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New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4.

Sir George Grey took advantage of the motion for going into Committee of Supply yesterday, to announce the formation of an Opposition to the Government. The statement was received with cheers. He proceeded, at length, to attack the Ministerial policy, and declared that the introduction of the Abolition of Provinces Bill by Message, was an unconstitutional act. The Governor was identified with a faction. At this point Mr. Speaker interfered, and called Sir George to order. The name of the Governor should not be introduced into the debates of the House unless a member was of opinion that he had been guilty of an unconstitutional act. In this case, his Excellency acted under advice of his Ministers, "’who were responsible to the House, and if wrong had been done they should he attacked. Sir George said he was of opinion that an unconstitutional act had been done by the Governor becoming a party to the Bill. The Crown was pledged to a Bill withdrawing much valued privileges from the people. In no instance did the Crown appear in the position of curtailing the rights and liberties of the subject; but this well recognised Constitutional principle had been evaded by tacking an Appropriation Bill to a Bill depriving the people of the franchise. There was no necessary connection between the two. The measures should have been introduced separately. On this point Sir Geoege enlarged, stigmatising the Government Bill as an appeal to the lower instincts of human nature, by offering a series of bribes to the people to obtain their assent to a measure despoiling them and their posterity of the legal right to control and direct the policy of the country. On the Constitutional point, the Opposition had it all their own way. Mr. Fitzherbert followed his leader in a most ingenious argument, in which he endeavored to prove that the Imperial Government were pledged to all the remote consequences of the Ministerial policy, by reason of this action of the Governor, We say ‘‘most ingenious” only, for it was not convincing. We fail to see the danger in the position which Mr. Fitzherbert apprehended. We need not be so scrupulous regarding Imperial interests. Experience has shown us in New Zealand, at all events, that Downing-street is extremely vigilant in guarding the interests of the Empire, as opposed to colonial interests ; and that for which Mr. Fitzherbert should be esteemed above alb other statesmen of the colony is this, that in his capacity as Commissioner from New Zealand, lie succeeded in extorting justice to this country from the Duke of Buckingham and his colleagues in theßritish Government, when other public men esteemed the atempt a hopelessone. Mr. Fitzherbert knows well that the Imperial Government will guard its own interests; and should there be any doubt on the mind of the English law advisers of the Crown, such as the Superintendent of Wellington hints at, he may rest satisfied that the operation of the Act will be arrested until an amending Act, removing the doubt, has been passed. Indeed, the debate itself will suggest vigilance to the Secretary of State tor the Colonies. We may leave the ‘ ‘ Imperial “ interest ” point of the argument, therefore, although it was a fair enough one for the Opposition to take up. The long and the short of it is, that by making the Abolition of Provinces Bill a Bill for the permanent appropriation of money, Ministers scored a point in the parliamentary game, and if the Governor has committed a breach of constitutional practice, he will be reminded of the fact by the Secretary of State. With the example of Sir Hercules Robinson and the New South Wales Assembly before his eyes, Earl Kimberley will not be likely to wink at anything which could make the Act of the Queen’s representative a matter of debate and possible censure in the New Zealand Legislature. As we have already said, we think this point was somewhat overstrained by Mr Fitzherbert in his speech. But the part of Sir George Grey’s speech which possessed the greatest measure of public interest was that in which he assailed the constitution of the Legislative Council, as representing onlysuccessive Ministries, and declared that they had legislated in their own interests, in the matter of the public lands. But Sir George Grey spoke to deaf ears last evening, and he seemed to be aware of the fact, for he rapidly passed from the deliberative Assembly which he addressed, to the people who, he alleged, were trodden underfoot by an oligarchy, and despoiled of the public lands which were theirs of right. Ho instanced the recent case of the Heriot Hundred block in Otago, as an illustration of what lie meant, and declared that five hundred freemen of Otago had been deprived of the right of making modest homesteads for themselves by the action of the nomiated Chamber which legislated solely in their own interest. The Government measure was intended to conserve these landmonopolios, butthe peoplewould defeat it; a declaration which was received with cheers and counter cheers, which were repeated when he declared that Ministers, knowing the power they had obtained over the country by a lavish expenditure was shaken, had introduced these measures, and that to secure their authority, and their own class in possession of legislative power, offered to bribe the people by promising to return to them so much of their own money. The Opposition were prepared to offer Constitutional changes;—they were prepared to give the people control over much greater sums than those offered by this Bill;—sums to bo raised by an equal system of taxation. The magnates of the land, he continued, offered these bribes,

but they offered nothing from their own pockets. Tax yourselves, ye poor ; tax yourselves, ye little class, and from what we take from you in the first instance we will give you back so much. It was unfair to press this measure without giving the people a choice of alternative proposals. Now, in this we perceive the faint indication of a policy which, as Sir George said, is certain some day to find favor with the people. But not just yet. The man in possession is too strong, and could aflord to laugh at the earnest manner and protests of the member for City West last evening. Granted that taxation is unequal, that the public lands have passed into the hands of a few persona by virtue of laws enacted for that purpose ; granted also that the public receive only a portion of their own in the shape of subsidies granted all this, we say, and the people will look upon the pounds sterling paid from the public funds as a free gift, obtained from some source of supply to which they contribute nothing : they will pocket the subsidy, spend the money, and look to the Government for an ever-increasing supply. It is only when the public treasury fails to meet these demands for votes in aid of local contribution, that the people, to whom Sir George Grey appeals, will listen to him. If he hopes otherwise, ho will be disappointed. His appeal to the earth hunger of the masses, which is as strong in the poorest as it is in the richest man in the community, will meet with a much more ready response, and we expect to find this part of his declaration of policy welcomed by the Otago Democracy who have been educated on the land question. But where he is to look for countenance and support other than in Otago we know not. Sir Donald McLean’s reply to the Opposition leader was brief and to the point. He denied that there had been any violation of constitutional practice, and quoted from Mr. Stafford’s memorandum on the County of Westland Act, transmitted by Sir George Grey as Governor, to prove that a similar measure was contemplated at that time, and had not been objected to by Sir George. He also urged the unanimity of the country as a reason for proceeding with the Bill. We have now the opposing Parliamentary forces ranged in order of battle. We know something, but not much, of the tactics of the Opposition. That they mean to contend every inch of ground is clear; but beyond the passing reference of Sir George Grey, we have no indication of the settled policy of the party which he leads. The Ministerial policy is before the country.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750804.2.8

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4485, 4 August 1875, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,417

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4485, 4 August 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4485, 4 August 1875, Page 2

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