THE GOVERNORS' PROCLAMATION FORBIDDING DIS-UNION.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 364, 19 April 1861, Page 3

THE GOVERNORS' PROCLAMATION FORBIDDING DIS-UNION.

You may well conceive the painful astonishment, indeed disgust, with which this production was received by all thoughtful members of the community, not so much on account of the audacious assertion of the principle " Servi tua est conditio; ratio ad de nihil," as for the threat understood to be contained in the last paragraph, that unless the friends of the natives ceased from questioning the policy of the government, the war should be prosecuted to a war of races. The form of the notification and absence of all the usual prefixes and additions to a royal proclamation induced most people to fix the authorship of the document on the responsible Ministry, especially as the Governnor, who is certainly a gentleman, could not be supposed to be guilty of the unmannerly affront evidently aimed at Sir William Martin by the second paragraph. That eminent man being the only person of high authority who has published any opinion on the subject—the protests of the bishops (as it now turns out) having been made public by the Government itself!

Public opinion being thus unmistakably expressed as to the character of the publication, the Responsible Ministry took fright and through their lately acquired organ, the Southern Cross, charged the Governor with the -whole responsibility —designated the production as a leader in the Government Gazette —" a profession of weakness," "an appeal admisericordiam,'' and concluded a pungent article, to which I refer you, with the declaration that the document was unwise—leading lookers-on to believe that his Excellency feared discussion, and apprehended his position not to be tenable in the eyes of the world. I am now grieved to add there is some ground for believing the assertions of the Southern Cross to be correct, as it has lately transpired that one of the dilettanti politicians who are allowed to frequent Government House and interfere in the affairs of the country had some hand in concocting the document itself. This incident shows you the character of the Government into whose hands the destiny of the native race, to say nothing of the 60,000 Europeans inhabiting these islands, is now committed.

Happily for Her Majesty's subjects the discussions in the house of representatives during the past sessions, and the publication alluded to in this notable gazette, have convinced the natives that the authorities at home will not knowingly commit an injustice—that the Taranaki question will be fully investigated and right be done. Meanwhile the Governor is about to visit the Bay of Islands, seeking repose, and it is earnestly trusted that he will shortlyafter his return be entirely relieved from the cares and responsibilities of an office for which he has proved himself so lamentably unfit. — Melbourne Weekly Herald.