premises upon which its deductions were based. But fortunately Sir George has himself destroyed his own work, by furnishing in his later productions antidotes to the mischief which his first petition threatened to create. Instead of being the. oracle who was supposed to have spoken words pregnant with deep meaning and influencing the destinies of the colony, he has proved himself a mere visionary, entertaining wild, notions and promulgating impracticable schemes of government, to which no man possessed of common sense could pos- ' sibly give adherence. Evidently seclusion has not been beneficial to Sir George Grey. (From the West Coast Times, Nov. 2.) The attack on the provincial system, the pet creation, it might almost be said, of ex-Governor Sir George Grey, seems to have driven that esteemed gentleman almost out of his senses. After a few years' retirement at Kawau, ho has again come to the front, though now out of the gubernatorial list, with no probability, and most likely no inclination for appointment of the kind again.' No one can deny that Sir George Grey possesses rare administrative and political ability,- but his sojourn in his beautiful island seems to have left him behind the age," and he now wakes up to New Zealand's necessities, much as I'.ip Van Winkle of happy memory is presumed to have done to the altered condition of ))H native village, after his century sleep. It seem-; as though at Kawau Sir George Grey can only regard the outer world of New Zealand as it was when ho politically ostracised himself, and he is evidently unconscious of the strides that the colony has taken in a few short years. . . . Despite Sir George Grey, Mr. Fitzherbert, or

fifty others, the doom of Provincialism is sealed. It has served its end, it has been of vast service during its time, but the period for its abolition has arrived, and its expense can no longer be borne by the colony of New Zealand. The sooner the close conies the better,, and it is to be regretted that a man so highly and deservedly respected as Sir George Grey is, should emerge from his retirement to prop up a'rotten and a falling cause.