No. 72
A.
Minute by Ministers on the Machinery of Government for Native Purposes in Existence at the Date of Sir George Grey's Arrival.

The Constitution Act, which in other respects confers on the colonists the fullest powers of managing all the domestic affairs of the colony, makes three exceptions in reference to matters connected with the Natives: (1.) It gives to the Crown power to define Native districts within which, as between nations, their own laws and customs shall prevail. No such district has hitherto been set apart, and so far this exceptional clause of the Constitution has been inoperative. (2.) The power of extinguishing the title of the Natives in the waste lands is reserved to the Crown. (3.) A Civil List of £7,000, a year is reserved for Native purposes; but the specific appropriation of that amount to particular objects of Native service seems to be within the function of the Assembly. These being the only points on which any exceptions are made from the powers of self government conferred by the Constitution Act on the Assembly, it seems a reasonable conclusion that the general administration and control of Native affairs, in all other particulars except the three above mentioned, are as far as the Constitution Act is concerned vested in the Assembly.

As regards the right of legislation on Native affairs, the Assembly has always claimed and exercised it, subject only to the same vetos of the Governor and of Her Majesty as on all other matters. But as regards the executive administration of affairs relating to the Natives an exception has been made from the practice established in reference to the other departments of Government. It is this: On the introduction of Responsible Government in all other matters in 1856, Governor Browne made it a sine quâ non that he should retain in his own hands the administration of Native affairs. The following memoranda, by which the relations of the Governor towards his Ministers were established, explain the position which he assumed to himself in the matter:—

"The view the Governor takes of the relations between himself and his Responsible Advisers is as follows: (1.) In all matters under the control of the Assembly the Governor should be guided by page 78the advice of gentlemen responsible to that body, whether it is or is not in accordance with his own opinion on the subject in question. (2.) On matters affecting the Queen's prerogative and Imperial interests generally, the Governor will be happy to receive their advice, but, when he differs from them in opinion, he will, if they desire it, submit their views to the consideration of Her Majesty's Secretary of State, adhering to his own until an answer is received. Among Imperial subjects the Governor includes all dealings with the Native tribes, more especially in the negotiation of purchases of land. He will receive and act on the advice of his Responsible Advisers in reference to the amount of money they may desire to have expended in any one year in the purchase of land, but beyond this he considers himself bound to act on his own responsibility The Governor alone is responsible to Her Majesty for the tranquillity of the colony, which would be endangered by the ordinary and inevitable change of opinions consequent on a change in his Advisers. It follows, as a necessary consequence of these views, that the Chief Land Purchase Commissioner and his subordinates must take their orders from the Governor alone."

There was a strong disinclination among many members, of the House of Representatives to concur in the retention by the Governor of the administration of Native affairs; but the desire for Responsible Government in other matters induced them to forego their objections, and the terms proposed by the Governor were finally accepted by the majority, and have been acted upon ever since. The result is that, while on all other subjects the Responsible Ministers are the sole advisers of the Governor, and exercise the entire executive functions of the Government, on Native affairs the Governor has, in addition to his Ministers, another adviser his Native Secretary, who is not a Responsible Minister, nor under, the control of Responsible Ministers, but who exercises absolutely (subject only to instructions from the Governor himself) all the executive functions of Government in relation to Native affairs. The Land Purchase Department, which exists under the reservations in the Constitution Act, is also in the same position. The Governor consults his Responsible Ministers to the limited extent specified in the memorandum of 1856, but also consults without limitation the Land Purchase Commissioner, who is not a Responsible Minister, but to whom is further intrusted the practical function of negotiating for and effecting the purchase of waste lands.

Sir George Grey will recollect that during his previous administration the two departments of Native Secretary and Land Purchase Commissioner were kept separate: the former having been filled successively by Mr. Dillon, Captain Symonds, and Major Nugent; the latter only by Mr. McLean, Mr. Mantell, and others. In 1856 the two departments were amalgamated by the union of the two offices of Native Secretary and Chief Land Purchase Commissioner, in the person of Mr. McLean. A prominent result of this union of the political function of the Government with its commercial function as land-purchaser has been the creation in the Native mind of a suspicion that all the acts of the Government originate in a desire to get possession of their land. They have learned to look upon the Government as a gigantic landbroker, and every attempt made by it either to improve their social condition or to control them by the necessary restriction of law is supposed to have for its ultimate object the acquisition of territory. This feeling to a great extent lies at the foundation of the unsatisfactory relations at present existing between the Natives and the Government. The House of Representatives, on two separate occasions in the last two sessions, unanimously condemned the fusion of the two departments. (See Resolutions, Sess. Pap. 1860, 1861.) Mr. McLean in May last was called upon by the Governor to resign the Native Secretaryship, and from that date the two offices may be considered disconnected. It will be some time, however, before the effects of their combination will be effaced from the minds of the Natives.

In the session of the Imperial Parliament of 1860 an attempt was made, without any previous communication with the General Assembly of the colony, to take from the Responsible Ministers the little power which remained to them in Native affairs under the memoranda of 1856. This it was proposed to effect by establishing a Native Council of advice, and partly of administration, to act altogether independently of the Responsible Government. The Act, after passing the House of Lords, was however withdrawn by Her Majesty's Government. But when the Assembly received an intimation of its being before Parliament, an attempt was made by them to meet the views of the Home Government to a certain extent, by the creation of a Native Council of advice, but at the same time subordinating all the executive functions of the Government to the Responsible Ministers. The Bill was not very popular either in the House of Representatives or out of doors; but what reconciled many of its somewhat unwilling supporters was the prospect it held out of getting rid of the independent and irresponsible action of the Native Secretary's Department, which, if it continued to exist at all, would do so in subordination to the Responsible Ministry, and would in fact be converted into that of an Assistant Secretary and clerks of the Native Minister. The Act passed the Assembly, and was reserved for Her Majesty's assent. A despatch received by the last mail states that Her Majesty's assent is withheld till Sir George Grey shall report. Ministers are bound to state that they regard the existence of the Native Secretary's Department, free as it is from all control on the part of the Responsible Ministry, as a very serious evil. While its existence paralyses all independent and vigorous action on the part of the Ministry, it is itself inefficient and powerless. Receiving no sympathy and little support at the hands of the Assembly or the Responsible Ministry, it neither originates nor can it carry out any persistent or large policy, and it is only capable of obstructing, by mere inertiæ, the attempt of the Colonial Government to bring its energies to bear on Native interests. Thus, while it is the cause of much evil, it is of no use except as a machinery for recording and interpreting Native letters, and administering the petty details which originate in the casual visits of Natives to the City of Auckland, arranging for their personal interviews with the Governor, providing them with lodgings, or giving them orders for food.

The appropriations from the revenue for Native purposes during the year ending 30th June, 1862, are as follow:—On the Civil List: Native Minister, £800; Native Secretary, £400; Native purposes, Governmental, £7,000; by Act in 1858, to continue for seven years, for schools,£7,000. On the Annual Appropriations, 1861-62: Native purposes generally, to be expended by Governor in Council, £10,000; Land Purchase Department reduced, and also to be expended by Governor in Council, £5,441: total, £30,641. Besides which, £33,000 of the English loan is appropriated for this year for pending land purchases.