SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE DEPUTATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5768, 24 September 1879, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE DEPUTATION.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Silt, —The first act in Sir George Grey's farcical Arcadian drama has been rehearsed, with what result ? The first buzz of th > hornet’s nest has sounded a note of expectation if not of exasperation. The deputation of working men in their recent interview with the Premier and the Minister of Lands would scarcely be satisfied with the result of the meeting. They had evidently great expectations from the facile promises of unconditional advantages—not only land, but means provided them to enter upon it under all the glowing felicity of Arcadian content. That was the goal they were looking forward to. Are they likely to attain it i There is no intention to treat with levity a matter the gravity and importance of which would not warrant such treatment. To carry out the relations which must arise from such proposals as were suggested by the deputation would, as Sir George Grey said, involve capital. Those good men might have called to mind what their great patron had promulgated about capital. Their “cow” and their “plough,” with “wood for a house,” and what else? —horses to drag the plough, bread until their corn grew, &c., —all these etceteras must be of their own providing, unless Sir George Grey will put his hands into his own pockets and show his sincerity so far as a reasonable sympathy will prompt him. Such charity would only be in keeping with his other Quixotic proceedings, dealing out delusive hopes and expectations which he can never satisfy. Working men have their fate iu their own hands, independent of Sir George Grey and all such demagogues. If they will not save money under the present state of things in this country there is no hope for them, and until they do save, it is idle for them to dream of laud and their own homesteads.—l am, &c., A Liberal. THE AUCKLAND "FREE LANGE” ON MR. JOHN LUNDON. The affectionate interest which Sir George Grey has exhibited in the struggle which Mr. John Loudon has so long maintained in the North for the advancement of “ Liberalism” is matter of Parliamentary record. When Mr. Lundon was a candidate for the representation of the Bay of Islands and Mongonui Electoral District some four years ago, our Premier, who was then Superintendent of this province, addressed circular letters to the chiefs of the Northern tribes, one of which was as follows : Auckland, 20th December, 1875. My Dear Friend, Ileta-tc-Hara, —I have given tin's letter to John Lundon, that yon may show kindness to him, because I wish this man to bo a companion for me.—From your loving friend, G. Grey, There were not “ freemen ” enough upon the local electoral roll at that time, and tile desired union could not be effected ; but although the course of true love is "not always smooth, a consummation, as iu this instance, is often attained by courage and perseverance ; Sir George Grey has at last got his “companion.” By an ingenious device, with the particulars of winch the report of Mr. Commissioner Bryce has made us familiar, 400 bogus Maori and other votes were got upon the electoral roll last year, at the Bay of Islands, and a largo proportion of those unqualified electors have now returned Mr. Lundon as a fit and proper person to represent them in Parliament. The numbers polled for the “Liberal” candidate, —Sir George Grey’s desired companion—would, no ' doubt, have been greater but for the unfortunate fact that Mr. Lundon’s constituents have just been shooting each other in a quarrel about a projected land purchase of that honorable gentleman. At present, four Maoris only have been killed, and three wounded iu this little skirmish. As there would naturally have been some feeling amongst the friends of the killed and wounded, we must make a further deduction from votes on that account. Amongst the 400 persons objected to by Mr. Williams, and who, iu consequence of the dexterous removal of that officer, in the nick of time, by the Government, are now upon the electoral roll, there were many dead men, and many others who had left the district, having disposed of the property upon which they claimed qualification. These circumstances, combined with the recent shooting, may account for the fact that out of the 416 unqualified voters placed upon the Bay of Islands roll by the action of the Government in the interest of Mr. Lundon, only 289 were polled for that distinguished citizen.

After having succeeded in securing his own election for the Thames, and after throwing, in frank-pledge, upon the Hauraki chiefs, all responsibility for the execution of the ends of justice upon the intended murderers of the Ohinemuri Government survey party, and thus relieving himself—the Hon. Mr. Sheehan, our Native Minister took a trip across country to Napier in order to poll the block vote of ISO Maoris for himself as against Mr. Ormond, the Opposition candidate for the representation of Cliye. Mr. Sheehan could not, therefore, give his perssnal attention to the slaughter of mere native subjects of the Queen in the North; but he was good enough to send a telegram, iu which he calls the killing of four British subjects and the wounding of three others “a foolish affair,” and says that “as a matter of fact all the belligerents must be taken and tried for murder.” As there are about 100 of them, aud as they have many friends, the process may not be so easy as the late successful capture of friendlies at Taranaki proved to be. Personal government in native affairs by Sir George Grey and Mr. Sheehan, as exemplified in the Revvi imposture, the Kopua fiasco with Tawhiao, the Farihaka operations, the shooting of surveyors at Ohinemuri, and the recent • murders at Holdnnga, cannot be said to have been a success ; it may even be held to be financially dear at the price of the £50,000 said to be expended by Mr. Sheehan himself officially, and which represents only a small portion of its money cost in the past financial year. Mr. Lundon fortunately, perhaps, will soon have the opportunity of showing his hands in the House of Representatives, and of explaining how so much blood has been spilled in the district which now has the honor of being represented by him. Mr. Ormond has also, as we see, kindly undertaken to help Mr. Sheehan in the elucidation of the details of expenditure in the Native Department, and of that development of the taste for ostrich feathers and diamond rings on the side of the Maoris which has been so remarkable a feature of the period. Thus, whether Sir George Grey shall meet the Parliament as Premier or not, there will be lively times for the spectators.