SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 438, 18 January 1890, Page 5

SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE CONSTITUTION.

(By W. L. Rees.)

NO V. Sir William Fox’s Third Letter to the “Herald” of Saturday, December 14th, 1889.

The political attacks which have been made upon Sir George Grey during the last forty-live years, principally by Sir VV illiarn Fox, the former agent of the New Zealand Company, have been recently revived and summarised in a series of six letters written by that gentleman to the “New Zealand Herald ” between the 4di and 23rd days of December, 1889. The two first letters do not mention Sir George Grey. The third, in the “ Herald ” of December 14th, commences : “On Captain Fitzroy s recall, Captain Grey was appointed his successor in New Zealand.” The last four articles are simply a tirade of abuse of Sir George Grey ora glorification of Sir William Fox and hiß friends. The summary of the Charter and Act of 1846 contained in the letters alluded to is entirely wrong and misleading, and air William Fox’s account of ihe action taken by Governor Grey in the appointment of his Executive Ministers is completely erroneous, and calculated to produce altogether wrong impressions of Sir G. Grey s conduct. Sir William Fox states : 1. That Sir George Grey thought the Act of 1346 practicable and suitable when he first received it. 2. That shortly after its receipt he offered to Mr Domett, t he Hon. C. Dillon, and Mr Fox, the three principal offices whicti would have most to do with its introduction. 3. That all three gentlemen accepted the positions and prepared to enter upon these offices, resigning the various positions which they then held. 4. When just waiting for orders to set to work to introduce the Constitution they heard from the Governor that he had decided not to bring .t into operation. 5. That Messrs Liomett and Dillon, who had been put to much inconvenience by this step, were placed by the Governor in other offices, which were really not necessary ones ; and that this was done by the Governor in order that matters might be “smoothed.” 6. That Sir iVilliam Fox himself decided on taking a voyage to England, but Colonel Wakefield, the principal agent for the New Zealand Company, suddenly died, and an authority was found among his papers ap- | pointing Sir William Fox his successor. 7. That after the above appointments were made, Sir George Grey assigned to Earl Grey bis reasons for suspending the Constitution.

1. In answer to the first statement, it is sufficient to say that on May 3rd, 1847, Sir George Grey, having in April received from Earl Grey the drafts of the proposed Con stitution, wrote a very long and elaborate despatch to the Government in London, in which he pointed out the whole of his reasons for suspending the Constitution so proposed; that in November of that year the Cabinet in London had unanimously agreed to Sir George Grey's suggestions, and had communicated the same to the Governor in that month. Sir George Grey, therefore, never approved of the Constitution, but from the first relused to bring it into operation. (New Zealand Papeis presented to Lords and Comm ns, December, 1847, pp. 42 to 46). Not only do the dates of the despatches prove that Governor Grey took the earliest opportunity of objecting to the introduction of the proposed Constitution, but Earl Grey bears the most emphatic testimony upon the same point. “ When the above despatch (i.e., enclosing the Constitution Act, 1846) reached the colony the Governor immediately wrote to represent in strong terms the danger which, in the then state of New Zealand, would have arisen from the discontent that would infallibly be excited among the natives by the proposed change in the form of government He was at once informed that we would propose to Parliament a Bill to suspend tot five years the operation of so much of the Act of 1846 as related to the establishment of representative legislatures in New Zealand.” (“Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell.” Earl Grey, vol. 2, p. 156.) 2. The appointments alluded to by Sir William Fox were made in February and April, 1848, neatly a year after Sir George Grey had refused to bring the Constitution into force, and many months after the English Government bad adopted the position taken up by him, as the Act suspending the Constitution received the Royal assent in London on the 7th of March, 1848, at a date between the appointments mentioned. The e officers, therefore, were not in any way appointed with a view to bringing the Constitution intoeffect, but as the executive of the province of New' Munster, as Sir William Fox well knew. (Letters from Sir George Grey to A. Domett, Esq., February 4th, 1848; W. Fox, Esq., February 4th, 1848; the Hon. C. Dillon, April 10th, 1848.) 3. The Honourable Constantine (not Conrad) Dillon and Mr Domett did accept the positions to which they were appointed by Sir,George G>ey, and filled them for many years with honour to themselves and advantage to the pub ic; but Sir William Fox did not acc- pt the Attorney-Generalship offered to him, his statement that he did Deing contrary to the fact. The letter written to him by Sir George Grey is as follows :

Nelson. .February 4th, 1848. Sir, —The apoointment of Attorney-General for the province of New Muns er being vacant, I have much pleasure in testifying my resj eet for your abilities by offering to nominate you to this office until such lime as Her Majesty’s further pie b ire may be made known. Toe •salary for the present attached to the office is (£100) four hundred pounds per annum, and under the terms of the recent Charter the Attf raey-Ueneral is constituted the second officer of the Executive Council of the province. I should he glad to have your decision upon this sub.'ejt at as earty a date as practicable, in order that I may communicate with l.ieu-tenant-Govemor Eyre: but at tne same time, shou d you determine on accepting the office, I have nb wish hurriedly to call you from the affairs in which you are at present engaged, and will endeavour to make such arrangements regard ng the period when yon should enter on the duties ot the office as may fall in with your views. I have, etc., G. Grey. William Fox, Esq.

To thisletter Mr Fox made no reply till the month of June, when it was well known in the colony that the Act suspending the Constitution for five years had been passed in England. Mr Fox replied to the Governor’s proposition by declining to accept, save on several conditions as to repre sentation and representative government, with the liberality of which the Governor was not satisfied. At this t me the Governor had been entrusted by the Imperial Parliament with most extraordinary powers tor the granting of representative ins ifutions to the colony, and it was the exercise of these powers in a certai* way that Mr Fox desired to have pledged to him for the carrying out of his own particular views. Mr Fox was at this time the Nelson agent for the New Zealand Company. Anappointment had beensignedin London on the recommendation of Colonel Wakefield, making Mr Fox ithe principal agent in the colony of New JZcalgpd in the event of Colonel Wake-

field's death or resignation, either event not improbable from his state of health. By the New Zealand Company's Colonisation Act, 1847, immense powers and authority had been given to the New Zealand Company, and Mr Fox simply desired that the whole control of the colony should be handed over to that corporate body of which he was so soon to be the manager in New Zealand. Sir George Grey, on receiving Mr Fox's letter wroteareply, refusingto accede to his proposals ; but before that letter was despatched, Government House in Auckland was, on the 23rd of June, 1848. destroyed by fire, and Mr Fox’s letter and the Governor’s reply were lost. Four days later, however, the Governor wrote to Mr Fox in the following terms :

Auckland, June 27th. 1848. Dear Stß.—Government House was unfortunately b irned on the night of the 23rd inst., and iri ti<e lire your letter to me regarding your views upon representation and my reply to that letter were lost. I feel, however, the necessity of at once putting an end to il.e stnte of su - pense you must be in, and therefore, although much pressed it r time, aud troubled by the care *a hich my recent disaster has brought upon me, I reply to your letter as well as I can from my remembrance of its contents. It will be 10 me a matter of very serious concern both upon public and private grounds if you retuse to accept oiiice as Attorney-Gene al for New Munster. Indeed, 1 should le.ret such an event more than 1 cun say. And the Lieuten ant-Uovernor of that pr wince has expressed sim lar feeling, of concern in his letter to me. Still it would be itnposst le for me to fetter myselfupon the subjectof the future form of governmi ni of this colony by makingany promises up >u the subject to my public officers. Ido not at the present moment know wtiat powers may I e delegated to me in reference to the future form of government of New Zealand; and when I am made acquainted with tins point, a large number of »übiects will have to enter in .o my consideration before I can deter nine ho .v to exercise them, such as ilie state of the entire colony of New Zealanl, the reiatiO! s existing between the two races the w shes of boih Europeans and Maoii , the ultimate intentions of the Home Got eminent in reference to New Zealand and its future Constitution. the instructions vvlii -h Her Majesty s government may iss eto me, I aseiupona view not i n y of the interests of New Zealand, but of the wnolo Empire l'h se remarks relate to a pan wnicli Sir G. Giey had sugge ted for -t Federation with islands in the Paci c. now occupied in great part by foreign powers], and o our probable relations with foreign powers, all which subjects I shall have to con ider with many others of a like nature before i ctn de ermine what steps t ■ a iopt. You will thus, I am sure, see that with every desire to sect.r: your s< r\ ices lor the public. I ould not enter i t > any such engagements with you a t you desire, but l t et hope > ou will feel that, arrungemen’s 1 may make will only last for a fe w years, during v hi-jn t ine the best fu ure form of conscimii n f-r New Z-aland cm be tuily considere l, 'hat you may yet feel it 3 our duty to give your services for the public, and raiher woik for a good form of government at the en - of the short piriod during wnieh the Constitution ap; e r likely to be suspended tl.au refuse to act for the rea ons you have stated. Mrs Grey and myself unite in kind regards to Mrs Fox. Believe me. Faithfully yours, G GREY. Wm. Fox, E-i;.. Nelson.

Mr Fox therefore never accepted the Attorney-Generalship of New Munster, or resigned by reason of such acceptance any position which he had held. 4. In regard to the fourth charge, the statement is absolutely incorrect, all three gentlemen knowing perfectly well that the Governor had advised the suspension of the Constitution Act, long prior to their being offered their respective offices. 5. Number five is also opposed to fa"t. Messrs Domett and Dillon were never placed in any other offices, nor were they ever offered or asked to fill any other offices. Those they fulfilled were absolutely necessary in accordance with the Act which created the two provinces of New Ulster and New Munster.

6. Number six may be partially true in fact, but i-< disingenuous and misleading as stated by Sir William Fox. In February he was offered the A torney Generalship; in June he refused except upon certain conditions ; in June those conditions were flatly rej9cbed by the Governor, and in September Colonel Wakefield died and Mr Fox became the principal agent of the New Zealand Company in the colony. 7. This statement is also palpably wrong. Sir George Grey had assigned his reasons in his despatch to Earl Grey in May, 1847, and Mr Fox succeeded Col. Wakefield in September, 1848. That portion of the Act which was not suspended and came into force on the Ist of January, 1848, necessitated the appointments made by Sir George Grey in February and April. I have given prominence and particularity to this porti n of the attacks made upon Sir George Grey, because it is tne only event happening in the knowledge of Sir William Fox when he, himself, came into contact with the Governor, and because the knowledge and word of a public man are given as a guarantee of the truth of the statements made When therefore it is seen that the most palpable misstatements and the most reckless misrepresentations are made, seemingly without fear of contradiction, the value of mere deductions or indirect evidence alleged by the >ame individuals must be admitted to be absolutely worthless. Happily these facts do not rest for confirmation upon any mere personal recolections of events which happened nearly half a century since. Sir George Giey has never attempted to answer the unfounded accusations made against him, but the despatches, correspondence and official papers are easily procurable and abundantly conclusive.

That Mr Fox declined the AttorneyGeneralship appears also from the correspondence between the Company and Earl Grey. Mr T. C. Harrington, writing on behalf of the New Zealand Company to the Right Honourable Earl Grey, in allusion to the death of Colonel Wakefield and the appointment of Mr Fox as his successor, says : “ For the former of these purposes they have appointed, as the successor of Colonel Wakefield, Mr William Fox, the gentleman who was provisionally selected for that office by Colonel Wakefield himself so long ago as 1845 ; was employed as the Company’s resident agent at Nelson at that date until recently nominated by Sir George Grey to be the Attorney-General of the Southern Provinces ; having subsequently declined that appointment, was fortunately on the spot and disengaged at the moment of Colonel Wakefield’s death.” (Letter from Mr Htrrington to Earl Grey, February 2nd, 1849; New Zealand Papers Houses of Parliament, July, 1849, p. 124.1 Mr Harrington might more correctly have said that Sir George Grey declined Mr Fox’s se vices on the conditions and terms which that gentleman sought to impose upon him as the Governor of Ni\v Zealand. Sir George Grey, having set himself to the task of providing the most perfect possible Constitution for a great and free colony, had resolved to obtain the assistance of the best intellects available, and for that purpose invited Air Alfred Domett, the Hon. C. Dillon, the Hon. Henry Petre, and Mr Fox to aid him in the accomplishment of this great work. Of these Messrs Petre, Dillon, and Domett willingly assented, and from time to time by counsel and correspondence rendered substantial aid towards framing the ireest, mo3t Liberal and most elastic Constitution recorded in the annals of history. One only, having the purposes of his employers to serve employers upon whom his promotion depended —-declined* The opportunity to be of inestimable service to New Zealand was thus given to Sir William Fox ; its accep-

tance was urged upon him by the consideration of the public benefit, of usefulness to his adopted country, and of every good and noble motive ; but he refused. The interests of the Company were, with him, paramount. The one man served a nation, the other a company. How necessarily discordant, therefore, mu3t their views have often been !