MR FOX ON NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

Southland Times, Issue 734, 9 October 1867, Page 3

MR FOX ON NEW ZEALAND AFFAIRS.

» The following letter from Mr W. Eox, was published in the London "Times" of July 26 .— Sir, — Temporary absence from home has prevented my noticeing the important debate in the House of Lords on. the removal of troops from New Zealand which occurred on the 15th inst., but I trust that the lapse of a week will not obliterate all interest on the subject, and that you will allow me the opportunity of making a few remarks on the subject from a colonist's point of view. The general impression left on the mind of the reader of the debate in question, and particularly of Lord de Grey's speech, must be thai; the Colonial Government, either apart from or acting in unison with the Governor, has been the cause ot the detention of the Imperial troops in the Colony. It is dae to the Colonists that it should be known that this is not the case. As far back as December, 1864, resolutions were passed by both Houses of Assembly almost unanimously, requesting the Imperial Government to remove the whole of the troops without delay. Since that period they have been detained by the Governor on his own responsibility, without, if not against the express advice of two successive Ministries, and the Colonists have had absolutely nothing whatever to do with the matter. The Colonial Government never consented to retain any portion of the troops on the terms proposed by Mr Cardwell; and it has been owing in no way to its action or advice that they have been retained by the Governor. "Why, then, should Lord de Grey complain that the Colony has not paid a single shilling on account of these troops ? Another reason why the Colonial Government demurs to this and other charges which the Imperial Government seek to impose upon it is the fact that, owin°* to the bitter quarrels between Sir George Grey and the successive generals in command about matters over which the Colonial Government had no control, the troops, during the period of their detention, and for long time before they were ordered home, were absolutely of little or no use to the Colony. Nay, more, their inaction and mismanagement involved the waste of very large Colonial expenditure incurred in support of the Queen's troops, by the maintenance of a Colonial force amounting to nearly 50,000 men, who, during all the period referred to, were almost as useless _as the Queen's troops, all owing to the unhappy and discreditable quarrels between the officers of the Imperial Government. If Lord De Grey had dismissed one of his footmen, who still persisted in remaining in his lordship's house, and when there spent his time in perpetual combats with the butler, would his lordship have considered himself bound to pay him wages for the period after his dismissal? The demand made on the Colony to pay for the troops whose removal it had requested, seems to us colonists exactly parallel. But let it not be supposed that the Colony has not borne its fair share of the cost of the war, so long as the troops remained with its consent or by its desire. Responding to the call of the Duke of Newcastle, when he sent the troops it at once organised its Militia, enrolled a standing force of nearly 5000 men, and has since paid a military expenditure of from three, to four millions sterling in support of the operations of the Imperial forces. No "Colony, I will venture to say, has ever, in analogous circumstances, in proportion to its population and resources, borne so large a share of the burden of its defence against either internal or external disturbances. The little that can be gathered from His Grace the Duke of Buckingham's remarks is extremely unsatisfactory, particularly the bint which he gives of renewing the commutation of the capitation money lor a fixed sum of £50,000 a year to be paid "for securing certain ends." The end hitherto secured by the payment of this native civil list by the Colony has been in one way or other the maintenance of the interference of the Colonial Office in the government of the natives. Lord Carnarvon is correct in stating that the Duke of Newcastle relieved the Colony from this interference ■ feu-fe he is wng m spying that Mr, Qw&

well followed the Duke's policy. Mr. Cardwell reversed it, and told the Govornor that so long as Imperial troops remained in the Colony he was to act on his own judgment whenever he differed from his colonial advisers. It was to get rid of this interference that the Assembly in 1864 passed the resolutions referred to, requesting the immediate removal of the troops. If His Grace the Secretary for the Colonies hopes to retain the right of interference by giving the Colony a regiment on these terms, he has made a mistake. The Colony will on no consideration consent to the renewal of the right of interference in native affairs by the Home Government. To the exercise of such interference _ it unanimously attributes all the native difficulties, and so long as it is maintained the Colony will have the corresponding right to demand military prot3ction. There is, however, little - fear of the Colony accepting any such proposal, and if the detention of a regimeut depends upon it, it will not be detained. Sir George Grey has always manifested a large amount of "Wallenstein's faith in " big battalions," and was not the man to denude himself of troops if he could help it. I think, however, he might have been compelled to do it without the step taken by lord Carnarvon. Anything, the Governor's recall or any other equally strong measure, would have been better than the provocation to conflict between the civil and military authorities, which ensued as the natural consequence of the transfer of power from the former to the latter. Stung by the implied slight, Sir George Grey at once threw himself into open opposition, and while forced to admit the General's power to remove the troops from the Colony, he defied him to take the necessary preliminary steps of moving them in the Colony. The General was checkmated, referred the matter Home, and retired into a position of sulky inactivity, which involved the waste of a great expenditure and the suspension of all active operations. But this was not the worst result. The " demoralisation " of that force in a technical sense had been bad enough before. It now became far worse. The quarrel had been a single combat between the Governor and the General. It now became what the Americans call a free fight. Encouraged by Lord Carnorvon's action, every officer who could nib a pen and had the use of official stationery "for nothing, every Colonel who was tired of the war, and every commissary and deputy-commissary-general rushed into foolscap, and the Governor and his 1 Ministry became involved in hot controversy with all sorts of military antagonists. The Governor might well have exclaimed. " Little dogs and all, Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart—see, they bark at me." The disorganisation between the two services, civil and military, became complete, as any one may see who will read the Blue -books- of the period. In the meantime the removal of the troops went on no faster than before, while their continuance in the Colony became, if possible, of less utility than it had ever been. We have probably seen the last of the Imperial army in New Zealand ; but it is to be hoped that if any troops ai*e left there, the injudicious step taken by Lord Carnarvon will not again be repeated. Nothing but conflict and inefficiency can possibly result from such division of authority. The. suggestion of the recall of the Governor on the ground of his contumacy was made by more than one noble lord. It would probably have been the wisest course to adopt, but the impending effluxion of his term of office will, no doubt, render any such step unnecessary. It is to be hoped that no consideration will induce the Home Government to prolong his tenure of office for another term. It seems to have been an axiom at the Colonial office that so long as there are native difficulties in New Zealand Sir George Grey must remain Governor. The Opinion Of many of the nld ooloniato is that so long as he remains Governor there will be native difficulties. He has never acted in native affairs on any principle, but trusted solely to tact, diplomacy, and personal influence. During his first administration these sufficed to. enable him to manage the natives, but before he returned to the Colony in 1861, the temper of the natives was changed ; he found his personal influence entirely gone, and no man has ever been regarded with more dislike and suspicion by the natives, as a body, than he has been since that period. How little he understood the problem he was sent to solve, and how little qualified he was to grapple with its difficulties, has been proved by almost every successive step he has taken, and at this moment he appears to have no more settled principles of native Government than he ever had. So long as he remains in the Colony as Governor, , he will prove, in my humble opinion, the i greatest impediment to the adjustment of > the "native difficulty.', i I cannot conclude with out expressing i my satisfaction as a colonist at the hand- * some and candid retractation by Lord \. Carnarvon of the very undeserved impu-

the colonial forces on one occasion while j he was Secretary of State for the Colo- i nies. . The colonists have on more than one occasion had to smart under similar imputations made in high* official quarters and in Parliament. In the particular instances referred to, they were generally withdrawn on receipt of better information ; but it leaves the impression on the mind of the colonists, much to be deplored, that the people at home are ready to believe anything bad of them. Notwithstanding many slanderous statements which have been circulated on high, and often apparently respectable, authority, I am convinced that neither the Colonial Government nor Colonial forces deserve anything but approbation at the hands of their fellow-countrymen at home for their conduct . during the very trying period of the history of the Colony, which is now, I trust, fast drawing to a close. The colonists are thoroughly loyal to the Queen and affectionate to their countrymen . at home ; but they do resent, and I hope always will, the expression of feelings which indicate in the minds of those who express them a pre-conceived conception of what colonists are, derogatory to their character as Englishmen and members of the British Empire. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, William Eox. Stow Bedon, Norfolk, July 22.