Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

OUR PREMIER.

(From the Melbourne Argus, June 25.)

Sir George Grey is fond of playing with edged tools. He has, evidently determined to achieve popularity at any cost, and one of the means whereby he seeks to commend himself to the’ unthinking multitude is the _ exhibition of a studied contempt for Imperial authority. His conduct in this respect may possibly promote the object it is intended to serve, but it is plain to every one of ordinary intelligence that if persisted in it must lead eventually to serious difficulties, and put a very severe strain ou the tieswhicii bind the New Zealand people to the • mother country. Duly recently we heard of his refusal to publish a notification in the Government Gazette of a distinction conferred by her Majesty on one of the retired Judges, on some absurd plea to the effect that he could not be a party to the creation of a pinchbeck aristocracy in the colony. The attempt to control the exercise of the royal prerogative might be regarded as a “ screaming farce,” were it not that it shows to what extremes of disloyalty this most comical Minister of the Crown is prepared to go iu order to ingratiate himself with the mob. Now, we learn by telegraph that his anti-British feeling has been displayed in another direction. He has resolved, apparently, to remodel the relations existing between the Secretary of State and the Governor of the colony. He denies tho right of the former to express any opinion ou colonial affairs, and desires, if we understand-his object aright, to prescribe the matter of the communications which may pass between a Governor and his official superior. Whether he is pre pared to allow her Majesty to retain the power of appointing and recalling her representatives through her responsible advisers tor the time being, does not appear ; but in view of the ■pretensions he-has pot forward, we should hardly think he would be guilty of such lamentable weakness. We may expect to see him gradually demolishing (on paper) the Queen, the Secretary of State, and the Governor, in regular order, if he be allowed to hold the o(ficelle renders ridiculous for a sufficiently long period, until, in his own estimation, Sir George Grey is all in all. The immediate cause of the late outbreak is the publication of some' despatches from Sir Michael Hioks-Beaoh, expressing approval of the Governor’s conduct iu connection with certain matters. Soon after Sir George Grey took office, he recommended the Governor to grant a dissolution without having obtained supplies, and, further on, to veto the -Laud Bill, which had passed both Houses of Parliament. The Marquis of Normanby very properly refused to do either one thing Or the other. In the ordinary routine of business, we presume, his Excellency brought the applications and their refusal under the notice of the Colonial Office, and was informed, in accordance with the usual official practice, that his decisions commanded the, approbation of her Majesty’s Government. Ordinary people would have allowed such harmless formalities to'have passed without comment; but Sir George Grey being a most extraordinary gentlemen, found himself unable to allow such a favorable chance of flouting the Imperial authorities to go by unimproved. Accordingly, he addressed a long memorandum to the Governor, in which he states that he “ cannot consent” to have his relatiors with the representative of tho Crown, or the Assembly, “submitted for the decision or approval of the Secretary of State, nor can he recognise or accept that decision or opinion,” No doubt the information thus furnished with regard to his inability to “consent” to this, that, and - the other was a very delicate attention, as no one seems to have dreamt of asking . for it. As we are at. present informed, however, it appears to have been somewhat superfluous, as the despatches have merely dealt with the Governor's share in the business, not with the conduct of Sir George Grey. Having thus, in a metaphorical sense, snapped his fingers in the Secretary of State’s face, he continues as follows :

“If the Secretary of State is constituted arbiter on such questions as have been at issue between the Governor and the Assembly and the Governor and his Ministers—that is, if exterior authority is called in to interfere in internal .constitutional differences—a 'course would be pursued not only humiliating to ourselves, but unfair to Great Britain, which has given the people of New Zealand the power of settling all such questions on the spot, by the ordinary .constitutional means.” What would take place if the Secretary of State were constituted arbiter between Governors and their Ministers we need not stop to inquire. As a matter of fact he does not act in this capacity. He simply receives from his official subordinates reports of their proceedings, and approves or disapproves of their acts or decisions as he. thinks right. The allusion, coming from the quarter it does, to the impropriety of appealing to the Home Government concerning matters which the colony can settle on the spot by ordinary constitutional means, is almost sublime in its audacity. Sir George Grey is the very last person in the world who should talk about the impropriety of invoking Imperial interference. It is not quite two years ago that he telegraphed and wrote to the Secretary of. State imploring him to advise her Majesty to veto the Bill abolishing provincial institutions in the islands, although the measure had passed both Houses of Parliament by large majorities. The message- from this stickler for local rights which passed through the cable to Downing-street ran as follows :—. “To the Bight Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies, London- (Urgent).—l dutifully refer you to my letter of sth June last. The Government have determined to enforce the Abolition Act without consulting the Provincial Legislatures, and against the wish of provinces containing more than one-half of the white population of the colony and twothirds of the natives. Disturbances are imminent. Soma threaten to give employment to the. Queen’s ships. I earnestly pray you to telegraph to prevent disturbances. The Abolition Act should be disallowed if the Provincial Legislatures are not consulted. (Signed) Geouse Grey, Superintendent, Auckland.” When this pitiful appeal from a discomfited faction was read some time afterwards in the New, Zealand Parliament it was received in both Chambers with loud laughter, and we think that the memorandum to which we have been alluding, in which its author inferentially condemns its contents, will meet with similar derision. The Parliament had acted within its powers, and the necessity for a reference to the Provincial Legislatures existed, like the “ imminent disturbances,”' oqly in the imagination of Sir George Grey and his friends. As to the possibility of bombardment as a punishment for resistance, the Secretary of State expressed hjs sorrow that there was one man in Now Zealand who believed in it. When we remember this episode in the eocentrlo Premier’s career, and boar in miud how often, as Governor, ho must have pursued the very course ho now condemns, wo may form a fair estimate of the value to bo attached to his new-born zeal for colonal independence of all Imperial control. ' It appears to us that if Sir George Grey will only persevere in the course he has apparently marked out for himself, he may hope in lime to rival Mr. Berry as a mischievous agitator. But he will always bo without Mr. Berry’s excuse. The Victorian Chief Secretary will be able to urge hereafter that when he set to work to ■ shako the foundations of society he was an illiterate man ; that he did not understand the dangerous nature of the forces ho was calling into play, or foresee th consequences of his acts.' He will plead that the desire to emerge from a befitting obscurity was so strong as to bo irresistible, and that as he could only achieve notoriety or obtain prominence by i promoting discord and playing with revolution, he -did both one and the other; with all the intrepidity of ignorance. Sir George Grey, however, can never exteuu-

ate the same way. He is a gentleman of good education, and has had the training of a statesman. TLj m-ii-j.v miming in feha way of light and knowledge. Hj knows the danger of inflaming the passions oc the ignorant, and the great Lanes which depend on the consolidation of the British race And yet, to gratify cer-. tain'feelings which perhaps it would not be difficult to define, he is wilfully doing all he can to provoke a war of. classes, and to sow dissension between the mother country and one of her most important offshoots.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18780708.2.24

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5391, 8 July 1878, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,448

OUR PREMIER. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5391, 8 July 1878, Page 3

OUR PREMIER. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5391, 8 July 1878, Page 3

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert