New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4388, 13 April 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 13, 1875.

Bbyis : I tell thee. Jack Cade, the clothier means to dress the Commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap on it. Cade ; For our enemies shall fall before us, inspired with the spirit of putting down kings and princes. —Shakespeare.—2, Henry VI. The candidature of Sir George Grey for the office of Superintendent of the province of Auckland having been heralded with so much enthusiasm and shouting, we have been watching anxiously for the first indication of the dawning of the new era in Provincialism which was to date from his election. His Honor was returned on 25th March, and since then the evidence of his official existence, or of his actions, has been of a negative character in so far as the outer world is concerned. We notified a few days ago the reported discovery of a new goldfield in the Thames district, beside that recently proclaimed at Ohinemuri; and we noticed also that the usual Orders in Council delegating the Governor’s powers to the Superintendent of Auckland had not been published. In thelast New Zealand Gazette a proclamation was made by his Excellency the Governor, enlarging the boundaries of the Hauraki gold-mining district. This showed a condition of affairs so exceptional that to satisfy the desire of the public for information, we have applied directly to the Government, and have been obligingly furnished by the Colonial Secretary with the interesting telegraphic correspondence which will be found in another place in our columns to-day. And first let us congratulate the new Superintendent upon the fact that ho comes out of his seclusion with his old spirits, unmellowed even by time, and that the talent for getting up a quarrel and establishing a grievance which he displayed upon so many occasions—from the days of the land purchasers, and of Metoikos and the missionaries, of, Mr. Godley and the Canterbury Association,

downwards through the Camebon correspondence and the memorandummiad, — has lost none of its delightful originality. As an intellectual exercise these combats of the Gods in the olden days were watched with breathless interest. The subjects were large—the characters of Christian ministers, the foundation of a new colony, the effusion of blood and treasure, the military conduct of a war, and the pacification of the country ; but in the correspondence now before us the bathos is profound, and the sentiment which is excited is akin to that produced by the sight of a high-mettled racer with broken knees and wrung withers gallantly tugging a knacker’s cart. Alas! this is a quarrel about a “thrifle” of money, and the question is, as the Colonial Secretary tersely puts it, whether in a financial year there shall be four quarters and four quarterly payments, or five quarters and five quarterly payments. Sir George Grey, as all the world knows, has been recently on the stump as the Avatar of provincialism, the prophet of the good time coming, when the General Assembly shall be put in the subordinate place, for which he originally intended it, and be allowed to assemble every three years; when the nine provinces shall rule the roost and divide the land fund; when the Governor shall be elective ; and when an imaginary “ youth,” son of a “ mechanic” —with or without toy cannons in his pocket—shall be the freely elected Secretary of State for New Zealand, and, in that character shall, in “the finest uni- “ form that could be worn,” have a right to interview at his pleasure that ‘ ‘ poor “ old creature the Queen.” He has declared “ that since he had been in office “he has been able to look into the “ finances of the province and had found “ that large sums of money had been “ most unjustly withheld from us and he is now perhaps, as in duty bound, only furnishing one of the proofs of that assertion.

We fear that the Colonial Secretary has not been sufficiently impressed with the importance of this affair, and that his stiff-necked observance of the law and of the will of the General Assembly, when that “will” might, as Sir George Grey suggests, have been satisfied by the payment of a penny, will be said to have seriously clouded the future of the province of Auckland.

Sir George Grey’s capacity for producing wonderful results with small means was illustrated recently by himself, and his words, cannot be too often repeated. “ You all know,” he said, “that ‘ ‘ Great Britain entrusted to me some “ thirty years ago a sum of £IO,OOO, “ ordering me to purchase the beat blocks “ of land that I could, and after selling “ them to apply part of the proceeds to “ immigration purposes, part to purposes “ of public works, and to reserve at least “ the sum that I had paid in purchase of “the blocks of land, and to re-in vest “ that, and to go on always doing this. “ And under these conditions with the “ Home Government I purchased almost “ the whole of the Middle Island, great “ tracts of land in the province of ‘ 1 Hawke’s Bay, great tracts of land in the “ province of Wellington, and I began to “ buy some tracts of land here with the “ proceeds realised from the sale of other “ lands, and I believe that under this “ system the whole of the North Island, “ or a great part of it, would by this “ time have been acquired. Not only “ that, but under the system of im- “ migration I believe that every farmer “in the colony would have been “ four or five times as well off as now.” If so much was done with this mythical ten thousand, how much might be done with a tangible six? When Professor Jacobs, or any other wizard, desires to produce a shower of feathers or a garland of flowers, he most be a churl who refuses to lend his hat. It is true there was a hat offered in this instance, and a large and convenient tile, too, for an ordinary head ; but it was not the hat required. No grievance could be got out of it by any conjuror, and Sir George would not have it. With touching dignity he wraps himself in his virtue, and “in “ poverty will preserve his independ- “ ence.” So mote it be ! But the gospel of five quarter days in the financial year will be welcome to impecunious provinces. In announcing a new Millenium, Jack Cade said : “There “ shall be in England seven half-penny “ loaves sold for a penny ; and the three- “ hooped pot shall have ten hoops, and I “ will make it felony to drink small beer ; “ all the realm shall be in common —when “ I am King, as King I shall be.”