COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION.
"Tim unanswered objection" to the arrangement which adds the office of War Minister to that of the Colonial Minister has received a striking illustration within a week after our last notice of it. The consequence of calling upon our Colonial Minister to devote his attention to war business is that the Colonies must suffer; for they are left to subordinates in the central office at home, who have a permanent interest, a vested pique, in anti-Colonial admin- istration. Our caveat of last week is exemplified in the ease of New Zealand.
That colony is—or has been—for some time in a state of sus- pended government, through the action of no revolutionary party, but of no other than the Governor of the colony. The case is so flagrant, that Sir John Pakington, who, as Colonial Secretary, fre-' quently won approval and praise even from opponents by the fair and reasonable character of his administration, and who framed the New Zealand Constitution Act of 1852, felt it incumbent upon him to put a series of six questions, in the House of Commons, to Under Secretary Peel,—the purport of the questions being to ask whether the Governor had. not set aside the Constitution Act of the colony, by anticipating the acts of the General Assembly, while he delayed the meeting of that body ? whether, in fact, Sir George Grey had not created an interregnum, and appoint- , ed himself dictator' to the serious injury of the colony and its ma- terial interests? Mr. Peel replied with a smooth statement,— making light of all the questions, insinuating that they were theo- retical niceties or martinet punctilios, and representing Sir George Grey as having done nothing but what was marked by oorrectnese assiduity, and good faith. It is needless to go over the whole oi Mr. Peel's categorical replies to Sir John's questions, but let us fasten on two points. It was represented, on behalf of the Governor, that time was required to fix the boundaries of the provinces, to make arrange- ments for registration, polling-places' &c.; and that the General Assembly could not be convened until the last of the writs should have come in. "Sir George discharged all those duties," says Mr. Peel, "with as great expedition as was consistent with their being performed in that honest and painstaking manner in which it was his wont to do everything that was intrusted to him; and in the course of about two months he had settled all those matters of detail." How, then, can we reconcile this apologetic statement with the publicly known fact, that the period which had elapsed between the receipt of the constitution in the colony and the departure of Sir George Grey from the colony, during which period the General Assembly had not been summoned, was, not two months, but thirteen months? Now, certainly, even al- lowing Sir George Grey his two months, and a reasonable time for the elections, it would not take eleven months to go the whole "eight hundred miles" from Auckland to Otago and back again; and the convening of the Assembly might have been fixed for the last day on which the latest writ could be returned. It is remarkable also that the existence of insuperable obstacles does not appear to have occurred to the people of the colony, who must have understood its local circumstances and rates of travelling. In an address to the Queen, passed by the Provincial Council of Wellington on the 6th of January 1864, the Council expressed its "deep regret that the General Assembly of the colony has not been convened, and appears likely to be suspended for an indefinite time." In this candid address, the Council mentions the existence of a minority in its own body, which deems it probable that the Governor may have reasons to justify the delay; "but we are all, without exception, unable ourselves to discover any valid reasons for leaving an essential part of the constitution in abeyance; and we are equally of one mind in declaring, that we are impressed more and more every day with a sense of the practical evils arising from the suspension of the General Legislature of the colony." In like manner, the Provin, eial Council of Nelson unanimously resolved, "That the ewer. tionment of the provincial revenue, before the General Assembly has declared what sums shall be appropriated under its authontz to specific purposes, is repugnant to the Constitutional Act, and
is not warranted by any circumstance which would have prevented the meeting of the General Assembly." Canterbury and New Plymouth evince their concurrence in the same opinion. But we have the testimony of Sir George Grey himself that there was no such obstacle; since he asked his Legislative Council to pass an ordinance appropriating the revenue till the 30th of September,— that is, to use his own words, "until the Legislatures created by the new act should meet." Here he must have referred to the General as well as the Provincial Legislatures, because the act evidently intended that the General Assembly should meet before the Provincial Councils.
Indeed, the meeting of the Provincial Councils without the General Assembly had created the peculiar difficulty which con- stitutes our second point, and which Mr. Peel endeavours to slide over. In his explanations he says that Sir George Grey did not appropriate the public money ; and then he proceeds to discredit that assertion by stating in detail the manner in which he did ap- propriate the money ; adding, that "if it was illegal, it was the fault of the act or its framers." "I am afraid, sir, said a lady to an eminent Frenchman, "that what I say is not good Frencl; ? " "Madame," replied the courtier, "it ought to be so." The polite gentleman would rather find the language of his country in fault than the lady; and Mr. Peel would rather think the law in fault than the Governor who breaks it. But Mr. Peel is wrong in fact. As to "the framers" of the act, we have Sir John Pakington him- self, who must have an opinion at least of what he intended in his own legislation, who gave instructions to the Governor, and who now finds the conduct of that Governor so little conformable to the instructions that he is obliged to appeal to Parliament against the breach of law. So much for the framer. The act itself pro- vides, that "until the writs for the General Assembly should be returned, the Legislative Council of New Zealand should exercise all its former jurisdiction and authority." When, therefore the appropriation ordinance passed in January expired in Septem- ber, the obvious course prescribed by law was to summon the Le- gislative Council and to pass a fresh one. So strong, indeed, was the feeling of the Provincial Councils, that they hesitated to ac- cept the portion of public monies allotted to them by the Governor. In New Plymouth, they accepted it provisionally for three months only ; in Canterbury and Nelson, they declined to accept the money. The Nelson address says, "That the appropriation of the revenue by the Provincial Councils, before the General Assembly shall have determined what sums it will appropriate for its own purposes, is contrary to law, and is not warranted by any circum- stance which would have prevented the meeting of the General Assembly." Thus the Governor had forced upon the Provinces a at:niggle between their regard for the law and their sense of necessity.
Mr. Peel makes light of an injunction obtained in the Supreme Court against the disposal of land in the district of Wellington ; and he evades the question of Sir John Pakington—whether the Governor did not dispose of land in defiance of the injunction ?—by saying that he thought it desirable that the Attorney-General should be made a party to the suit; adding coolly, that he could not say whether the injunction were issued or not, or whether any sales of land took place in the district to which it applied." By the assumption of this tone, he shows that he and Sir George Grey consider the disregard of the Court's authority as a matter of no importance at all. What would'he said of such a proceeding on the part of the Executive in this country towards the Court of Queen's Bench ? The facts of this ease have, as we learn from the New Zealand papers, been laid before the Duke of Newcastle months ago ; but it is evident from the circumstance of Mr. Peel's being per- mitted to make this statement, that the Duke has not had time to digest those facts.* Such is the consequence of our present system, when peremptory attention to war-duties calls the Secre- tary of State for the Colonies from the function of super- vision over the permanent staff; a removal the more to be regretted when the second Minister happens to be, by sympathy, natural aptitude, or a professional choice like that of Governor Grey, the volunteer agent for "Downing Street."
It is plain that Mr. Peel had received his information ex-parte, and that it is all taken from one point of view. If the reader will recall our recapitulation of some difficulties felt by the colonists of New Zealand, and the explanation of the Governor's conduct,t it will be easy to understand how it is that Mr. Peel should make such a statement in the face of the facts to which we have alluded. When any man enters upon that which is now a profession—the profession of a Colonial Governor—there are the usual "three courses" open to him. First, he may consider himself the creation of the Cabinet for the time being, and carry on his communications with that Cabinet, as Lord Sydenham did in Canada. Secondly, he may identify himself with the colony and its interests, as Lord Harris did in Trinidad. Thirdly, he may make himself the agent of the permanent staff at the Colonial Office in Downing Street. Professionally, for a man looking to progressive pro- motion, this third is the best course, and Sir George Grey is the best • When we received a Wellington newspaper containing the statement of the whole ease mainst the Governor, and drawn by the facile pen of Mr. Henry Sewell, comprising snore than three hundred sections our respect for the writer could not prevent our being amused at his simplicity in supposing that a Minister, pressed with the business of all the Colonies, could have patience to peruse such a document. But how physically impossible a pe- rusal of such documents becomes when the Minister, pressed with the busi- ness of all the Colonies, has to turn his attention from day to day, before everything else, to a war that affects all Europe!
+ spectator, 3d December 1853, pp. 11811-163.
example. It seems plain that he did not carry out the legislation or instructions of Sir John Pakington, who calls him to account ; but it is equally clear, that he has from first to last enjoyed the confidence of the permanent department whose views Mr. Peel' states. We have already explained how Sir George Grey's acts
might be reconciled with those instructions and With his defiance•of the leading opinions in the colony. It is" true- that, by lowering the price of land and appropriating monies, -he unconstitutionally anticipated functions handed over by Parliament to the General Assembly, and that by delaying the General Assembly he defied the Constitution Act. But many in the colony, especially those who hoped to profit by the manceuvres of the local Government, expect- ed profits from these promising offers of cheap land and distributed money ; and Sir George Grey so arranged that the maturity of
these promises would happen after he should have the colony. So to speak, he distributed. his promissory notes open-handed, but they were all to fall due after his departure ; and he comes away backed by the testimonials of grateful. speculators. Having always done his best to please the permanent staff in Downing Street, the permanent staff returns the favour by indorsing his notes for pre- sent accommodation.
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