NEW CONSTITUTION FOR NEW ZEALAND.
A communication has been made from the Colonial Office to the New Zealand Company, and published in the newspapers, comprising a new char- ter and constitution for the colony of New Zealand. The legal documents were about to be published in the Gazette; but they had been forwarded by Lord Grey, through Mr. Hawes, with copies of the explanatory despatch to the Governor of New Zealand, for the information of the directors and shareholders of the Company in London. The papers are, the act passed last session for the better government of New Zealand, a new charter, a separate set of " instructions" as an appendix to the charter, a new com- mission for the Governor and newly-appointed Lieutenant-Governor, and the explanatory despatch. The substance of the whole of the information is conveyed in the last; which we abridge. Lord Grey begins by calling to mind, that, amid all the conffict of opinion re- specting New Zealand affairs, there was a general concurrence in the view that there must be a fundamental change, and that it must be in the direction of enabling the settlers to participate more largely in the business of legislation and local self-government. The act of last session was framed on that principle, and the charter now promulgated fills up the outline of the act. " For the institutions established under the charter of November 1840, it contemplates the substitu- tion of Municipal Corporations for the government of each separate district of New Zealand which is or which shall be settled by colonists of European birth and origin. Every such district is to be erected into a borough; every such Borough is to elect a Common Council from which are to be chosen a Mayor and a Court of Aldermen; every such Common Council is to elect members to serve in a House of Representatives, forming one of the three estates of a Pro- vincial Assembly. For this purpose, the whole of New Zealand is to be divided into two or more provinces. In every such Province, laws will be made for the province by the House of Representatives, by a Legislative Council, and by the Governor, who, together, will constitute the Provincial Legislature." Farther, there is to be a General Assembly of the New Zealand Islands, composed of the Governor-in-chief, of a Legislative Council, and of a House of Representa- tives. " But no one will be a member of the Legislative Council of the Ge- neral Assembly who is not also a member of one of the Legislative Coun- cils of the Provincial Assemblies; neither will any one be a member of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly who is not a member of one of the Houses of Representatives of the Provincial Assemblies."
The charter contemplates the creation of five different offices. The colony being divided into two separate provinces, over the whole there is to be a Governor-in- chief; and over each province a Governor and a Lieutenant-Governor. But for the present, only two officers are to be appointed: one is Captain Grey, who is ap- pointed Governor-in-chief and also Governor of each of the two several provinces; the other is Mr. Eyre, who is appointed Lieutenant-Governor of each of the two provinces. Provision is made in case of unexpected vacancies for the succession of each of the five officers to the post next above, in a fixed order. The Governor- General alone will correspond with the Colonial Office; the other four officers will correspond with him; they will be subordinate to his authority, and he will even have the power of suspending them from their duty if unhappily the necessity for so extreme a measure should ever arise.
The Governor-in-chief will fix his own place of residence according to his own estimate of the greater or less demand for his presence in one or in the other pro- vince. In his absence from either province, he may temporarily appoint a Lieu- tenant-Governor to act in his place.
Lord Grey advances several considerations in favour of this scheme of muni- cipal, legislative, and executive polity. It is analogous to the model of English institutions. It follows the scheme of colonial polity once diffused over the greater part of the North American continent, and still traceable in the flourishing States of the Union. It unites local self-government with a union of the whole in no undue concentration, cherishes a practical acquaintance with affairs throughout the colony, counteracts the tendency to disunion of interest or feeling in settle- ments so scattered, and establishes mutual interests and control between the lo- cal and central bodies, without risk of mutual encroachment. Mindful of the liability to error in legislating for places so remote, Ministers have provided that the adaptation of the law to the local circumstances should be transferable to those possessing local knowledge. The charter establishes the authority; the ac- companyiug instructions declare principles, rather than dictate inflexible rules or bind down the local authorities to details. From the municipal, legislative, and executive institutions now established, will flow all subordinate powers, judicial, fiscal, and magisterial, to be moulded by the respective Legislatures. Even the charter itself may be modified by the local bodies, through regulations of the fran- chise and of the whole elective system.
Lord Grey now comes to the subject of the Aborigines, and the settlement of public lands. The protracted correspondence, public debates, resolutions, and enactments, both at home and in the colony, have thrown the whole subject into the utmost confusion. He attempts no retrospect of those proceedings—that would only add to the perplexity which he acknowledges andregrets. The Act 9th and 10th Victoria, cap. 104, sec. 11, repeals the Australian Land Sales Act
S9 far as relates to lands situate in New Zeand; thus there is a complete ab- sence of our statutory regulations on the subject of land: the Sovereign, there- fore, resumes the power to dispose of it in right of the Crown, and the charter contains regulations. Lord Grey does not recognize the rights claimed for the New Zealanders either to an extended property in the lands of New Zealand or to the sovereignty over them. He cites the opinion of the judicious moralist Dr. Arnold, that in respect of land the right of property goes along with labour. The few patches planted with potatoes, the only signs of human habitation and industry in New e:ealand, could not convey proprietary rights to lands not much less extensive than the British Isles. To deprive the Natives of those potato- patches, or even of sufficient space to shift their cultivation, as was their habit, would be highly unjust. "So long as this injustice was avoided, I must regard it a vain and unfounded scruple which would have acknowledged their right of pro- inrty in land which remained unsubdued to the uses of man. But, if the savage habitants of New Zealand had themselves no right of property in land which they did not occupy, it is obvious that they could not convey to others what they did not themselves possess, and that claims to vast tracts of waste land
founded on pretended sales from them, are altogether untenable. From the mo- ment that British dominion was proclaimed in New Zealand, all lands not ac- tually occupied, in the sense in which alone occupation can give a right of pos- session, ought to have been considered as theproperty of the Crown, in its capa- city of trustee for the whole community; and it Should thenceforward have been regarded as the right and at the same time the duty of those duly authorized by the Crown, to determine in what manner and according to what rules the land hitherto waste should be assigned and appropriated to particular individuals."
Exclusive property in unoccupied land has never been claimed for the Natives as indi • lea. but only as tribes. Such a right attributed to a community is a right of sovereignty; and even if the New Zealanders had been a civilized people, and the islands had been either conquered or voluntarily ceded to the British Crown, such tights of sovereignty would have been transferred to the British Sovereign. It appears, however, that Governor Grey and his predecessors have thought it expedient to admit these Native pretensions to a considerable extent; "and having done so, no apparent advantage could be suffered to weigh against the evil of acting in a manner either really or even apparently inconsistent with good faith." Past engagements, therefore, will be scrupulously fulfilled. "I trust that the evil which would otherwise arise from the concessions already made may to agreat degree be neutralized by your strictly maintaining the ex- clusive right of the Crown to purchase land from the Native tribes to which it has been assumed that it belongs. This right, resting, as it does, not only upon what has been called the treaty of Waitangi, but also upon the general and long-recog- nized principles of national law, is one so important, that it ought almost at all hazards to be strictly enforced. To suffer it to be set aside would be to acquiesce in the ruin of the colony, since it would be fatal to the progressive and systematic settlement of the country. It is by the sale of land at more than a nominal price, that its appropriation to individuals, in allotments proportioned to their power of making use of it, can alone be secured. It is the mode by which, with least in- convenience and difficulty, funds can be raised for emigration, and for executing those public works which are necessary for the profitable occupation of the soil. In short, it is the very foundation upon which systematic colonization must be based. But if the Native tribes are permitted to sell large tracts of lands to in- dividuals for a mere nominal consideration, it is obvious that so much land will be thrown upon the market as entirely to defeat the attempt to sell such lands as the Crown may still retain, at a price sufficient to answer the objects of the policy I have described."
" The first and most important step which you will have to take with the view of introducing a regular system with respect to the disposal of land, will be to ascertain distinctly the ownership of all the land in the colony. The extent and limits of all which is to be considered as the property either of individuals, of bodies politic or corporate, or of the Native tribes, must in the first instance be determined, and the whole of the remainder of the territory will then be de- clared to be the Royal demesne. The results of this inquiry must be carefully registered, and a regular record henceforth preserved, showing to whom all the lands of New Zealand belong. This measure has been repeatedly and earnestly inculcated on your predecessors, and I cannot too strongly repeat the same injunction." The following are the principles upon which the instructions respecting the alienation of land are based—" That the power of the Crown over these lands should never be employed for any purpose of patronage, influence, or favouritism: that the Crown shall not be at liberty to make a gratuitous alienation of any ex- tent of land, however small, except with a view to public works, in which the whole society may have a more or less immediate interest. That the alienation of such lands to any private persons, or for any private purposes, shall always be preceded by a careful survey of the land, and followed by an immediate registra- tion of the grant. That no such alienation shall be made without a previous public auction: that at all such auctions all lands shall be offered for sale at a certain upset price: that the selection of the lands so to be put up to auction shall be made exclusively by the Government: that the upset price of each lot shall depend on the class in which itis placed; the three classes being town, sub- urban, and rural allotments; the last class being again subdivided into lands which are and into lands which are not believed to contain valuable minerals: that lands once offered for sale by auction, without finding a purchaser, may afterwards be purchased withont auction at the upset price. That the first application of the land-revenue must be towards defraying the expenses incident to the administra- tion of the Crown-land department in all its branches; and that the surplus or net land-revenue should be applied towards the introduction of manual labourers from this country, unless when the exigencies of the public service may render the application of it to other local purposes indispensable." Lord Grey repeats Lord John Russell's instruction to Captain Hobson, sanc- tioned by Parliament in the 10th clause of the 9th and 10th of Victoria, c. 108, " that the laws and customs of the Native New Zealanders, even though re- pugnant to our own laws, ought, if not at variance with the general principles of humanity, to be for the present maintained for their government in all their re- lations to and dealings with each other; and that particular districts ehould be set apart within which such customs should be so observed." "The Aboriginal -51)F" triots will be governed by such methods as are in use among the Native New Zealanders. The chiefs or others, according to their usages, should be allowed to interpret and to administer their own laws. Even beyond those precincts, the samepractice should be followed in all cases, whether civil or criminal, in which the Natives alone have any direct and immediate interest." Lord Grey con- templates that the "Aboriginal districts" will gradually extend into the " Pro- vincial districts."
Lord Grey's despatch, the charter, and instructions, pass over many topics of the greatest importance to the future good government of New Zealand. "Such are the administration of justice, the management of the revenue, the education of youth, and the provision to be made for public Christian worship. On these and similar questions I think it better to await than to anticipate the deliberations of the Legislative bodies about to be convened in New Zealand. They will pro- perly form the subject of a separate and future correspondence." Lord Grey concludes with an appeal to the colonists of Now Zealand not to use their newly-acquired powers for the oppression of the Aborigines, but rather for their protection and encouragement in civilization.
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