HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2313, 5 June 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

HISTORY OF THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.

I [From the New Zealand Almanac of "Wellington was founded in January, 1840, the first emigrant ship the Aurora, having arrived on the 22nd of that months. It was the first settlement in New Zealand. Port 'Nicholson, as line a harbour as any in the world, and tho most central iu New Zealand, was most judiciously ,s chosen as the site of the settlement, judiciously not so much with a view to immediate progress, as to its ultimate importance among the settlements of the colony, The neighborhood of tho harbour is rugged and heavily timbered, affording, except in detathed valleys (of which the Mutt, is the largest and best) lit'le "round suitable for either agriculture or pastuic. But at the distance of about 40 miles on the N.E. ' and 60 miles on the N.W., commence some of the finest districts for both purposes in the whole colony; the Wairarapa valley extending from the head of Pallber Bay for 60 miles inlaid, and thence by a series of fertile plains to Hawko's Bay and the boundaries of the Taupo country, some lfiO miles further in the first- direction; the Manawatn, Rangitikei, and Wanganuidi;;inet:; in the other; offer as linn lieldi; for ..cttlfinent- as any that liuiii.Hi iiultwi.iy has ever reclaimed. Port Nirlinbiii i'.i the commercial depot for l\\& »'«at districts of many million u.'iT'i mI fertile land, with a const line of lull 400 mile:;. Its ad-uiiititJi.vu-i position in reference to the otliH' iit-ule.tiii.il':; of tbe colony is -- apparent, on a glance at the map. Its /m rapidly increasing levenue, imports, and exports, prove tho impression which k being made on its back country, and fovealmilow a future greutnes-.i for its commercial enterprise which will probably not be surpassed by thai of any other part in the colony. \U line river, navigable for good sized brigf, :nn! .schooners, flowing through h nwtui unbounded fertility, and now being connected with other district ol ovual goodness, such as the Jianghitikei ami iUanawatu, by a Government ion], has already drawn a considerable population to it, The Watrampa valley is fully occupied by sheep and cattle stations, and two small farm settlements have already been established in this district, pioneers of the agricultural future of the valley. At, Hawke's Bay sheep .stations are also being rapidly formed a '"l the port iown of Napier cannot Iffi fail before long to become a place of considerable importance. To the early political history of Wellington wo can- spare but a limited space. To give it fully would bo to write the history of tho colony. It bore, inure than .any other settlemant, tho brunt- of the colonial office opposition lo tho company's operations, and before that had ceased, became involved in a war with the natives, arising out of nets of the Government which long retarded its career. At the period of its foundation the colonial office bad repudiated the sovereignty of Mew Zealand, and Rrivish law, as a consequence had no footing among tho earlier colonists, further than as they had by a voluntary subjection bound themselves among each other to give it force and validity. For five months no other than this self-imposed law existed, but peace, security, and good feeling reigned among the colonists, and between them and the Natives. obt At the end of that period (on the 4th ™ of June, 1840) Lieutenant Shortland, Governor (lobsou's Police Magistrate, and afterwards Colonial Secretary, arrived from the uoith, pulled down the colonists' Hug, hoisted the Union Jask, and proclaimed the authority of the British Queen in New Zoaland. There was none who did not rejoice to see that flag floating over them; but unfortunately the Colonial Secretary and hi'; subordinates hoisted at the same time the. flag of disaffection toward'! the colonists, and commenced sowing the riteds of disunion between them and the native race, From this period may be dated the growth of a " ut government party," opposed to the

interests of the colony, and tho origin acong the natives of suspicions fetling towards the sutlers with whom they had provioualy lived on terms of unreserved confidence. Governor Uobson had urrived in New Zealand in February, 1840. His first object seems to have been to locate himself a-s fur as possible from the Company' 1 ! nettlemetita. He chose the Hay of Islands, which/ after a lavi -h expenditure, proving impracticable, lie removed to AucLland, where he proceeded to found an easy capital with no other population than natives and his own officials, and no other pecuniary resources than the revenue drawn from "Wellington. He easily fall into ill health, and died on the 10th of Sep. terabsr, 1842, his short career as Governor having bpen marked by an undeviating spirit of opposition to the Company's operations. It was not till the 19th of August, 1841, that he visited Wellington, having, however, previously written to tho Home Government in tornid of strong disparagement both of the place, and of the colonists.

His temporary successor, Lieutenant Shorland, manifested the same spirit towards tho south, and his rumoviil from the office of Colonial Secretary was tho one act of Governor Fitz Boy,

wbioh met the unqualified approval of, lhe colonists. ' . .

Captain Fitz Roy, K.N., an' officer distinguished in the department of nautical survey, arrived at the close d 1843. Earnestly had'the'colonists anticipated his arrival as the harmonizer of the differences between themselves and the Government, and the now serious disturbances with the native race. Deep was their disappointment with the result. He brought with him prejudices more hitter by far than those which had animated his predecessors, and at his very first interview with the colonists in Cook's Strait, which he visited but once (in January, 1844) he succeeded in alienating the proffered affections of the whole population. He went from bad to worse; lie involved in debt, heplaced its very existence in jeopordy, and was at last recalled in disgrace by the Governiuen of Sir Robert Peel in 1845. Dark were the shadows which fell on the land while he held the reins (if government; backwards was the course of the colonists; and Wellington in common with all the settlements was plunged into difficulties and distress more resembling those of a city in a stage of siege than the proper condition of a young and flourishing colony,

His successor was Captain Grey, who at the time of his appointment was Governor of South Australia, He came to this colony with a carte blanche as to money, troops, and everything else; his prescribed duty being to extricate tho home government from the difficulties into which his predecessor had got it. The leading event of his government was the pro tracted struggle between himself and the colonists on the subject of selfgovernment, which finally terminated, as our readers know, in the triumph of the latter. The following is a brief outline of that struggle.

Sir Robert Peel, and the other statesmen who took part in the debate which led to the recall of Captain Fitz Roy, all agreed that aelf-government by the colonists was the only remedy for the existing evils. Governor Grey had scarcely arrived in the colony when he hastened to express his concurrence in their opinions, writing to Mr Gladstone, then Secretary for tbe colonies, that of all the colonists he had ever known, those of the southern settlements ol New Zealand were the most fitted to govern themselves, Results, however, have proved that Governor Grey had determined in his own mind that so long as be should remain in the colony, the colonists should not exercise that privilege, A constitution was framed by Parliament in 1846 (under tho Secretaryship of Lord Grey) and sent out tor immediate introduction. Though defective in many respects, it conferred iu many others very large powers of self-govern-ment,

Governor Grey did not introduce id but adroitly criticising it, suggested to tbe home Government certain amendments ; thus securing its postponement tor one year at lust,. On receipt of his suggestions the homo Government suspended the Constitution altogether for five years, lint gave Governor Grey discretionary power to create in the interval institutions embodying any amount he might think' proper of the representative principle. He discarded that principle altogether, and introduced his nominee Provincial Council measures of 1848. One season sufficed for that; it utterly broke down, over whelmed with the contempt of the community. He now tried a new plan; got together a general council (entirely nominee) of both provinces, and passed i measure for the establishment of Provincial Councils, consisting of one-third .nominees, and two-thirds representatives, not bestowing the management of Waste Lands; and embodying in fact only the semblance of self-got eranent withmt conferring its reality. It amounted to a sham and delusion from b g'nning to end. This measure he intended as the frame work of the permanent constitution of the colony, That it was a great advance upon the views of 1847, 8, 9, will not be denied. That it was so was owing solely to tho pressure from without by the colonists, and the suggestion by t'liHin of whatever improvements Governor Grey's later constitutional schemes! present in comparison with hi* earlier, is apparent from an examination of his dispatches, and the various documents put forth by the colonists. In the meantimo the colonists of Wellington had not been idle. In January, 1849, the Settler's Constitution Association was formed for the purpose of watching Governor Grey's proceedings, and asserting the political rights of tho colonists. A petition to Parliament protesting against the nominee council measure, was prepared by it, and received the signatures of fully three-fourths of the male adults of the settlement, The example .was followed in the other settlements. On the 10th March, 1850, a grand reform banquet to celebrate the transmission of that petition to England was held in Wellington, attended by 200 persons. The various despatches from Governor Grey to the home Government, were (iissected and refiitud by the association as they reached the colony from time to time in the Blue books. In November, 1850, and February, 1851, the two largest meetings ever held in the settlement (convoned by the association), unanimously condemned Governor Greys Provincial Councils' Bill, and

I auggpsted to the Home Govtruutent, in . ' h series of resolutions, the principles on the colonists desired,, their constitution to be based, An honorary ; political agent (Mr Fox) was accredited ; to the' Home Government, to lay the , representations of the colonists in person before her Majesty's ministers, mid to press for the immediate bestowal of the long promised constitution, The result was the disallowance by Lord Grey of Governor Grey's Provincial Councils Bill, and the introduction into Parliament by Sir John Packington in 1852 of the,constitutional- measure ■ which passed into a law in the same year, That measure was framed for the most part in accordance with the views expressed by . the colonists,— conferring on then the management of the Waste' Lands' of the Crown, abolishing nomineeism in the House of , Representatives, and the Provincial Councils, placing limits on the acts of the Crown, and substantially providing for the self-government of the colony. Governor Grey, as had been predicted by the colonists, did not think proper to face the representatives of the people under the new constitution, It was proclaimed by him on the 18th of January, 1853, the Superintendents were elected, and the Provincial Councils were formed and met, But he decli.ied to summon the General Assembly, the only body to which, he. could have been made responsible for his past acts, and left the colony (nominally on leave of absence) for England in December, 1853, Thotask of summoning the General Assembly devolved on his temporary successor, Colonel Wynyard; who after adopting the principle of Responsible .Government appears to hitve got alarmed at the noise of the machinery hehad put in motion, and lias since refused to carry the principal into practice. A Parliamentary crisis has ended in an entiro suspension of the business of the Central Government, and the return of the constituents to the several provinces, That tho contest between the representatives of the colonial office and the repreaentatives of the people will end in favor of the latter, as all previous contests between the same parties have done in New Zealand, we have not a particle of doubt. As regards the Provincial Government of Wellington everything has worked smoothly and well under the now constitution, I. E, Featherston, Esq., M.D., who had earned the confidence of tho public by a lon;,' and consistant political career, wus el sotod Superintendant in July, 1853, without opposition. The elections for the Provincial Councils wero hold in August. On meeting the Council (which assembled on the 28fch October), His Honor, the Superintendant, avowed his intention of adopting the principle of Responsible Government, and the gentlemen whom he appointed to his Executive council were forthwith sent back to their constituents for re-elec-tion. The success of the experiment is admitted by all (oven by those who originally opposed it) to have been complete, and to have established beyond .a doubt the feasibility of working the machinery of Government on the Kespousible principle in any community however small, The legislation of. the council was generally of a useful and practical character, and only one measure (the Superintendent's -Absenee Act) whs vetoed by the Officer administering the Government. To Wellington and to its first Superintendent will belong the credit in the history of the colony of having been the first to establish the principlo of Ministerial Responsibility. The Council was prorogued on the 17th of February to meet again on the 21st of November, 1854. No better test of the efficiency of the of tho free, institutions bestowed on the colony can be appealed to than the oxrenditnre of the Revenue. To take 1849 and about the middle of Governor Grey's administration, as a fair average year; it appears that in the northern province, with an estimated revenue of£3o,ooo,noless than £28,000 was appropriated to official departments; only the contemptible ■ balanoe of £2OOO being expended on public works or undertakings, and nothing whatever on immigration. Under the new Constitution the Provincial revenue of Auckland for 1854 was estimated at £28,000, of which no less than £15,000 was appropriated to public works. In the Southern Proviucain 1849 thereveniie was estimated at £28,000, ot which all but £4019 was expended on offioial departments, The Provincial revenue of Wellington for 1854, uiider the new Constitution, was estimated at £IB,OOO, and of this £8950 was appropriated to public works and undertakings; and the revenne having greatly exceeded the estimates, nearly two-thirds of its amount have actually beon expended on public works, or reserved io pay for the passages of assisted emigrants, of whom 280 have been sent for, During the latter years of absolute government all public works had ceased, or all but ceased in the colony; in the Wellington Province alone during last year upwards of 11 miles of road, chiefly metalled, and for carriages were constructed j so forcible is the contrast between the results of selfgovernment and jolonial office rule,