SIR WILLIAM FOX AT WAVERLEY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXI, Issue 4057, 3 June 1879, Page 2

SIR WILLIAM FOX AT WAVERLEY.

I (concluded.) Another matter relating to native affairs was the .Native Land Court Act. When Sir George Grey wa? in opposition this was one ot hig principal points of attack, and it was on this subject tfeat Mr Ballance moved his resolution, which was the first hint of his coming apostacy from the Atkinson Government. The Act of 1873 was denounced in the strongest terms ; one of its greatest defects, urged by Mr Ballance, was the existence of political judges in the Court; it was utterly unworkable; not a day should be lost in bringing in a Bill to repeal it, and enact something more satisfactory. The Grey Government, aa soon as in office, pledged themselves to do so the next session. What did they do? Absolutely nothing, except pass a little rag of a Bill at the end of the session, for the benefit of illegitimate Maori children, and amend one or two email technical points. They have gone on working the utterly impracticable Act of 1873, juat as it was, and is now/ and have eTen added to the number of political judges, who formed one of its very worst features. Among its other chaages the Government had immediately on coming into office pledged itself to cease altogether from purchasing any land from the natives, and would ' have the field open for private persons, who might carry out this intention of Mr Ballance's resolution, which was to bring thp intending farmer, and the natives into direct communication, and to plant happy .villages all over the native territory. Here are a few extracts from Mr Sheehan's bi^ sheet oa native affairs' immediately after he took office : — " The Government should go out of the merket as a general purchaser of native lands." "The, Government propose to retire from the field as, land purchasers ou a large scale. .They consider it proper under existing circumstances, to leave private persons to, be t,he chief operators in the purchase of, the hat ye land.'" "It appears to me, also^thatj as a Government, having ceased to be iauj buyers, we shall be ablo to act apmowiiat in the direction of advising, &c, and directing the native people in regard to their purchases. Having ourselves learnt to be purohaiers, we shall be able to give independent and impartial advice that must have a good effect on the native mind. If we show that. we are really anxious to assist them, we shall very soon have applications from ad parts of the country, asking us to advise and assist them in selling their lanes.' — Hansard, Nor. 15, 1877. . "" ' I^ow what has the Government done in the matter? Exactly the reverse of what Mr Bheehan promised. They have not retired from the market ; they, have been rushing into large land purchases all over the island, buying extensive tracts of rubbishing coumry, of the kind which the natives call " Queen's land ; " they have, by a forced couatrueiion of an Act of Parliament, claimed a right of pre-emption over hundreds of thousands of acres on which the Government had paid only a few ihillingi deposit, and the; have competed with the private

purchaser faj* jnorfc keenly than ever Sir IX McLean did. Where ere the happy villages $>uride|l in. conformity with Mr BallknceV r^olution, by which the native*, were'.td 1 aid in the colonisation of this country^ and to become the founders of new settlements P All these things are no where, and wore never intended by the Government to be Rnywhere. JLj n a hundred othtr instances, they are oarrying out in t much greater degree the practices for which they condemned their predecessors. ~ - -:~-» ; :MaeTOß*t : FBAKCHIBB. ■ Sir William explained the existing franchise, unfle^Fwhich natives hare the power to qualify themselves in the same way as Europeans,- by being the individual possessors of a £50 freehold, a £10 or £5 house, a leasehold, a-minei^s righti or a business license ; and in addition to this franchise, which many hundreds of them possess and exercise, they al*o have a special manhood suffrage vote for four representatives of their own race, \yith. which European electOrs;cannot interfere. Sir George Grey and Mr Sheehan, in addition; to this, proposed to give the Maoris a. rote f or European representatives for mere tribal, not individual, ownership, without payment of • rates or taxes ; thus enabliug them in numerous districts fin ! the North Island to swamp the European constituencies. By dint of lobbying, and fighting the Southern members, as to tho effects in the riatiremind of a rejection of .the. bill; they carried this through the Lower House ; but most fortunately the Legislative Council stood out, and sent the Bill back with this objectionable feature Btruck out. ftow the bill had been brought in professedly to giv« Sir George ; Grey's " 70,000 down-trodden European Berfs," a franchise of which they had been deprived by the wicked landowners who had made the law's; and originally it only provided for them, and the Maori dual (or as it ought to be called treble) tote, w^s not in it. That wib only added by ,Mr Sheehan and Sit, George prey, after it was, nearly through the House.. ; Ifj 'Sir; George Grey had really paired one rush for the 70,000 downtrodden I serfs, he would hare taken the Bill as spnt back from the Tipper House, because ; though it failed him on tha Maori treble vote, it gave all he had asked for for his imaginary down-trodden serfs.. Instead of that, this friend of humanity dropped the Bill, leaving the,, "serfs ". in' their previous destitute condition, without the franchise, and no better than negro slaves. What shall we think of his sincerity P It need not be said that these 70,000 serfs are simply creatures of the same fertile imagination as detected the plot to bombard Auckland, and the conspiracy to poison ex-superintendents ; aad in point of fact, as nobody would have .been bene* fited if the Act had passed, nobody waa actually injured by its falling f through. But this is statesmanship ! 'This is the personal Government of the. great Keformer! INCONSISTENCIES OF THE GOYHBNMENT. It was clear from the proceedings of the Session, that the .only object of the Gorernment.was, to: stick to office, into which t^jey had succeeded in getting by political! treachery, and by reckless imputations on the character of their predecessors, not one <of which they had proved, though of oour.e, since they have been in office, they have had every opportunity of proving their charges if they had been true. There was hardly any enormity they had charged against the Atkinson Government, which they had notintensißed in their o.vn career. Some of the instaucei of this were amusing For. example, they were never tired when in opposition of denouncing the extravagance of Ministerial residences, which they alleged should be sold, and Ministeri go and live in private lodgings at los aweek, and so forth. Since they had been in. office, some property had been sold at unexampled prices, and tho Ministerial residences might have been sold, no doubt, at larger profits, but they bad lost all sense of the enormity, and ever/ member of the Ministry is t*nj )yin^ his easy chair, and gives his political dinners, in the very rooms where their predecea* sow had so wickeily and wastefully done tlie sime. Then there was the Hinemoa, which they were never done reviling, the late Government for poj--Bessing,whatthey urged should be sold for old iroq, rather than be kept as a pleasure yacht for Ministers. Well, since they have been in office, that detestable vessel has been employed for little else than to carry Sir George Grey about to make political speeches, or when he wished to take his ease in private retreat at Kaffau, or to take his colleagues about when they travelled on their holiday trips. Yet, when the ex-Governor, the Marquis of. 1 Normanby, and his invalid lady (both of j whom had gained golden opinions from ererybody but these Mitmters), asked to ; have the use of this yacht to take thorn to , Melbourne, it was rudely refused, j though the Marquis, it is said, offered | himself to pay the cost of the voyaga. The Attorney - General has written a letter to a Wanganui paper, trying to exculpate himself from blame in reference to his part of this discreditable transaction, i He did not wonder that he shouM b«. ; desirous of making it appear he wns not in fault. He shifted the blame on to Captain; Fairchild and tie salmon ovs. This was rather hard on the little fishei. But the public was not anxious to ascer- ' tain what precise share of the blanH ' rested on each particular Minister. It ' had given its verdict, even in the subii* ii dized Government papers, and the universal judgment was that the retiring Governor had been treated with great uukindness and discourtesy, and that it was all owing to the bad temper of th« Premier, and the bad taste of til colleagues. There are probably not tea peop.e in the colony who have arrived it any other conclusion. It is humiliating to know tbat the colony has a Miaistry which cannot see it.