From a file of the most recent New Zealand papers
we learn that our anticipations have not been disappointed ;* for with the signs of the most substantial prosperity, we have evidence of a better spirit ruling the Government. If Colonel Wynyard ful- filled his promise to the disheartened members of the General Assembly, by sending home a strong recommendation that " re- sponsible government" should be conceded in the form desired by the colonists, the new Governor, Colonel Gore Browne, has car- ried out a just idea of the thing wanted, and apparently the firm resolve to accomplish it. The first of his acts was to dissolve the Assembly, and so to cut off the past, with all its failures, its false positions, and its entanglements, from the future with all its hopes. The newly-elected Assembly met at Auckland on the 15th of April ; and in a frank address, instinct with elevated feeling, the Governor announced that he liad re- solved upon a full concession of " responsible government." He had made some reservations with regard to certain territorial rights of the Crown ; but even on those points a free discussion between the oolonists and the Governor resulted in a clear and sa- tisfactory understanding. On the 25th April, Mr. Henry Sewell appeared before the Assembly as Chief Secretary and head of a new Ministry, with an ample statement of his policy, for accept- ance or rejection by the representatives of the whole colony. Thus, while European thrones are tottering to their foundations in the struggles of Absolutism and enchained Revolution—while the Republic of the West is rent by domestic conflict—the new- est and remotest of British settlements is, by the help of the Crown, solving the question of self-government, peaceably and effectually, so as to bind the Imperial power more to aid the colonists, the Colony more firmly to sustain the Imperial throne.
* Spectator, 1865 ; page 185—" Hopes for New Zealand."
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