New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1875.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4448, 22 June 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1875.

The reply of Earl Carnarvon to Sir George Grey’s memorial is precisely what we anticipated it would be, and what everyone expected, save and except those who affected to believe in Sir George Grey’s extravagant theories regarding the Constitution. The Secretary of State for the Colonies is most explicit on one point, namely, the determination of the Imperial Government not to interfere in questions of domestic policy in New Zealand. We have a Colonial Legislature, to it Sir George Grey must carry his grievance. He is now a member of the House of Representatives, and can there bring forward his plans, and may persuade the majority to adopt them. Otherwise he must fail in his self-imposed mission, one part of which is rational enough, the remaining part being most irrational. The assurance by the Secretary of State that the Government had not been asked to introduce a Bill giving further powers to amend the New Zealand Constitution, and that they had no intention of doing so, should satisfy Sir George Grey that there was nothing in the rumor to which he gave credence shortly after the Premier left the Colony. Indeed, the rumor to which wo allude, originating as it did with the Lyttelton Times, had all the appearance of a feeler, and if Sir George had been attending to the course of political events ho would have had no difficulty in attaching to it its exact measure of value. But he had been living apart from the Colonial world for several years, and was therefore unable to detect base from sterling political currency. Hence he was imposed upon by those who had an object to serve by enlisting him upon their side. He never once appears to have questioned the perfect sincerity of their motives. He accepted their statements as true in every particular, and, too confiding man, placed himself in an exceedingly false position, and alienated those who most deeply sympathise with him, and by whoso help he might have effected much needed reforms in this country. We are glad that Earl Carnarvon’s reply has been received before the General Assembly meets. Sir George Grey will have ample time to review the whole question before coming down to Wellington, and we trust that the result of his

reflection will be the abandonment of those extravagant theories of Government he has propounded of late. The circumstances of the country are such as to require the very best consideration of the best minds in it, to shape its future so as to avoid the dangers which beset it. At such a crisis mere party disputes and conflicts would be'singularly mistimed. We have an abnormal state of things to confront. In the North, there is a failure of supplies, from ordinary channels, for local administration; in the South, there is the spectacle of the most reckless extravagance on the part of the Provincial Council and Government of Otago, which has sanctioned an expenditure of more than half a million sterling, in excess of revenue, and that revenue mainly derived from the Crown lands and gold fields. In Auckland and Wellington, and indeed in the other provinces of the North Island, the Provincial legislatures endeavor, with praiseworthy economy, to make ends meet; in the South, the local legislature goes in for a prodigally wicked, because wholly unnecessary expenditure, for the avowed purpose of securing as muchas possible “in thegeneralscramble,” which its prominent public men say is coming. Direct taxation presses sorely in the North Island ; it is pretty generally avoided in the South, by the confiscation of the public estate to meet local expenditure. And while these things are being enacted within the colony, we have its credit attacked outside: in England, by the Stock Exchange and its touters ; ' and by agents on behalf of the sister colonies, whose financial operations have been seriously interfered with by the magnitude of New Zealand loans, and the progressive policy it has inaugurated. This latter fact has been made painfully apparent of late, but in no case has so much hostile feeling been shown as in a recent comparison by the London correspondent of an Adelaide paper between the price which South Australian debentures fetched, under Mr. Dutton’s management, and the price at which New Zealand was compelled to sell its four million loan. . These are circumstances, we say, which should be considered altogether aside from party exigencies. New Zealand has embarked upon a great undertaking, which has been successful so far ; but it is now coming to the crucial point at which, for financial reasons, the expenditure on immigration must be curtailed, and when, on the completion of the railways, one by one, a great deal of labor will bo released. With a prudent administration of colonial affairs, on one uniform system, there need be no apprehension for the future ; but if the present system be continued, the gravest responsibility will rest upon the General Government and Assembly. The waste and extravagance of one division of the colony, and the penury and administrative inutility of another division of it, must bring about a crisis, however much the Executive may strive to avert it. Sir George Grey may do much to strengthen the hands of the central administration if he will ; he may put a stop to the extravagant hopes and extravagant expenditure of ultra-provincialists. On his shoulders, in great measure, the responsibility will rest for the immediate future of the colony. Ho has allowed himself to be deceived once by the unscrupulous instruments of Superintendentalism ; let him show, by his patriotic action in the Assembly, that he regards New Zealand as one country, and esteems her credit and prosperity of more value than a local or party triumph.