SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 436, 11 January 1890, Page 5

SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

<*. NO. 111. (By W. L. Rees.) j When Captain Grey arrived ia New Zealand he found that the position was one of great difficulty and likely to jjive U so serious complicationss. The siieps immediately taken by the new Governor for tjie safety of the European inhabitai its are historical. His arrest of Te Raupara ha and the speedy ending put to the revol fc of Hone Heke in the North proved 1 lis claims to the title of a great military commander, as his formation of courts, the foundation of a system of edu cation, of police, customs tariff, and the opening of roads and of land for settlement, .as well as his pacification of the natives, were proof of his talent as an administrator. Captain Grey had, however, nob merely to face the native difficulty standing by itself ; he had to encounter a force which, being used to accomplish the ends of selfish people, was a perpetual spur to native The Company, as we have seen, continually desired the English Government to disregard the Treaty of Waitangi and to confiscate the whole of the lands of New Zealand nominally to the Crown, but really for the benefit of thoN.Z. gone so far as to approach Lord Sts -nley, then Secretary of State for the Cole urginguponhim that the Treaty of Wait vangi was simply a device for tho purpos e of amusing naked savages and inducing t hem to behave in a friendly manner until the British power should be permanent in tlhese islands. With Lord Stanley, the leaders of the Company met with no success. His r< ply to them, at once noble and dignnfied, stated that he, as Her Majesty’s representative, held all treaties assented to by the Crown of England as Bolemn and deliberate transactions ; that he shouM in no wise assent to the doctrine propounded to him that such treaties were merely devices to amuse naked savages, and that? he held, on behalf of Her Majesfiy, that the Crown of England and the people of England were bound by their solemn obligations to the native people and chiefs of New Zealand. The promoters and leaders of the Company were not to be rebuffed. No_ sooner had Lord Stanley' quitted his. position of authority in Downing-street, than they repeated their attacks upon Earl. Grey, who, as Lord Howick, had been interested. in the formationof the Company. In Earl.Grey,fora time, Mr Wakefield and his coadjutors found a more willing listener. Under his auspices and with his assistance they obtained, in 1846, the passage of an Act through tho English Parliament providing for a socalled Constitutional Government of New Zealand. Immediately subsequent to the passing of the Act it was transmitted with a long despatch from Earl .Grey to the Governor, in which His Lordship sets forth with great circumstantiality his belief that the Treaty of Waitangi cannot be held to be binding upon the British Government. So strenuous were the efforts being made by the Company to obtain complete control of the colony that it was believed by many that Captain Grey was, about to be recalled, and an agentof the Company made Governor in his stead. In anticipation of such a step a public meeting was called and held at Nelson on the 30th of January, 1847, the Honorable Constantine Dillon being chairman. The first resolution expressed the deep regret of the people at the reported removal of Captain Grey from the office of Governor. The second was thus worded : “ That we view with feelings of alarm and regret the proposed delegation of the powers of Government to the New Zealand Company.” Three other resolutions in the same direction were also carried,the last being: “That the twentieth report of the directors of the New Zealand Company lately received, the letter of Mr Edward Gibbon Wakefield appended to it, and the report of the Committee upon that letter are all characterised by a most extraordinary ignorar.ee of the state of the colony, and of their own settlements in particular, by predictions of which the subse- 1 quent course of events has shown the absurdity in the most striking manner, and by the suggestion of a course of policy for the future based upon error —visionary and impracticable.” (New Zealand Parliamentary Papers, Imperial Parliament, December, 1847, page 10.) One of the former resolutions states the opinion of the meeting that “ The administration of the affairs of this settlement (Nelson) by the New Zealand Company has convinced us of its incapacity, and destroyed all confidence on our part either in the wisdom of its measures or in the integrity of its conduct.” The speakers at this meeting represented the entire public feeling of the community. Besides the Hon. Constantine Dillon in the chair, Dr. Monro and Mr David Monro, J.P., Mr Greenwood, Mr Fell, Mr C. P. Withers, J.P., Mr Seymour, Mr Saxton, Dr. Renwick, Mr Budge, Mr Moore, Mr Greaves, and Mr Dartnell all spoke to different resolutions. Copies of the resolutions were sent by order of the meeting to the Governor, to Earl Grey, and to the court of directors of the New Zealand Company. , In Auckland at about the same time and while the Constitution was on the way, the people of Auckland signed an address to Captain Grey eulogising his efforts for the public good. Auckland and its people were bitterly opposed by the New Zealand Co. This address states : “ . . . When it was found that Auckland could not be deprived of its natural gifts, and that in spite of all attempts to retard its progress and destroy its very existence it still advanced steadily but slowly, and that when compared with the settlements of the Company which sought its extinction, it rose superior to them all, then the attempt is made to defame and malign its settlers, and. no misstatements, however gross, no fabrications, however outrageous, are left untried to effect this purpose As an apology for the introduction of these remarks and for praying your Excellency to represent our interests at Home, and dis-

abuse Her Majesty’s Government of any false impressions with regard to us as a community, we may_ mention that so entirely is the influential portion of the press in the mother country enlisted in advocating the cause of the New Zealand Company, that the friends of this settlement now in England have found themselves totally unable to cope with their more powerful opponents, and like ourselveß have been obliged to sit down in patience, trusting in the power of truth and time eventually to obtain us justice.” (Enclosure in despatch Governor Grey to Earl Grey, February 4th, 1847. Par. Papers, June, 1847.) Lord Grey’s despatch covered three documents — 1. The New Zealand Government Act, 1846. 2. Charter of 1846. 3. Royal instructions of 1846. Taken altogether, these provided as follows :

1. New Zealand was to be divided into two provinces—New Ulster and New Munster—having a Lieutenant-Governor and provincial assembly over each. 2. Each provincial assembly was to consist of two chambers —one composed of representatives, the other the council, composed of persons directly nominated by the Crown. 3. Tho representatives were not to be directly chosen by the people —but elected by the mayors, aldermen and common councils of the municipal bodies which were to be created throughout the country. 4. To elect the municipal bodies who were thus to elect the Houses of Representatives, those only were eligible who (1) Had been holders of any tenement in the municipalities for six months prior to each Ist January. (2) Subjects of the British Crown. (3) Of good fame and character, and not paupers. (4) Whose rates were paid or not more than six months in arrears; and (6) who could read and write English. 5. For the whole colony a general assembly was to be appointed, to consist of the Governor-in-Ghief, Legislative Council directly appointed by the Crown, and House of Representatives, to be appointed by provincial Houses from among their own members. 6. In each of the two provinces and in the whole colony a civil list controlled directly from Downing-street was provided tor, the salaries for which and the appointments to which were entirely independent of the Provincial or General Assemblies. 7. Native land registries were to be opened in the different districts, and all lands not registered as native lands by officers appointed not by the natives but by the Government, were to be deemed waste lands of the Crown, and this would include all lands claimed by natives save those actually used and occupied by them “ by means of labour expended thereon.” 8. The dissolution of the Assemblies included Councils, so that the Governor could get rid of obnoxious members, even of the nominated bodies. This so-called Representation Act was, in reality, a cast-iron frame of political bondage from which the people of New Zealand could not have escaped without the consent ot the Company, which never would have been given. The total number of persons who would have been qualified to vote for the mayors, aldermen and councils of the different municipalities would have amounted only to a few hundreds, and the great majority of votes would have been cast in the interest of the Company. All natives wereat once shut out from having any voice in the government of the country and the disposal of their own lands and the revenues derived from their taxation. So were all foreigners, and the vast majority of those settlers who, like the pensioners, though of English, Irish and Scotch birth, were uneducated, and therefore unable to read and write English, their mother tongue. Nopovver of alteration existed, save in the Imperial Parliament. Under the Act Charter and Instructions, the inhabitants of New Zealand would have been utterly powerless to direct their own affairs or to control their own destiny. The Governor and LieutenantGovernors were to be appointed directly by the Crown—that is, by the Secretary for the Colonies for the time being. The Council for the General Assembly and both Provincial Councils were also to be aominated from Downing-street; while the pretended representative institutions were a mockery and delusion. There was not, jaor ever could there be, any direct representation of the people. The power to make laws, to levy taxes, to expend public moneys, to dispose of the public lands, and to bestow public patronage, would have remained for ever nominally with the English Government, in reality with the directors and agents of the New Zealand Company. Not only were the Europeans disturbed by the proposals contained in the Imperial legislation ; the friendly native chiefs were seriously alarmed. The Governor was continually receiving questions from them as to the meaning of the rumours which were freely circulated among them, and as to the real intentions of the English Government. The native chiefs did not limit their anxiety to making inquiries of the Governor, but sent petitions also to the Queen which ultimately in May, 1848, produced an answer to Te Wherowhero and the other chiefs solemnly disclaiming on the part of the. Queen any intention or desire to violate the Treaty of Waitangi. The W r esleyan Missionary Society also in a long and elaborate memorandum prayed that all doubts regarding this question might be set at rest, as the honour of their missionaries who had aided largely in obtaining the assent of many chiefs to the treaty was at stake. (New Zealand Papers, Imp. Par., August, 1847, page 144.) Earl Grey’s despatch itself closed somewhat ominously. A Bhadow of distrust passed over the hears of the Secretary for the Colonies. He saw that the granting of this Constitution would be attended with at least one serious danger. “It is the danger that the powers conferred by this great franchise on the representatives of the people may be perverted into an instrument for the oppression of the less civilised and less powerful races of men inhabiting the same colony. . . . Such a society exists, and consequently such a temptation will arise in New Zealand.”