THE RECEPTION TO SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE AUCKLAND OPPOSITION MEMBERS.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 686, 7 November 1876, Page 2

THE RECEPTION TO SIR GEORGE GREY AND THE AUCKLAND OPPOSITION MEMBERS.

The new Theatre Royal in Auckland was crowded on Fnday night, trie dreßs circle being filled with ladies and their friends on the occasion of a presentation of addresses of welcotno to Sir George Grey. Mr T. Boylan occupied the chair, aud Mr JR. Graham read tho addresses, as loHowh :—: — To his Honor Sir George Grey, K.OB Sir. — We, the people of Auckland desire ia public meeting to offer you a re*. estful aud cordial welcome on you rc'urn from ihe laborious duties of the ■os'ion of tin Assembly in Wellington. We huve watched with the d epes l ; i \terest the part taken by you in the Aneinbly'i prjceehugs. We <tppreciite your noble efforts to preserve the tulle it rights of self government for the people of the colony, to aecurn purity and economy in the administrate >u of its nffrira, and to obtain a fair measure of justice for this province. We recognised the devoted public spirit which prompted you, at the oall of the people, to quit the dignified retirement you had earned by distinguished servioes to our gracious Sovereign and to the colony, and we have witnessed with the deepeat pain the false and cruel manner in which you have been aspersed in official dispatches by the Ministry, to whose design! your advent into public life waa an unlnokeu for obstacle, and by the portion of the Press of which they have m vnaged to obtain the support. We feel, sir, that your example htu stimulated the public mndto & consideration •of the higher principle* on, which alouo the true greatness and enduring prosperity of a people joaa rtst. In the crisis which a radical aud high-handed ohange in the Constitution of the colony cannot; fail to produce, it ia a conso'ation that the people of Auckland have in joj, sir, a'leadrr posnessiug their implicit condence, and who has united thim for the common good, as no other leader could have united them in tho past, or oan do in the preseut. Wuatavtr changes tna> take place, or wliUever trials may br before the colony, 'allow us o express the earnest hope that you will con'inue to guide the peoplt of this province, v he gratefully rejngaiae your anflagniii£j energy and disinterested zeal lor their we' fare, and the welfare of tho colony. Imperishably connected with the vioiumhides of New Zealan 1 in its early <)ay«, j our name, air, will now b r a tain pod opon its history, and upon the hearts of its people, ns the undaunted defender of their nghb3 aid of the rights "of those wh.> are to come after them. That God roiy preserve you in health and strength for the great work still before you U onr earnest prayer and will b-> th«i prayer r f many tliomaads who are unablo to taka part in this greit meeting. Mr R Grahumc then'proposed. and Mill Hamilton seconded the adoption of the address. • Sir George Grey on returning (hanks, ] WTiewud the position of the Province at the present time. In the eirly days of this country Auckland was proclaimed the seat of Grorernment, and land was otferel for sale on the express understandj mc; tli it this was to bo fchf ssit of power and legislation in New Zea and. I am inform >d that under these circumstances land sold at £SJO per acre Now, what was the price at Wellington ? £1 per acre. Who cun poss.bly den> that when enormous wealth his been bestowed upon persons who guve bufc £1 per aore for th«ir land, fair c mpouaation should be given to those who guve £suO and a proportionAte amount 'for laud in the vicinity of Auckland. Your cliitns in that, respect should hare been considered in dealing with any subject whatever. Now, let me speuk ot the land fund. There is no doubt vr hat ever that you were, unjustly deprived of your share by J a oomp«ct which was no coinpaob at all. 'The allegation it that those who represent your iuteretts might have made a better bargain; but thoy were not entitled to represent you at all on queslious involving millions of money. No one could contend tlut if any one made an agreement of such a kind, thoae who made it should give some compensation That constitutes the seoond claim that you have on the country at large. I am not singular iv that opinion, beoause the representatives of the majority of the people of New Zealand agreed with me entirely upon that point during the last s'suon. Let us turn, then, to what was attempted last session. An attempt was made by which you were to lose all the privileges which you had of being represented by persons chosen by yourselves, and of having the proceedings of your representatives conduct absolutely uuder your own eyes ; the sale of land so conducted that jobbing was an impossibility, because you could watch every transaction that took plaoe I nay, if it was thought that all those things would be done foi you by those who represented the majority, it was a very hird thing that you should be deprived of them by a small minority of this count y. I wish to make my meaning perfectly clear to you in this. You elect your own Super, intendent, who was yonr Governor. To all intents and purposes he possessed al> the powors that Lieutenant-Governors of

colonies p sieastd, wi'-li one or two exceptions. You had the po>v iof elect ng to a Provincial C- u'ioil, and your ivp-r-seutit'vea could, by aa adilnss to the Governor, if tl.ey showed god cuise, and that the Su{ei'intf>ndent proved him •elf unworthy of the honour you had chosen him to, obt-m Mi removal You had the power of making your own ]j. «3 rxcapt a very few. And you had (his oth-r adv*nNg>, that any man who had suffered any wrong could go to the egislaturn in hia Ticinityj could natch its notions in committee, and see 1b it justice wa^ done him at moderate co«t, such ai everyone could meet. If he da sired a private bill he cou'd get. inch a bi'l pa-s"d at, an expense which was trifling, bo that various advantages were within your reach. Now you are to lo*o all thet Well, ye thought last n-ssion that this might he prevented. A number of us took the suhjpct into consideration, and a series of resolutions, well known to all of you, called the "Separation Bev>lution\" wers prepared. (Che-rs ) In truth, these resolutions proposed no Sepirati n at ill. They simply met thin objection t we were told there wore too many legislatures, and we said, " Well, have two leg »labure«, on > for the Nor h Island and one f. >rthe South The North Island hm a greater extent of territory than a great mojoriiy of British Colonies, and so has the South. Let thorn ei"h have a separate legislature combined with the adiaitages of a Federal Govern meut." Then we. proposed, as Wellington h.id been declared the seat of Government, •olcave the seat of tho Fedral Govrnm >nt at Wellington, and as Auckland h id suffered a greit wrong by tho ( removal of the seat of Government to make Auckland the seat, of the Government for the North Island. Then we went to the question of the Lind Fund, and the enormous debt upon the loans which have been raised. So one can deny that Auckland has not had a fair proportion of that loan expended upon her. That was admitted by ths Government. The answer was, " Beloro we have done with raising money Auck- • land shall hive its fair share." I did not believe, nor did my friends, that they would raise much more monoy, and these nobVminded men of the other island determined that a compensation should be made to Auckland on account of the Lind Fund ard Colonial debit. You wo'ild have said that was a fair arrangement. Compensation was to be got, to a certuiu extent, and to Aucknnl wns 'secured £120 000 a |year, which has now been taken from it. You would have that, after being tated no more, to expend in local improvements in thi* province, and this was to have gone on for all lime. You want to be relieved from paying that amount. For these resolutions we had votes which represented much more than the mnjority of the population of New Zealand. How then were they lost ? In part by sume of your members. (Cries of ' Billy Howe.") I am not sure how Mr Rowe voted, so I will not mention any names. A certain member did vote against the resolutions, and I believe if all the Aucklmd members had voted for them they wou'd hive brought over some others, and the re«olu'ions would h ive b.-en c irried. We had another obatucle to contend with, and that 13 that the Government of New Zealand, within the lost few years, h»vo boon getting a 1 tue power into one place, and have g>ne on giving members to small places over which they had control — re-creating, in fact, wbut were called in the old country " rotten boroughs." Tarantki has three lnemhers when one would be sufficient. Ilawke's Bay three members, when one would suffice. Wanganui had throe members. — Mr Rees : Ouly two. Sir George Grey : Well, Manawau has one, which is close by Not only that, but other p >rtir>BB of the colony have had a number of mombois given to them unfair in. proportion to te popn'ation Now we are compelled to pay £120 000 a-year tribute. It is to be tnkeu from us year ofter year for ever. Ourselves, our heirs, and our descendnn's are to pay £12J,030 a year to the other parts of th« country. And how has that been done? By Hawke'a B.iv, Tiranald, and other placet having an unfair repre»entation 1 say that it it unfair that a nmj^ri'y should bo enslaved by a minority ; tl>at the minoiity bhou d have the po »er of saying, " Y»u shall pay £120 000 a year; you shall have no seat of Government at Auckland i no legislature sitting there ; you shall have the two inlands federated together, bnt we at Wellington shall ru'o the whole of New Zealand, and take these funds from you." We met them always m this way : We said " Dissolve the Pi o vincial Councils and lot them be reelected. It the ptopla return representativ s denring that this shall be done, we will all faithfully act in accordance with their behests ; but if you do tbii nguust the wish of the people we will resist »« long as we can " (Great cheering ) T heu the answer that was mule to th*t was, " We have consulted the peiple. We made tne Governor write home and tell tha Secretary of the State for the Colonies that we were about to consult the constituents, and the last eleotion decidtd the question." Let ns ci how this was done. There is a nominated Upper House over which you have no' control, and who represent themselves aid nobody else. The Gjvt-rnment passed an Act to say that Abolition was to corao into operation on a certain day. They sent that Act home to be confirmed, saying that it was to go to the con«tnu u noes. I bdievo if the H> use of Representatives repealed that Act tin Council would never have agreed to its repeal. The usual practice is tbat you firit promulgate the law, and theu make it> You do not make the law tint, and then say "If the House repeal it, we will repeal it." The home Government bave been deceived, 'Jhey believe that the whole thing has been done by lh« uousent |of the graat majority of the people of New Zealand ; instead of which tht inhabitants have never been consulted at all. Just consider what a mistake has been made in that. My friend Mr Tole went into a ca'culathn which showed that 127,000 of the people had no vote at all when the Parliament was elected that introduced the Abolition Bill, so that no fair appeal to the people has been made on the snhject. It is wrong that we should have oar rights taken from us, and £120,000 taken from this plaoe, aod spent elsewhere. Is that right when tho representatives i i the majority of the inhabitants of this land have agreed to mike that compensator,—is it right ? All t could do on that subj ct was recently whea the que.-t on of another million loan oame up, I took upon myself to say upon your behalf what I myself held to be a fact, that Great Britain is in part responsible for all these loans, for she forced this form of Government upon us ajainst the will of the ppople. It is made up of three parts by law— the Governor, the Legislative Council, and tho House of Assembly. Two of these powers Great, Britain his named. I nay, therefore, looking at the part the Government has taken on this subjoot of Abolition, that Great Britain in, to some extent — I will not say to what extent— responsible for the debt forced upon us ; and that thti rest of Now Zealand considers that we have been unfairly treated appears from what took place last year. I took upon mycelf to nay "Now, on behalf of the Auckland, whose Superintendent I am, I protest and declare that we will not hold ourselves bound to juy

pnncipal iud iuteroat of that debt, or ot afty further debt, until a fair «rbitration takes pkco, and impaitul persons deci^o whether Great Britain is r«-|>onaible for tuiy p.rtion, snd what is juedy to be chargeable against the province of Auckland. Our own fair and just debts we will own honourably like equitable and j ist m-'n, but that which is admitted by themajouty of th» pdople of this islai/d that wo do not erne, wo will not pay. Wo may be much more unable to enforce our claims, but; we will teaoil our children tO strive that jusiiceiball bedouo, andhope th^t at last iiybteous meu ahall rUe aud givo ub that to which we are justly entitled. And jf we see one way to attain th 8« ends we will attain them by working out and on until at laat ho succeed in _a niug wnat is just and right, and whafc we aro emitted to. TJuse are the points to which I would particularly direct your attention, and I as jure you that if you do not atta-n th m you will not be lv a fair pontion.