A.—3a

116

that he had not done anything [it should be,' that he had not brought forward some other measure'], but he had never received any representation on the subject of representative institutions from the Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster and his Executive Council." The only other printed report of these proceedings in Council is as follows : " Sir George Grey observed that he still thought that this Provincial Councils Bill was misunderstood. He had never received any recommendations from the southern province to establish.municipal institutions. He had not power to proclaim new provinces." 4. In fact, the extract from the Lieutenant-Governor's despatch, quoted may be regarded as having been unnecessary, as it refers to a kind of Council which was only temporarily constituted in the year 1848,t0 afford the Government.time to devise the outline of a series of representative institutions fitted for New Zealand, and to prepare the country for their introduction, which was by no means an easy task. It was known, as it was by the Government publicly stated, that the formation of Councils so composed was a mere temporary measure; and when the Lieutenant-Governor wrote, on the 24th August, 1850, the statement referred to, a despatch of mine had been already published in the Government Gazette, which must have made it quite clear that it was my intention, in the month of October of the same year (that is, in two months), to bring forward, if possible, a measure to entirely change the form of the then existing Council, to which the Lieutenant-Governor alluded. I have, &c.,° The Right Hon. Sir J. Pakington, &c. G. Grey.

Enclosure in No. 45. Mr. Dorset to the Eight Hon. Sir John S. Pakington. Sir,— Wellington, New Zealand, 31st July, 1852. I have the honour to forward a copy of a series of resolutions unanimously adopted by the Settlers' Constitutional Association of this settlement in reference to the Provincial Councils Ordinance, which was passed by the late General Legislature of New Zealand on the 9th of July, 1851, and which has recently been proclaimed by his Excellency the Governor-in-Chief, although the Right Hon. Earl Grey, in his despatch of the 2nd of April, 1851, intimated that the Ordinance, if passed in its present form, would not even be submitted to Her Majesty for confirmation. I have, &c, John Dorset, The Eight Hon. Sir J. S. Pakington, &c. Chairman.

Sub-Enclosure to Enclosure in No. 45. Eesolutions of the Settlers' Constitutional Association. The following resolutions relating to the recent Proclamation of the Provincial Councils Ordinance of 1851 were unanimously passed at a meeting of the Settlers' Constitutional Association held at Wellington on the 30th July, 1852 :— 1. Moved by Dr. Featherston, and seconded by Mr. Brown: "That, after the almost unanimous condemnation and rejection of the Provincial Councils Ordinance of 1851 by the inhabitants of Wellington and every other settlement in the southern province, and after Sir George Grey's declaration in Council, ' that he had no desire to force upon the colonists an obnoxious measure,' this Association cannot but regard His Excellency's recent Proclamation of the Ordinance not only as affording an additional proof of that disregard of the feelings and opinions of the settlers which has ever characterised his administration, but also as demonstrating the urgent necessity that exists on the part of the colonists not to relax in their endeavours to rid the colony of the present despotism until the promise contained in Her Majesty's Speech has been redeemed, and a full and complete measure of selfgovernment conferred upon them by the Imperial Parliament." 2. Moved by Mr. Lyon, and seconded by Mr. John Mcßeth : " That Governor Grey's reiterated denial in his communications with the Home Government of the general prevalence of opposition to his various and everchanging schemes of Government is so notoriously and palpably at variance with the numerous protests and remonstrances against them which have emanated from all the settlements in the southern province, and with the fact that he was in 1849 unable to constitute a Provincial Council for New Ulster owing to the refusals of all the most respectable settlers to accept seats in it, that this Association, considers any further comment upon or refutation of His Excellency's continued and systematic misrepresentation of the wishes and opinions of the colonists as altogether superfluous and unnecessary." 3. Moved by Mr. W. Fitzherbert, J.P., and seconded by Mr. Quin : " That this Association has seen with great satisfaction the following manly and straightforward expression of opinion contained in a despatch, dated 24th August, 1850, from Lieutenant-Governor Eyre to Governor Grey, notifying the resignation of their seats by certain nominees : ' At the same time, I cannot conceal from myself that the present form of Council is so unpopular, and daily becoming more so, that there is little probability of the Government being able to induce any other gentleman of sufficient character, standing, and ability to join it; the prevailing impression amongst the best educated and most respectable portion of the community being that it would neither reflect credit on themselves nor enable them to serve the public usefully by becoming members of a Legislature which, under the present constitution, is so distasteful to the public generally ; an opinion which is not without countenance, from the fact that the majority of the Justices at Wellington and Nelson have rendered inoperative several useful laws passed during the only business session which has been held by the Provincial Legislature, by declining to make the requisition upon the Lieutenant-Governor to proclaim these laws which the terms of the Ordinance required, but which refusal was grounded on the assumption that the laws had been enacted by a nominee Council not possessing the confidence or representing the interests and wishes of the colonists at large; and that, therefore, however useful those laws might be it would be better to be without them and suffer inconvenience for a time than to sacrifice what they consider fundamental principles, by taking any part in bringing them into operation.' That this Association