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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Rare Volume

III. Compensation to the New Zealander for the Cession of his Sovereignty Versus the Native King Movement

page 44

III. Compensation to the New Zealander for the Cession of his Sovereignty Versus the Native King Movement.

The native-king movement began in December, 1856, when a number of chiefs assembled together and defined a certain tract of territory within which native law was to be established, no more land sold, and, to make the seclusion more complete, no roads made. At the second meeting in May, 1857, it was decided to elect a chief to be "father of the people," but the younger and more ambitious preferred the name of "king," and to that dignity they appointed much against his inclination, old Te Whero Whero, a chief who in former days, like Raupera and Ranghihaeta, had been the terror of the English, but who had since become a Christian, and manifested much of the character of those who "when they are old" become "like little children." He took the name of Potatau on the occasion, and is believed to have accepted a position so onerous and perplexing,—so peculiarly trying to a man of his advanced years and enfeebled constitution,—in the hope of being able to preserve peace between the two races, and to restrain the actions of the more ambitious and impetuous promoters of the native-king movement.

An eye-witness gives an interesting description of the ceremony of presenting allegiance to the native king. A deputation of about 40 fine young men, some of them principal chiefs, arrived for that purpose page 45 at Ngatiruawhia, while he was there. They were accompanied by a number of Ngatimaniapoto, in all about 150 men, wearing favours to distinguish their tribe. They marched up to the flag-staff three abreast. On reaching the flag-staff one stepped forward, and with a clear distinct voice said, "Honour all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honour the king." Then turning to the train he said, "Honour the king." All responded by uncovering and kneeling. The leader of the Ngatiruanui then read an address, beginning, "O king, live for ever; thou art bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; thou art a saviour for us, our wives, our children," and pledging their allegiance. The leader of the Ngatiawa then read a similar address. "Honour the king" was again demanded, and responded to by a low obeisance, and a general cry of assent. A native teacher then stepped forward and gave out a verse of the Maori Hymn, beginning, "We have left Egypt, the place of bondage, we seek another land—a land of rest," &c. The Terse was then sung, then prayer was offered for God's blessing on their king and on the people. Thi3 ended, they retired backward, the whole body moving back till out of sight of Potatau, then they wheeled round and marched off to the place appointed for conference.

In June last old Potatau died. His last words were a caution to his countrymen to preserve peaceful relations with the British settlers, and the farewell speech of this fine old specimen of the Maori warrior was, there is every reason to believe, thoroughly sincere. One of his last official acts was to order the restoration of a number of cattle which had been driven off the land of an European settler, in consequence of a dispute between two native tribes as to the original ownership of the soil. There was a hope at first that Potatau's death might check the movement, but his son Matutaera has been chosen as his successor, and it is said that great moderation pre- page 46 vails in his council, and that he seems desirous of treading in his father's footsteps.

This movement has been conducted peaceably, and allowed to go on without hindrance. Their meetings have been attended by Mr. M'Lean, the native secretary, and other gentlemen holding government offices; by the Bishop of New Zealand, and several Church of England, Wesleyan, and Roman Catholic missionaries. At these meetings speeches have been delivered with great boldness; some favourable, some unfavourable to the Queen's supremacy; some "fiercely patriotic," yet on the whole "cautious and practical." At their last meeting they discussed impartially the question at issue between the Governor and Wirimu Kingi, and decided that the Waikatos should not interfere in that quarrel, but as far as possible preserve peace with the white man. On the other hand it is unanimously agreed that no more land is to be sold to the Governor without "the king's" consent. A constantly increasing number of chiefs have given in their adhesion to the movement, and even Manihera, one who is described as "decidedly the most loyal, intelligent wealthy, and powerful chief in the southern portion of the island," is said to have felt a disposition to join it from no other cause whatever than that, instead of being put down, it appeared to be promoted by the authorities, and to open to him a wide and honourable field for the gratification of an honourable ambition.

It is not surprising that the Governor and colonists of New Zealand have come to regard this movement with extreme alarm. The Governor's first step in order to arrest it was to carry out with decision the purchase made of Te Teira, and resisted by Wirimu Kingi. And when that measure was followed by disaster instead of deliverance, he wisely assembled a congress of native chiefs at Kohimarama, near Auckland, and gained them over to the cause of order by giving them some slight political importance. He invited them to state their grievances if they had page 47 any, and to give their opinion on the great questions of the day. No grievances were stated; and resolutions adverse to the native-king movement, and favourable to the Governor's case in the matter of William King, were passed; while three of the chiefs expressed their dissent from the latter resolution in a document formally drawn up and signed.

This congress of chiefs is justly regarded as the dawn of better days for New Zealand. But in the mean time events have been hurrying onwards. Our weakness has made the New Zealanders more daring; and the natural unwillingness which has hitherto kept both parties from a death struggle is very likely to have passed away at the first taste of blood. It is difficult in the prospect of what may be impending to bring the mind to calm consideration; and it becomes a scarcely hopeful task to plead the cause of those who may even now be carrying fire and sword among our countrymen. God grant that these terrible anticipations may not be realized, and give us wisdom to consider the question calmly !

Let us first say a word in defence of the chiefs who have joined the native-king movement, and afterwards indicate the course which the existence of the movement appears to point out as just and honourable.

It may be argued in favour of the chiefs that they were led into it by degrees. It might have been checked in the bud. Its first promoters might have been called to Auckland, and the folly and disloyalty of the measure pointed out to them. The Governor might then have carried out quite easily what he speaks of in the following terms in a memorandum dated Auckland, April 27, 1860: "The government at one time entertained a hope—a hope now deferred but not abandoned—that the good elements in the king movement might gain the ascendancy, and become the means of raising the native population in the social scale." Could any time have been better for attempting to realize this hope than when the page 48 movement first began? But no, it was then considered "mere talk'" and child's play. And are we now to treat them as rebels because the "talk" which we allowed them to indulge in, but would not share with them, has turned into reality?

I would next ask whether the chiefs engaged in the king movement have not some excuse for the statement they make that they were beguiled in their childish ignorance to part with their sovereignty, and for the desire they avow to recover it1.

It cannot be denied that the signature of the treaty of Waitangi was carried on with a speed inconsistent with its import, and by means very little to our honour or in accordance with our principles.

The assertion of the sovereignty of New Zealand stood for years as the grand barrier to its systematic colonization. It was the sovereignty of New Zealand which, in the hands of Mr. Coates and Mr. Beecham2, broke down the New Zealand Association, and defeated a plan for the civilization and social elevation of the native race, which appeared to them Quixotic, but which others have thought far-sighted and benevolent. The sovereignty of New Zealand forms the subject of a Memorandum prepared by the late Sir James Stephen, and sent by the direction of Lord John Russell for the information of Viscount Palmerston on the 18th of March, 1840. In this memorandum, by a reference to three acts of parliament and a careful enumeration of important transactions and documents, the assertion of the Queen's sovereignty is repudiated, and New Zealand proved to be a substantive and independent state.

Will it be believed that, after thus insisting on the importance of the principle, this sovereignty—this valued attribute of the New Zealand people, was ob-

1 Governor Browne's Memorandum of April 27th.

2 Secretaries of the Church Missionary and Wesleyan Missionary Societies in 1837.

page 49 tained from them, not in the childhood, but in the very babyhood of their national existence, with a speed which utterly precluded any real explanation of the effect and import of their act, and by means little calculated to inspire them with that horror of bribery and corruption which is one of the proud boasts of the 'British subject?'
I beg attention to the following epitome of the transactions that took place at the signing of the treaty from Papers ordered by the House of Commons to be printed May 11th, 1841 :

Waitangi.—Treaty read to chiefs Feb. 5th, 1840. Opposition. "Send the man away! do not sign the paper! If you do, you will be reduced to the condition of slaves, and be obliged to break stones for the roads. Tour land will be taken from you, and your dignity as chiefs will be destroyed." Twenty-four hours given for deliberation, but not taken, chiefs being impatient to return home. Treaty signed Feb. 6th by forty-six chiefs. Presents made to the chiefs after signing. W. Hobson.

Hokianga.—Treaty read Feb. 12. Opposition prompted by an Englishman who "conscientiously believed that the natives would be degraded under our influence." Treaty signed the same dag by fifty-six chiefs. On the 14th, two tribes request their names might be withdrawn from the Treaty. Withdrawal of the names refused. W. Hobson.

Waikato.—Middle of March. Many signatures obtained at a Missionary meeting by Rev. Mr. Maunsell; but the chief's who had signed bearing afterwards that presents had been given, by the Government, to all to the Northward who had signed, remonstrated angrily and demanded the paper to destroy it. Captain Symonds allays the excitement by giving a few presents, and promising the like to all who had signed.

W. C. Symonds.

Manukau.—End of March. At first meeting no signa- page 50 tures. At second meeting Home sign, some refuse for the present, among these "Te Wera-Wera3, the leading chief or King of Waikato." 18th of April, seven more chiefs sign; but Te Wera-Wera and several others still refuse. W. C. Symonds.

Coromandel Harbour.—Treaty read on 4th of May. Signed same day by four chiefs. One old chief refused, alleging as a reason that they wanted more time to assemble the chiefs of the Thames district and to consult with them. "It was to me very apparent also, that a trifling present was expected in payment for his adhesion; but in their exalted idea of the Queen's munificence, they at first all refused the present of a blanket, which was offered after their signatures were obtained, and which I wished then to consider as a gift personally from myself. It is, I conceive, much to be regretted that the objects of ordinary traffic between the natives and Europeans should nave been selected as presents for the tribes on the coasts. Forage caps and scarlet or blue cloaks would have been highly appreciated."

Thomas Bunbury.

From East Cape to Ahuriri.—8th of May. Signatures obtained, and a blanket given to each leading chief by Rev. W. Williams. W. Williams.

Tauranga.—12th May. Most of the chiefs had already signed. The principal chief and two others refuse, because no presents had been given to them, and they would not believe Mr. Williams, who promised that some should be sent. Thomas Bunbury.

The Queen's sovereignty over the North Island, by virtue of the Treaty of Waitangi, was proclaimed by Governor Hobson on the 21at of May, after which the treaty was read at—

Kaitaia.—May 29th. Signed same day by sixty chiefs, Willougohby Shortland.

3 Alias Te Whero Whero, or Potatau, the Native King lately deceased.

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Port Nicholson, Queen Charlotte's Sound, Rangitoto, and to the North as far as Wanganui, the treaty had been signed by June 11th. Henry Williams.

It was thus that the sovereignty of New Zealand became transferred to the Crown of England.

How well we can imagine the New Zealand chief, had we instructed him, as we ought to have done, in the principles of the British constitution, defending his adherence to the native-king movement by some such argument as this: "If a member elected into your House of Commons is proved to have given gifts to those who have elected him, his election is made void by that very fact, and he loses his seat. So, as you gave us gifts for signing the treaty of Waitangi, and many of us signed it for the sake of those gifts alone, the treaty is void, and your right of sovereignty is lost4."

Perhaps, however, it will be said, "There was no help for it; things were come to that pass that we were forced to gain the sovereignty of New Zealand by some means or other, and in making them British subjects we conferred upon them the greatest possible benefit." But let me ask my countrymen to consider what we undertook when we resolved to make the New Zealander a British subject. A British subject is the inheritor of a glorious constitution, built up for

4 It was clearly open to Great Britain to obtain the sovereignty of New Zealand, either by asserting it on the ground of discovery, or by voluntary surrender, or by purchase. But then it should have been clearly understood that it was by purchase, and a fair equivalent given, not 612 blankets. In 1803 Bonaparte' sold the sovereignty of Louisiana to the United States for 80,000,000 francs, 3,200,000l. sterling; and it may be questioned whether the sovereignty of Louisiana then promised to be more valuable to the United States, than the sovereignty of New Zealand did to England when she obtained it.

page 52 him, and brought to its perfection by the wisdom and energy of his forefathers during a period of eight hundred years; which for eight hundred years has been taking a form more and more suited to his character and circumstances; which opens out before him grand roads to wealth, power, and eminence; which gives to the peer his hereditary domains, his honour and high functions, and to the people the right of making their own laws, and countless other benefits reflected upon them by their connexion in various ways with the great powers of their country.

And is the New Zealander, when he becomes a British subject, to forfeit all that he has inherited from his ancestors, and to receive nothing in return? Is he to be reduced to a state of "political nothingness!" Was he made to comprehend this before he signed the treaty? Was it clearly explained to him that whereas among British subjects there were great chiefs, and lesser chiefs, and gentlemen, and common people, and labourers, each occupying his relative place, enjoying its privileges, and discharging its duties; the great chiefs, and lesser chiefs, and gentlemen, and common people, and labourers of New Zealand would, by virtue of that treaty, be all reduced to one common level, and forced to take their place below the lowest class of British subjects? Had they understood this, they would all have echoed the words of Revewa at Waitangi, "Send the man away ! Do not sign the paper ! If you do, you will be reduced to the condition of slaves, and be obliged to break stones for the roads. Your lands will be taken from you, and your dignity as chiefs will be destroyed." But this was treated as the suggestion of a hostile party. The chiefs were led to believe that they would have every thing to gain and nothing to lose by becoming British subjects. On the strength of that belief they signed the treaty. And that belief we are bound in honour to make good.

Indeed, we not only allowed them to infer that their dignity as chiefs would not be lowered—we dis- page 53 tinctly told them that it would not. Te Hapaku, a chief of Hawke's Bay, refused to sign the treaty, because "he had heard that those who had signed it at the Hay of Islands had been made slaves." Major Bunbury, to whom this was said, pointed to Hara, a Bay of Islands' chief, who had signed the treaty, and inquired how it was then that he had not become a slave. Upon this Te Hapaku endeavoured to explain his meaning by a sort of diagram on a piece of board, placing the Queen by herself over the chiefs, as these were over the tribes. Major Bunbury told him that "it was literally as he described it, but not for an evil purpose, as they supposed, but to enable her to enforce justice and good government equally among her subjects,"—that "it was not the object of Her Majesty's Government to lower the chiefs in the estimation of their tribes, and that his signature being now attached to the treaty could only tend to increase his consequence by acknowledging his title5."

Now this statement is completely nullified if the whole native people is to be reduced to one dead level, and if the political importance of the chief is to be limited to his possible enjoyment of the elective franchise. If Te Hapaku's diagram pourtrays the literal truth, the chiefs must bear the same relation to their tribes, as the Queen bears to the chiefs. And if this is inconsistent with the amalgamation of both races into one great people, we must give the chiefs in their civilized state a substantial equivalent for that chieftainship, which is as much to them as their hereditary influence and high name is to the nobles of any other country, and which our entrance upon their shores obliges them to relinquish.

The New Zealand Association of 1837 foresaw this necessity, and endeavoured to provide for it. One of the rules of colonizing which they adopted was "deducere coloniam," to lead out a colony—not send

5 Parliamentary Papera, May 11th, 1841, p. 111.

page 54 out emigrants—and it was hoped and expected that English gentlemen of influence and character would join in the "heroic work," and become leaders of organized bands of colonists, who would carry out with them all that was most attractive and humanizing in their old home association. This at once suggested the sort of Government which would be most suited for the infant community. It would be governed by a sort of patriarchal aristocracy, the members of which would be the leaders of each several band of colonists. And it was hoped that such relations would be established between them and the chiefs, as would attract the natives into the settlement, instead of repelling them from it, and lead eventually to a close social and political union between the two races. Thus will serve to introduce the following extracts:—

"5. Social alliances to he formed between the principal English families and the families of the chiefs.

"From the establishment of the principle of land reserves for the native chiefs above stated, many consequences would flow, and various institutions might be en-grafted on it. One result would be the ascertainment and classification of the various native families within the British territory. This would be necessary in order to accomplish and record the formal cession of their land to the Crown; and it would have an excellent effect in giving character and individuality to the different members and families of the native race; and it would be the groundwork of the general system of registration which it would be expedient to adopt, in order to ascertain the descent of landed property, and the other particulars for which public registration is desirable.

"But the native New Zealander would not be transformed in a moment from the rude and untutored denizen of his own heights and valleys into the staid and orderly participant of the blessings of civilization; and though, from all that we can learn, he would be anxiously desirous to receive instruction and improvement from the English man, he would be as open to the contamination of the vulgar- page 55 minded and the vicious as to the in at ruction of the high-principled and the good. For 'every thing from England is gold to the poor New Zealander6.' It would, therefore, be incumbent upon the members of the beat families among the English to lay themselves out, as one of the finest occupations in which they could engage, for the cultivation and improvement of the native mind, for training them up to civilized habits, courteous behaviour, decorous conduct, and generous sentiments. And they might be well assured that whatever labour they expended in such a work, they would be amply repaid by the enlargement of mind and elevation of feeling which they would themselves derive from it.

"In aid of this course of civilization, and also for the general protection of the native clans, and the superintendence of the landed interests of the chiefs, we might adopt, as another special regulation, the establishment of a principle of social alliances throughout the colony. Besides the advantage which the natives in general might derive from a protector appointed by law, a protection of a more genial kind might be afforded to them, were the principal English families to adopt, as their friends and allies, the chief families of the territory where they had established themselves. This family compact might be entered into between the principal individual of the English family and the New Zealand chief, on a special occasion, in set terms, and in a formal manner. It would be a solemn and ceremonious observance well calculated to impress the imagination of the New Zealander, and strictly in accordance with his feudal character.

"Nor would such an institution be without its value for the English gentleman, as well as the New Zealand chief. It would confer upon both an honourable distinction of a neutral character, and founded, as all honourable distinctions ought to be, in the high qualities of confidence, generosity, faithfulness, respect for social ties, and regard for the interests of posterity. The offices of the English leader towards his adopted friend would be to entertain him as his guest, to instruct him in the point

6 Marshall.

page 56 of honour, to correct his savage notions with regard to the retaliation of injuries, to influence his pursuits, to teach him the value of property, and the obligations it entails on its possessor. The younger members of the families of the chiefs might be introduced into the familia of their English protectors, to undergo that wholesome mixture of education, service, manly exercise, and moral discipline, which the sons of our English gentry were once accustomed to receive in the houses of the wealthier nobility. Their daughters would be the especial care of the English ladies, and would receive from them such instructions, and render them such services, as would best fit them for their place in society."—Exceptional Laws. 1837.

For a further illustration of the nature and bearing of these social alliances, or guestships, as they may be called, I refer my readers to the next section of the work. The following is from the "Earnest Address to New Zealand Colonists, 1840:"—

"Importance to the New Zealanders of a due consideration for the Dignity of their Chiefs.

"The matter at which I look with the deepest anxiety is your treatment of the native chiefs. Upon this point your success or failure, as regards the aborigines, appears to me to depend. Not only justice to themselves, but a respect for the national importance of the New Zealand people, requires that the chiefs should continue to occupy as high a relative position after your settlement among them as before.

"One of the points most perseveringly urged against the colonization of New Zealand has been its interference with the independent sovereignty of the country. Now, the present possessors of this sovereignty are the native chiefs, for there is no king, nor is there any representative of the whole New Zealand people. The only way, then, in which we can respect, and the way in which justice imperatively demands that we should respect, the sovereignty of the New Zealand people, is to confer upon their chiefs such benefits as shall he fully tantamount to page 57 whatever rude authority they possess in their savage state, and which must necessarily pasa away from them as civilization advances, whether this civilization is effected by a British Colony, or by missionaries. Power or influence of some other kind must be given to them instead of that which they lose. This is no more than justice to them, in respect to the rights which they must lose, and it is the only way in which their presumed prerogative of sovereignty can, under present circumstance a, be made available for the welfare of the New Zealand people.

"For it must be plain to any one, that the best way to make the New Zealanders truly respectable and dignified in their own feelings, and in the view of others, is to let them have some persons among them occupying a position of wealth and distinction. Even if there were no chiefs in New Zealand, it would he far more judicious to select certain persons from among them, and place them in a position of honour, than to distribute what would he requisite for this purpose over the whole people.

"But as this would be obviously judicious, quite irrespectively of the rights of the chiefs, how imperatively is it not demanded, when there is a class of people in the island, who by common consent and prescriptive right hold a position of eminence above the others, and connect with this position of eminence the acutest sense of the distinction which it confers."

The pages which now follow contain some thoughts on the formation of a Constitution for New Zealand, which were printed as an Appendix to the Address to Sew Zealand colonists. To these I particularly request the attention of my readers, not only as pointing out what would have been ample equivalent to the chiefs for their ceded sovereignty, but as presenting the idea of a Commonwealth, which would perhaps have been more productive of peace, happiness, and order, than those Democracies which it has been for some time the fashion to establish in the world. The person to whom in this prelusion I give the name of Lord-Lieutenant would of course hold a delegated sovereignty over the country very different from that page 58 which is possessed at present by any individual, or any body of men. For where does it now reside! Theoretically in the Legislative Assembly. But the management of the affairs of the natives, the inhabitants of by far the larger portion of the country, is taken from the Legislative Assembly, and placed in the hands of the Governor. And yet if the Governor wishes to have a council to deliberate with him, and share his responsibility in reference to those affairs, he is not only obliged to send to England for permission, but when the Crown wishes to grant him his request, the House of Commons steps in and says it shall not7. We are, indeed, tempted to echo the words of the New Zealand chief, "A king would cure those evils."

"Thoughts on the Formation of a Constitution for New Zealand.

"In reflecting upon the present state and future prospects of New Zealand, the mind is naturally disposed to speculate upon the form of Constitution which it would be most desirable to establish 00 its shores. For we cannot but believe, that from its situation and physical advantages it is destined to become, in the course of tint a position of political importance scarcely inferior to that which is occupied by Great Britain herself, and that this is the time when measures should be taken to form the social and political character of its future people.

7 Reference is here made to the New Zealand Bill, the second reading of which was moved by the Duke of New castle in the House of Lords, July 3, 1860. The object of the Bill, as stated by his Grace, was "to institute a Local Council, upon whom should devolve the revisions of the native laws, and the arrangements respecting the sale and purchase of native land." In the course of his speech he stated that of the Northern island 7,000,000 acres had been purchased by the colonists, and 26,000,000 still remained in the hands of the natives. The Bill was thrown out by the House of Commons.

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"Now it must be acknowledged that, heretofore, England has not been happy in her measures of colonization. The present circumstances and relative position of the whole Anglo-Saxon population of the New World are far from being such as to permit her to congratulate herself on the wisdom she has hitherto displayed in laving the foundation of future States and Empires. And whatever direction may yet be given to Australian colonization, we must confess, with shame, that it began by the plantation of crime.

"But there is some reason to hope that the dawn of a brighter period is approaching. For many valuable suggestions, and for much indefatigable labour in the cause of colonization, we are greatly indebted to Sir Robert Wilmot Horton, and we are no loss indebted to Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield for the discovery and unwearied advocacy of a mode of disposing of waste lands in the colonies which is now extensively adopted, and which must have the greatest possible influence on the whole future course of colonization. The subject is beginning to be considered under new aspects, and to be regarded with interest in quarters where formerly it excited no attention. And it augurs well, and is worthy of remark, that persons whose general views and particular predilections are at the utmost possible distance from each other, agree in the admission of one great principio with respect to it, namely, that the future colony should be in its form and constituent elements a counterpart of the mother country.

"The advocates of the Wakefield system of colonization have always urged as its greatest recommendation, that it affords an unexampled facility for carrying out to the new country, not individuals alone, but an integral portion of society as it exists in England; while the importance of this principle is distinctly recognized by their most derided political opponents. In proof of which I need only refer to the sentiments expressed by Sir Robert Inglis, who, on more than one occasion, has quoted the famous saying of the Duke of Wellington, that for a great nation like England, there can be no such thing as a little war, and has applied it to colonization, saying, that there page 60 should be no such thing as a small project of colonization, and that every colony ought to be a miniature representation of the British empire.

"Under the sanction of this remarkable coincidence of opinion in two very different quarters, it may perhaps be permitted me to set down some reflections which were not unlikely to have occurred to me, while speculating on the course which it would be reasonable to pursue in order fully to carry out this idea in the particular case of New Zealand, and at the same time, to make the sovereignty of Great Britain perfectly consistent with the preservation and consolidation of every civil right which we can suppose to exist in the present lords of that country.

"I shall state at once, and embody in three propositions the chief features of the course which has occurred to me, as best calculated to effect such a purpose, and I shall afterwards enter with more detail into its defence and general illustration.

"The propositions are these:—

"First. That New Zealand should be governed by a Lord-Lieutenant appointed by the Crown of England, and have a parliament of its own.

"Secondly. That to this end it should be the immediate care of Great Britain to provide for the establishment and perpetual maintenance of a Senate, or superior house of legislature for the new country.

"Thirdly. That this Senate, or superior house of legislature, should consist partly of Englishmen of large landed property in New Zealand, to be appointed for that purpose by the British Crown, and partly of the Native Chiefs of New Zealand, and that the members of this Measte should have titles of honour, and constitute an hereditary peerage as in England.

"I would only add, that such being the great framework of the body politic, it would be easy to make provision for the timely representation in the legislature of those specific popular interests, which would be evolved in the natural progress of the colony.

"Upon the above propositions I submit the following remarks:—

"To the proposed representative of the British Crown, page 61 I give the title of Lord-Lieutenant, as indicating the high rank of the individual whom it would be desirable to see at the head of affairs in New Zealand, and as establishing a closer analogy with the state of thing3 in our own country.

"By the term Senate, or superior house of legislature, it is intended to designate that portion of the body politic, whose natural province, according to its primary intention, is to deliberate on state affairs; and whose usual office, in a constitution fully developed, is 'by its tranquil and safe, but effective working, to act as an useful check on the popular branch of the legislature8.' It appears under its first character as the Wittenagemot of our Saxon ancestors, and the Parliament of the early Norman kings, and under its second as the modern House of Lords.

"As a reason for proposing the establishment of a Senate in New Zealand, it may be enough to say that no national community is complete without one. Its importance as a deliberative body, and as the representative of a large class of most important interests, is amply borne out by the whole course of past testimony and experience. Every one admits that as a balancing power, it is absolutely essential to the safety and permanence of a limited monarchy. Nor can it be dispensed with in a republic. For it is asserted as an axiom by a great republican writer, that 'the necessary definition of a commonwealth, any thing well ordered, is that it is a government consisting of the Senate proposing, the People resolving, and the Magistracy executing9.'

"But if it be granted that a Senate is indispensable to the completeness and good order of a State, I think it Hill readily he allowed that it is that portion of the community which ought, in order of time, to be the first embodied and invested with specific functions. The work to be first done in a newly settled country, is that which naturally falls under the province of a Senate, the presumable qualifications of which are deliberative wisdom,

8 Report on the affairs of British North America.

9 Harrington.

page 62 prudence, forethought, experience, and theoretical knowledge of legislation. Indeed the interests of the several classes of a young community are so little at variance with each other, that in the early stages of a nation's growth, the Senate may be considered as the personification of the whole people. The business of a popular branch of the legislature being to check, counterbalance, and modify, comes naturally afterwards, and as a consequence of the growth of new and diverse interests.

"The third proposition will probably be read with some surprise; but, prejudice apart, is it not a more just ground of surprise (so far as regards the British portion of such a peerage), that among all the plans for colonial government, and the establishment and formation of colonies, a principle so essentially characteristic of the social polity of Great Britain should have been altogether disregarded?

"For a practical proof of the importance of providing at the earliest period of the growth of a colony, for the existence of a branch of the legislature distinct from that which represents and is elected by the people, we need only call to mind one of the recommendations of a gnat statesman whose loss we now deplore, respecting the most important case of colonial disorder that has recently occurred. At the close of the celebrated 'Report' of the late Earl of Durham, are to be found the following remarks upon the constitution of a legislative council for the Canadian provinces.

"'The constitution of a second legislative body for the united legislature involves questions of very great difficulty. The present constitution of the legislative councils of these provinces has always appeared to me inconsistent with, sound principles, and little calculated to answer the purpose of placing the effective check which I consider necessary on the popular branch of the legislature. . .

"'The attempt to invest a few persons, distinguished from their fellow-colonists neither by birth nor hereditary property, and often only transiently connected with the country, with such a power, seems only calculated to ensure jealousy and bad feelings in the first instance, and collision at last. . . . . .

page 63

'"It will be necessary for the completion of any stable scheme of government, that parliament should revise the constitution of the legislativo council, and—by adopting every practicable means to give that institution such a character as would enable it, by tranquil and safe, but effective working, to act as an useful check on the popular branch of the legislature—prevent a repetition of those collisions which have already caused such dangerous irritation.'

"In this opinion Lord Durham does not stand alone. Those who are opposed to many of his views and principles allow that, in this instance, be precisely indicated the great exigency and desideratum of the case. But they say that the materials out of which such an improved house of legislature should be formed are no where to be found, and that we have, therefore, no means of getting out of the difficulty, and yet the source of the difficulty, and the mode, therefore, of obviating it in future, seems to be sufficiently indicated by the terms in which he states it.

"'The analogy which some persons have attempted to draw between the House of Lords and the Legislative Councils seems to me erroneous. The constitution of the House of Lords is consonant with the frame of English society;—and, as the creation of a precisely similar body in such a state of society as that of these colonies is impossible, it has always appeared to me most unwise to attempt to supply its place by one which has no point of resemblance to it, except that of being a non-elective check on the elective branch of the Legislature.'

"It is therefore most anxiously to be desired, for the future completeness and stability of the constitution of New Zealand, that the deficiency here indicated should be supplied beforehand; that the germ of its future society should be of such a sort as to produce all the necessary materials for embodying that power which affords the natural counterpoise to the popular interests and tendencies of the community. Nor is it required in order to fulfil this hope that any portion of the future society of New Zealand should be distinguished by extraordinary splendour and excessive wealth; for these circumstances, though inevitably mixed up with our con- page 64 ceptions of an Upper House of Legislature from what we witness at home, are by no means necessary to the moral and mental accomplishment, and the relative social position which we should look for in such a body.

"But to bring this arrangement into consonance with the institutions and established practice of our country, it would be necessary that the persons forming such a body should not only possess comparative wealth and high moral and intellectual qualifications, but also, to a great extent, be descended from families of ancestral reputation in Groat Britain. This would be one great means of making the colony a counterpart of the parent state, and would also promote a strong feeling of reciprocal affection and allegiance between the two countries. It seems scarcely necessary to contend that such persons would be the best qualified to form a council of government for the colony, and there is throughout the whole British population, when under the influence of their genuine feelings, such an affection and respect for the ancient gentry of the land, whether ennobled or not, that, could some scions from the venerable tree be carried over and take root in New Zealand, they would be followed by a large number of firm friends and faithful retainers, and be a centre of union and strength for the best and most English portion of the community.

"Nor should we overlook the moral qualifications which are most likely to belong to persons of such a class.

"In that remarkable passage of Bacon's on the subject of colonization, in which he says that it is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the scum of the people with whom to plant, he adds a recommendation that the persona on whom the government of the colony should depend ought rather to be 'noblemen and gentlemen than merchants, for they look ever to the present gain.'

"This also reminds me of a curious passage quoted from Harrington in the fine account of Sir Alexander Ball contained in Coleridge's Friend:

"'There is something first in the making of a commonwealth; then in the governing of it; and last of all in the leading of its armies; which though there be great divines, great lawyers, great men in all ranks of life, seems to be page 65 peculiar only to the genius of a gentleman. For so it is in the universal series of history,—that if any man has founded a commonwealth, he was first a gentleman. Such also as have got any fame as civil governors have been gentlemen or persons of known descent.'

"The spirit of this quaint passage may perhaps be somewhat too exclusive, but I think we shall all acknowledge the correctness of thought with which Coleridge expresses himself in another place, where he commended Solon for having attached authority to 'high birth and property, or rather to the moral discipline, the habits, attainments, and directing motives, on which be calculated (not indeed as necessary and constant accompaniments, but yet) as the regular and ordinary results of comparativo opulence and renowned ancestry.'

"But whatever opinion may be entertained as to the abstract question, it will doubtless be conceded that nothing could be more conducive to the welfare of the state about to be founded in New Zealand, than for the various bodies of which it will consist, to be led out, planted, and governed by a number of high-principled and accomplished men of well-known English families, and possessing that general acquaintance with affairs which is acquired during the course of a liberal education, and by habitual intercourse with the superior classes.

"And I cannot but think that if the authorities competent to realize such a project were convinced of its expediency, the difficulties in the way of its execution would disappear. The desire of occupying a high station in the legislature of an empire, of founding a noble family, and of connecting one's name with the progress of a nation's affairs, is so closely interwoven into all hearts, and especially into such as possess any touch of nobleness and generosity, that there would be no want of persons possessing all the necessary qualifications for such a charge, should the Crown of England consent to place them in that high and important post that we have described.

"If the best and noblest of our countrymen are willing to spill their blood in battle, and if the most honourable page 66 boon that a grateful country can bestow on military heroism, is a seat among the hereditary legislators of our land, surely there is something in the work of laying the foundation of an empire, and handing down to one's turn descendants the illustrious charge of rearing it to maturity, which would offer a sufficient inducement even to the noblest blood of England to make some momentary sacrifice for so great an honour.

"But to this enterprise there would be a further motive, less alloyed with selfish ambition, but not less truly glorious. There is no subject which excites so great a display of interest among the most estimable and well-constituted minds of all ranks and parties as the dawn of civilization and religion over the dark places of the world. Hitherto, however, the single agency that we have thought it necessary to adopt in order to hasten is arrival has been that of Christian missions; and, valuable as this agency undoubtedly is for the conversion of sinners, it is a vital error to suppose that it is intended or calculated to effect the complicated work of civilization. It is well known that the great majority of the missionaries who have been employed in uncivilized countries have been men of most humble circumstances and limited education, with no knowledge of secular affairs, no qualification in fact beyond that of skill in some handicraft employment, and zeal in their religious avocations. That such an order of men may be made instrumental of much good in any country, no Christian can doubt; but that they aro qualified for the delicate and difficult work of giving form to the rude elements of society, no man of reflection will assert.

"But it is something far greater even than this which has to be done in New Zealand. The prospect which is there presented to us is something more than a common scheme of civilization. We behold there at this moment the co-existence of a number of very remarkable circumstances, which impress us with the belief that nothing but wise direction is required for the speedy formation of a great characteristic empire; and of this empire, justice wisdom, and the fitness of things, no less than the often repeated declarations of Great Britain, imperatively page 67 demand that the native people should form a great, dignified, and influential portion.

"What distinguishes the present from all other cases of the formation of a new empire is, that here the native race, instead of being depressed, is to he elevated. To ibis, both the British Government and all who have any thing to say to New Zealand colonization, have over and over again pledged themselves both by implication and direct assertion. And if this is neglected, we not only violate justice by depriving a people of what we have solemnly acknowledged to belong to them, and by inflicting injury on those who have conferred on us the greatest benefits; but we stand convicted before the world as false dealers and breakers of our word.

"Thus two of the greatest purposes which man can effect by his fellow-men have simultaneously to be performed: the heroic work of colonization, which, when carried on in its true spirit, conveys to a distant shore, not a rabble of needy adventurers, but a vigorous counterpart of the parent state; and the heroic work of civilization, or, more properly, social organization, which calls men from wilds and forests to build cities, and form themselves into well-governed communities; a work of which, notwithstanding all our efforts, we have no example in modern history, but of which there is some glimmering tradition in the records of very ancient nations, and which sheds a radiance of poetic glory over such names as those of Orpheus or Amphion1.

"Were the work of colonization the only one to be performed, and were there no natives in New Zealand, or could we make them serfs, it would still be desirable to

1

"Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque deorum,
Cædibus et victu fædo deterruit Orpheus;
Dictus oh hoc lenire tigres, rabidosque leones.
Dictus et Amphion, Thebanæ conditor arcis,
Saxa movere sono testudiuis, et prece blandâ
Ducere quo vellet. Fuit bæc sapientia quondam,
Publica privatis secernere, sacra profanis;
Concubitu prohibere vago; dare jura maritis;
Oppida moliri; legos incidere ligno."

page 68 send out and establish there a body of men who should feel their private interest to be bound up with that of the new country, and be qualified and empowered to discharge deliberative and legislative functions with the perfect confidence of the parent state, and the respect and approbation of all mankind. And it is impossible that any men could be so well qualified for such a task as those who should deserve to be selected out of the higher classes of the British gentry to form the senatorial order of the future nation.

"But this plan would have another great advantage distinct from, but co-ordinate with, and auxiliary to the former one; namely, that of making the supreme rule of Great Britain perfectly consistent with the retention in the hands of the New Zealand Chiefs of all that is substantial and important in their sovereign rights. Nay, more, of bringing into distinct form and visible body those rights, which at present only exist in embryo, while the fact of their existing only in embryo does not release Great Britain from the solemn and sacred duty of respecting them, and of taking the utmost care and paira lest they should be stifled in their birth.

"The nature of these embryo sovereign rights may be best collected from the following passage of an old author, concerning the sovereignty of our own island at an early period of its history. The author to whom I refer is Speed, and he writes as follows respecting the opinion of a previous historian:—

"'It seemeth by him and other latine writers the best recorders of kingdomes affaires, this Iland was gouerned rather after the maner of an aristocratie, that is, by certaine great nobles and potent men, then under the commaund of any one as an absolute monarch; though herein it a difference, in that in the aristocraticall regiment, the rulers are all peers of one commonwealth; whereas here so many princes so many severall publike weals.'

"In the present state of the New Zealand Chieftains they are without that connecting bond which seems essential to the very idea of sovereignty considered as the attribute of a state. They possess no characteristic features of government which enable us to pronounce page 69 under what description of 'regiment' or 'public weal' they may be classed. But as the Latin authors, to whom Speed refers, designated the early social system of this island by the name of an aristocracy, because that was the regular form of government which, viewed in regard to the rights possessed and exercised, it most nearly resembled; so it is clear that the form of government, into coincidence with which the social state of New Zealand might most easily be brought, would be an aristocracy governed by a uniform system of laws; each chief being magistrate and executor of the laws in his own sphere, and the work of legislation and deliberation on the affairs of the country being carried on by the whole body of the chiefs assembled in a common council, and acting as peers of one commonwealth. And that this is the form of government which natural sense assigns to New Zealand, appears from the British Resident having assembled together a Congress of Chiefs at the Bay of Islands to declare their independence, and present them with a national flag.

"But who can doubt that a state so constituted would be governed far more safely, with far greater convenience and security both to people and chiefs, if there was one presiding power over the whole, whether a native monarch or a Lord-Lieutenant appointed by Great Britain?

"That it is impossible to establish a native monarchy has long been evident, and indeed that the Native Chiefs should form themselves into an assembly of 'peers of one commonwealth' to govern the country according to the 'aristocraticall regiment' is equally unlikely. But who will say that it is not within the power of the Crown of England, the zealous vindicator and natural protector of the rights of the New Zealand Chiefs, to preserve and defend, or rather to develope, define, and consolidate these rights, and bring them into their most healthy and beneficial exercise, by associating with them as peers of the same commonwealth a chosen, body of her most worthy sons, and placing over the whole a dignified representative of her own majesty?

"The Native Chiefs, it is true, could at present take but little share in the deliberations of such an assembly, but page 70 their dignity would be preserved, they would meet each otter, no longer as enemies, but as friends and councillors together. There would be no time lost if they had to spend a whole generation in acquiring the idea of an organized realm, and of an assembly meeting and deliberating as peers of such a realm. The honour of the whole aboriginal race would be kept up by the distinction thus conferred upon their chiefs. They would be a constant memento to their peers of the British race that the interests of the natives were of equal importance till the interests of the British, and they would themselves very soon acquire such a knowledge of the meaning of their proceedings as to be able to protect themselves against any thing manifestly injurious to their country In the mean time they might be invested with certain executive and magisterial functions, each in his own peculiar sphere,—which would teach them the nature of law,—which would make them useful agents in the civil polity of the country,—and which would tend to keep up their dignity: three most important purposes in promoting the social organization of the now country.

"If such a scheme as this for the fulfilment of the utmost wishes of philanthropy respecting the native people, and the formation of a great British dynasty, identical in ail its parts with the British nation itself, were placed before the nobility and the ancestral gentry of Great Britain; and if the rulers of England had sufficient faith in the excellence of our constitution and in the progress of empires, to call on her best sons to join in such a project, might we not hope that there is enter prise, valour, and virtue enough to undertake it among the worthiest of our land; and that, by the blessing of God, we should do that for the natives of New Zealand which has never yet been done for any of the coloured races of the world?

"Perhaps it will be said that the consequence of such a measure would be the creation of too formidable a power; but is it not better to create a great friendly power, than to suffer a great hostile power to create itself?

"According to the old, or rather the early modern and still recent system of forming colonies, it seems to have page 71 been forgotten that they were the seeds of future empires; for we see no evidence of any precaution having been taken to provide beforehand for the wants which an empire must experience in its growth and progress to maturity. Hence the powers of the new state have grown up of themselves, and have often been of a growth no leas dangerous than rapid and vigorous.

"It was well said by the Bishop of London at a meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, held with a view to the establishment of bishoprics in the colonies, that the United States would never have separated from Great Britain if the Church of England, under its complete episcopal form of Church government, had been established there.

"But how much more certainly would this connexion have been preserved, if, together with an establishment of the Church of England in her full order, beauty, and completeness, there had been given to her, as the groundwork of her legislature, an ample body of her nobility, invested with titles of honour, and forming a house of peers for her transatlantic empire! If, instead of neglecting and discouraging, or leaving merely to the impulses of their own adventurous spirits, those many ardent and noble souls, whose names are connected with the discovery and colonization of America, and who were among the most ancient families of our land, she had made them peers of the new country, how different would the history of America have been! But, alas! the time of the colonization of America was a time of dissolution, not of organization,—a time when the principle of Progression fearfully overbalanced the principle of Permanence2.

"Had it been the design of Great Britain to raise on a distant soil a young counterpart of herself, she should have recollected that as labourers were required to till the ground, and architects to build cities, and mechanics and artisans to supply the wants of social life, and merchants to draw forth the natural resources of the country; so legislators were required to order and govern the state.

2 See Coleridge's "Church and State."

page 72 And she should Dot only have permitted but provided that, from the very first outset of the new commonwealth, there should be a class of men fitted in every point by birth, by feeling, by education, by superiority to insignificant strifes and petty quarrels, and by a far-sighted acquaintance with the principles of government and human nature, to discharge the functions of her own hereditary councillors. There was no want of materials at the colonization of America for giving the future empire a perpetual succession of legislators devoted to the welfare of the parent state, and qualified by high feelings of honour and high mental endowments for rearing and upholding the fabric of government. And the noblest opportunities were granted to successive monarchs, from Henry VIII. downwards, for forming on the western shores of the Atlantic an exact counterpart of Great Britain, with all its characteristic institutions, and all its high and dignified associations, added to the spirit of youthfulness and enterprise, and comparative hardiness and frugality, for which colonies must always afford greater necessity than the mother country.

"Nor was there any want of events to call attention to the necessity of providing this element of social order for the incipient state. 'The peculiar circumstances, the political exigencies and difficulties of the American settlements, were forced again and again upon the attention of successive monarchs, and yet it never seems to have occurred to them that they were the germs of future empires; they seem never to have regarded them in any other light than as a small band of Englishmen struggling for subsistence on a distant shore, for whom certain law and regulations were necessary, and to whom it was expedient to grant certain privileges, but for whose great future political wants it was quite unnecessary to make any provision.

"It is asserted by Robertson, with great appearance of reason, that the early mode of governing colonies originated in the grant of America to the Crown of Spain by the Pope. By this grant it was considered that the new country became the absolute property of the monarch and that he could rule it with an exclusive reference to his page 73 own interests. The example set by Spain was followed by the other colonizing powers of Europe, and the relation between parent states and colonies became one, not of protection and mutual benefit, but of dominion on the hand and obedience on the other.

"But colonies cannot always remain in a state of absolute subjection to the mother-country. Either by confession or by violence, a self-governing power will sooner or later be developed within them. Sooner or later they will demand those institutions by which the sense of the people is enabled to declare itself, and become the law of the land. It depends upon the original care and prudent forethought of the mother-country whether they shall be trained up to the due exercise of these powers, and be themselves moulded into the best form of polity, and firmly attached in sympathies, character, and allegiance to the parent state; or whether they shall acquire these powers in a random way, according to the pressing exigencies of particular times, and led on by the accidental energy of particular minds, actuated by a rebellious spirit, and having 'νήωτερíζειν' for their motto.

"The people will at length demand a representative assembly, and a representative assembly can easily be formed; but where, unless it can be provided beforehand, till be that other assembly which is equally essential to the idea of a state 'any thing well ordered,' and which, by its tranquil and safe, but effective working, shall act as an useful check upon the popular branch of the legislature?'

"In the case of New Zealand, and of every other colony which from its circumstances seems likely to be the germ of a future empire, there is a present exigency and there must arise a future one: a present exigency to possess at once a body of councillors qualified to deliberate from tie first upon the affairs of the country, and from identification of interest with the soil, and permanent and territorial connexion with the rest of the people, more likely to determine wisely by their collective wisdom than any angle governor, however wise, having only a temporary and official connexion with the country; and a future exigeney of that kind which has been so strongly felt in page 74 Canada, to possess an effective upper house to discharge the functions of a senate, and act as a check upon the popular branch of the legislature. Can we doubt that on both of these accounts it would be England's best wisdom to use the necessary means for gathering and sending out as the leaders of New Zealand colonization such a body of men as she could safely invest with the titles and functions of an hereditary peerage3?

"It would be easy to dilate on the many social and economical advantages which would accrue to the whole New Zealand community from the establishment of such an order of men upon its shores, the impulse it would gin to the best kind of colonization, and the guarantee it would afford for the cultivation in New Zealand of eren thing which is most admirable at home; but I shall content myself with making the following extract from Blackstone respecting the principle of an hereditary branch of legislature:—

"'The distinction of rank and honours is necessary it every well-governed state, in order to reward such as are eminent for their services to the public in a manner the most desirable to individuals, and yet without burden to the community; exciting thereby an ambitious yet laudable ardour, and generous emulation in others. And emulation or virtuous ambition is a spring of action which, however dangerous or invidious in a mere republic or under a despotic sway, will certainly be attended with

3 "It is obvious that the material means of establishing such a body exist now as they never did before,—namely, in the recently-adopted principle of concentration, and the rapid increase which is thereby given to the value of laud. Properties amply extensive to endow a hereditary peerage could be now purchased in New Zealand at a comparatively cheap rate, and with the great impulse which by an enlarged and magnificent plan of settlement might be given to the colonization of the country, these lands would soon acquire such a value as to support their possessors in a manner corresponding to their stations, and keep their dignity on a level with the increasing prosperity of the country."

page 75 good effects under a free monarchy—where, without destroying its existence, its excesses may be continually restrained by that superior power from which all honour is derived. Such a spirit, when nationally diffused, gives life and vigour to the community; it sets all the wheels of government in motion, which, under a wise regulator, may be directed to any beneficial purpose; thereby every individual may be made subservient to the public good, while he principally means to promote his own particular news. A body of nobility is also more peculiarly necessary in our mixed and compounded constitution, in order to support the rights of both the Crown and the people, by forming a barrier to withstand the encroachments of both. It creates and preserves that gradual scale of dignity which proceeds from the peasant to the prince, rising like a pyramid from a broad foundation, and diminishing to a point as it rises. It is this ascending and contracting proportion that adds stability to any government, for when the departure is sudden from one extreme to another, we may pronounce that State to be precarious. The nobility, therefore, are the pillars which are reared from among the people more immediately to support the throne, and if that falls, they must also be buried under its ruins; and since titles of nobility are thus expedient in tie State, it is also expedient that their owners should form an independent and separate branch of the legislature. If they were confounded with the mass of the people, and, like them, had only a vote in electing representatives, their privileges would soon be borne down and overwhelmed by the popular torrent, which would effectually level all distinctions. It is, therefore, highly necessary that the body of nobles should have a distinct assembly, distinct deliberations, and distinct powers from the commons.'

"What Blackstone here contemplates, is a house of lords as it exists in a fully developed constitution. What this essay describes is something which may be at once the germ of such a body, and the present great national council of New Zealand. I have said scarcely any thing about the provision of a house of legislature to be elected by the people, not from an oversight of the inevitable page 76 necessity for the eventual formation of such a house, bill because I think the legislative body that I have described would at first be sufficient for the government and public welfare of the whole community, as those distinct interest! which require to be represented by an elective house of legislature cannot be expected to arise until the whole apparatus of society has been for some time in motion. We shall not succeed in making our colony a counterpart of the mother-country by a servile and artificial imitation of the outward frame of her institutions, but by inserting into its soil such roots of a future constitution as shall naturally grow into those forms which give its character and value to our own. The mode which has hitherto been adopted in planting colonies has naturally tended to make them nurseries of democracy.

"The objections against the principle of an hereditary element in a constitution are neither weighty nor generally held. The practice and common feelings of our countrymen agree in awarding worth and honour to the aristocratic branch of our community, and it is not likely that the example of any modern democracies will shake the natural faith which throughout all ages has been placed in hereditary honour and virtue, however ready we may be to acknowledge that honour and virtue are not the necessary, though they are the natural, consequences of high birth and hereditary wealth. We are also to consider that these institutions are not castes, and that the hereditary branch of our constitution is in a state of constant change by the extinction of old families, and the introduction into its body of men of high promise from other ranks. How different from the case of democratic America, where caste does exist in its most odious and debasing form! How different also from the morbid separations in society which are naturally engendered by convict colonization!

"I am perfectly sensible of the anomalous charada that would belong to a council composed in part of New Zealand Chiefs and in part of English Gentlemen; but I think it would not be difficult, while conceding to the Native Chiefs, and securing to their descendants an here ditary right of legislating for their country, to provide page 77 against their voting on questions respecting which there might be a strong difference of opinion among the British portion of the Senate, and by which the native interests would not be affected. Their honorary distinctions should he in all respects the same as that of the British Peers, but their political privilege should rather be that of assessors than of councillors. As regards the present generation of Chiefs, it should rather be a school for the formation of legislators than a legislative assembly; while in all questions relating to native interests their unanimous dissent should amount to a veto. In all this there would he difficulties, but we should reflect that these New Zealanders are now the lords of the land; and that were they unanimously to insist upon their independence, England could not exercise one single act of authority upon their shores. Our plan, as regards them, grows out of the peculiar exigencies of the case, and is intended to give form to the embryo rights of sovereignty which we acknowledge them to possess.

"It would also be a great mistake to suppose, because they are uncivilized, that they have the same inaptitude for deliberating on state affairs which the unlettered part of our own population would have. It is, I conceive, one of the redeeming points of savage life that the people at large do possess a tolerable acquaintance with the customs and institutions of their country, and we know that they are in the habit of holding assemblies and deliberating upon measures of public interest; and if such an expedient as this were not adopted for representing the native interests, it would be very difficult to devise any plan by which such a representation could he secured to them in the popular branch of the legislature." 1840.

Having given this exposé of the views I entertained at the outset of the colonization of New Zealand, as to the elements it afforded us for laying the groundwork of a well-ordered State, I shall close this section, as I did the last, by referring to the hope of better things which seems to be dawning upon us from that country itself. It is connected with the conference of Chiefs at Kohimarama, to which reference page 78 has already been made. That conference has excited the greatest possible interest among the young chiefs who have attended it, and has awakened in them a determination to qualify themselves for admission into the Colonial Legislature.

"In this light the present Conference may be fairly regarded as a most effective training-school in legislation; and the Maori delegates now assembled have more than once given expression to their strong desire to have the Conference made a periodical gathering, to be held alternately in the North and South of the colony. They feel that they have been dealt with fairly and frankly; and they regard the convening of this conference of Chiefs from every part of the colony, as the first decided step towards their naturalization as British subjects—to their being placed on a footing of perfect equality with the white man.

"They have been asked to speak out their sentiments without reservation; and every speaker has had the report of his observations read over to him for correction—so that as the official reports appear from time to time, they will have all the authority which attaches to the reports of Parliamentary debates. Of this fact the speakers are all fully aware; and they one and all admit that it makes them doubly cautious as to what they say, so that they may make no statement to which they do not feel pledged as on oath."

The following is from the pen of Captain Byron Drury, to whose important letter in the "Times" of November 16th I have already referred:—

"Extraordinary circumstances require exceptional measures, and after studying the subject I am convinced that we should at once proclaim a Maori Chamber of Representatives—as near as possible numerically the same as exists—to sit simultaneously with ours. Interlard it with the popular native secretary and a small amount of forensic talent,—any one who knows the New Zealander is aware that he admires our law, is eager to learn and adopt it,—assisted by two or three men whose influence would widen their sphere of discussion, and instruct them page 79 in the forms and decorum of debate. If they wish to make laws for districts as yet far removed from the influence of our magistrates, let them do so—they will follow our code. Their debates would be chiefly upon land and its transfer. The more this subject is ventilated the better, and the adjoining Chamber would learn their views.

"The natives would know their enactments were all subject to the Governor's veto. They largely contribute to the revenue, and should have a voice in its expenditure, Their speeches are short, poetical, and somewhat incoherent, but will soon expand, and if they tire in debate, still, they will allow the opportunity has been afforded them of legislating with us on an equality, and in another generation they may coalesce with the existing Legislature.

"Such a concession will be a death-blow to the king movement, and draw to us 53,000 out of 56,000 wavering natives, who at present remain loyal or neutral. They would act with us on their king's own principles, who recently told his subjects to 'hold fast Christianity,' 'hold fast love,' and 'hold fast law,' for what is the advantage of all other work? "