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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 222, 14 November 1874, Page 2

The Nets Zealand Times publishes the replj' of Sir James Fergusson to Sir Geo. Grey’s petition, After acknowledging the receipt, and recapitulating the substance of the petition, His Excellency says that to summon the General Assembly immediately, and to transmit the petition to Hei - Majesty’s Government, he would be acting independently of, if not in opposition to his responsible advisers, a course which would be justified only by great and exceptional emergencies. Referring to the object to be gained, His Excellency is aware that there is not in one part of the Government of New Zealand any intention to make applicatiou to the Imperial Government to propose any such measure to Parliament, or that there is any necessity for so doing, to enable the General Assembly in the exercise of its legitimate functions to carry out in its next session, by specific legislation, the Constitutional changes which by resolution in its recent session it declared to be advisable, His Excellency hopes that with further information on this point you (Sir G. Grey) will be satisfied that the prayer of your petition cannot be complied with, and that it is needless to make telegraphic communication to Her Majesty’s Government of a fact which must be known to them, as it might be supposed to have been known to every person in this Colony, that there is no person qualified (if by that expression in your petition is meant accredited) to negotiate or communicate with her Majesty’s Government on the abolition of the Provincial institutions. The latter part of the reply states that, while Sir James is sensible of Sir George’s greater experience in the duties of Colonial Governors, he must act according to his own view of his duty, and that to transmit the petition in its present form to Her Majesty’s Parliament would be accepting the premises upon which it is based. But His Excellency will, in consideration of the opinion of one so highly qualified, transmit any representation Sir George may desire to make directly through him as the appointed channel to Her Majesty with regard to New Zealand affairs.

We learn from tho Southern Cross that Mr. Holloway has received a telegram from England staling that he is to remain in New Zealand until the departure of next vess' 1 (the City of Auckland for London). This will be in about two months time. He proceeded on Saturday per s.s. Southern Cross, to Tauranga, to inspect Tauranga, the Lakes, and the East Coast Districts. He will visit the rich agricultural district of Poverty Bay before his return to Auckland.

A Home paper says Mr. Holloway, who has been to New Zealand “prospecting” for the Laborers’ Union, declares that Otago must entirely alter its land laws before he will have anything to do with it, since under the existing system the working man has little chance of bettering himself.