The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 10
Appendix
Appendix.
Most Gracious Sovereign,—
"We, your Majesty's loyal subjects, the House of Representatives of New Zealand in Parliament assembled, in all faithfulness and zeal to your Majesty's service, desire humbly to lay before your Majesty the difficulties under which this colony is labouring, and the dangers with which it is threatened.
From despatches recently received from your Majesty's Secretary of State, especially from a despatch dated the 26th of May, 1862, and laid before us by his Excellency Governor Sir George Grey, we have learnt that your Majesty's Government, recognising "that the endeavour to keep the management of the natives under the control of the Home Government has failed," has resolved to sanction the important step taken by his Excellency "in placing the management of the natives under the control of the General Assembly of the Colony," subject to several conditions which are fully stated in the despatch referred to.
We desire humbly to represent to your Majesty that the proposal of his Excellency was made without obtaining the assent of the General Assembly to accept the responsibility thereby imposed upon it; and although the Legislature might, under other circumstances, be willing to accept that responsibility, the present condition of the colony forbids such a course. Our duty to the inhabitants of both races within these islands, a due regard for the honour of your Majesty's throne and for the interests of humanity, alike compel us, with the deepest respect, to decline to undertake the task imposed upon us, under conditions which were never contemplated by your Majesty's representative, and which render it impossible for us honourably or successfully to fulfil that task.
We recognize the difficulty of the attempt to govern two races within the same territory by means of separate Governments responsible to different authorities, between whose respective jurisdictions no definite line can be drawn, and whose administration must often conflict. But we deem it necessary humbly to represent to your Majesty that the duty of educating, civilising, and governing the aboriginal inhabitants of these islands is one which does not, and has never hitherto been supposed solely to belong to, and therefore ought not to he wholly charged upon the European inhabitants of the colony. And we would further humbly submit that the task is one which it is impossible the colony can, by its unaided efforts, rightly perform. At the same time no efforts will be spared on our part, by cordial co-operation with your Majesty's Government, to put an end to the prejudicial effects which have hitherto attended a divided Administration.
We are compelled humbly to represent to your Majesty that the liability which attaches to the Home Government in respect to the native race is greatly increased by the fact that from the first settlement of the colony the government of the natives has been in the hands of your Majesty's representatives, under the orders of successive Secretaries of State. An absolute control over all legislation affecting the natives, and over the administration of laws relating to them, has been strictly observed by your Majesty's Government; and the settlers, as a body, seemed to have been viewed as objects of suspicion and distrust, to preserve the natives from whom it was necessary to pass peculiar enactments and to establish especial protectorates.
In respectfully declining, therefore, to accept the proposal of your Majesty's Government, we do so, not as shrinking from labours or burdens which we ought rightly to undertake, but because, along with a desire on the part of your Majesty's Government to confer an apparent political boon on the colony, we seem to discover, in the despatches to which we have referred, the intention to withdraw from engagements to which the British nation is honourably bound, and to transfer to the colony liabilities and burdens which belong properly to the empire.
Had the natives been in real allegiance to your Majesty, or in a state of peace and prosperty, the transfer of authority to govern them, together with all the liabilities attending such a transfer, might have been accepted by us with thankfulness for the confidence reposed in us, and with a reasonable anticipation of good results. But the allegiance of the natives as a body has never been more than nominal; and it is proposed to make the transfer at a time when a large section of the race have endeavoured to establish a separate nationality and to set up a king, and have raised bands of armed men to maintain his authority. It is to be made when, many other tribes are alienated and disaffected, and at the close of a was which has failed to convince the natives of the superiorly of your Majesty's arms, but which has reduced to a mere garrison one British settlement, where the insurgent natives at this moment hold possession, avowedly by right of conquest, of one of the principal agricultural districts, which had been occupied under grants from your Majesty, and cultivated for years, by peaceful and industrious settlers. It is to be made, in short, at a time when its duties must entail upon the colony expenses which it is not in a condition to bear, and dangers it cannot successfully contend against without the aid of a considerable military force; for we humbly submit to your Majesty's consideration that it is hardly to be expected that the colonists, if left at an early date to their own resources, without powerful military aid, would, in the event of future collisions with the natives, be able to exercise that self-restraint which is the privilege of the strong; and that any war which might arise would degenerate into a guerilla warfare, and become a life and death struggle of races; and if peace should happily be preserved, it might not he prudent or humane for the colony to attempt by its own limited means to establish and maintain your Majesty's authority in the whole of those districts where the native race predominates. It might be driven in its weakness to abandon the show, where it could not possess the reality, of control, and to leave the bulk of the Maori race to virtual and even avowed independence.
We have read with great concern the opinion expressed by your Majesty's Secretary of State, that his Grace can see "no adequate apprehension on the part of the New Zealand Government of the obligation under which the colonists themselves lie to exert themselves in their own defence, and to submit to those sacrifices which are necessary from persons whose lives and properties are in danger." Had the dangers, losses, and sacrifices of the colonists arisen from their own misconduct or imprudence, the imputation thus cast upon them would have been less intolerable;-but when the fact is admitted that the settlers have not been the authors of the wars in New Zealand, although immeasurably the severest sufferers by them, we humbly submit that such a charge ought not to have come from the authority under which those sufferings have arisen.
But we are further hound to state, with deep respect, to your Majesty, that the imputation tints oust on the colony by his Grace the Duke of Newcastle is undeserved. The taxation imposed upon the colonists by the recent war alone amounts to more than half a million sterling—a charge exceeding £5 per bead "upon the whole European population of both islands; and very nearly the whole male inhabitants of Taranaki from 16 years of age and upwards have been engaged for two years and a half in full military service. We humbly submit to your Majesty that it would have been ruinous and impracticable to exact any large amount of compulsory service and raise a considerable moveable army from among the settlers scattered over the whole colony. The neighbourhood of the plains of Australia, and of the rich gold fields of Victoria and New Zealand, would have effectually prevented such a scheme, which would have resulted simply in depopulating the northern island of this colony. It would, moreover, have been impossible that any large part of this, as of any civilized community, should have remained long under artns without public bankruptcy, unless stayed by pecuniary assistance from without. But the population of the colony were at all times ready if called upon by the military commanders for active support in their own districts; and the conduct of the Volunteers and Militia of Tarauaki will, on inquiry, prove to your Majesty that the settlers, though untrained, were as able to serve as they were willing to risk themselves in support of your Majesty's sovereignty-The two corps, whose services have not been fortunate enough to meet with recognition, took an active part in the most successful operations of the late war, and never shrank from the post of honour and danger.
We deem, it our duty to your Majesty humbly to record the conviction, which has been forced upon us by experience, that it will ever he found impossible to sustain, or even to elicit, the full military ardour of a community under a system which places your Majesty's local forces in a position of marked inferiority to the regular army, not only in the performance of military duties, but also in the distribution of honours and rewards due to meritorious service.
And we would humbly express this further conviction, that in a country in which the maintenance of your Majesty's Government and the enforcement of its policy requires the presence, and may require the active help of the military power, it is essential that the Government directing that policy should be armed with the entire control of that military. Great calamities have already fallen upon this colony; wars have been needlessly prolonged, lives lost, and treasure squandered, solely from that want of some local authority having power to remove inefficient and incompetent commanders, and to intrust the execution of military operations to men capable of conducting them to a successful issue. We cannot but feel, therefore, that any proposal to get rid of the divided responsibility hitherto existing in the colony, and to unite the Government under a single administration, is a proposal in name rather than in fact, unless the control of the military force be intrusted to your Majesty's representative in the colony.
We humbly trust that, upon a consideration of the above views and statements, it may appear to your Majesty that a complete examination ought to be made into the respective obligations of the mother country and the colony with reference to the native race, in order to an equitable apportionment of those obligations; and that your Majesty will be pleased to direct a full inquiry into the condition and prospects of the colony, and a reconsideration of the announced intentions of your Majesty's Government.
A sense of the gravity of the duty which it is proposed to transfer wholly to us, without material aid, has induced us thus earnestly, but with deep respect, to appeal to your Majesty. We have always been and ever shall remain ready to take as large a share as our means will allow of the burden of that duty; and we will gladly aid your Majesty's Government by relieving them from the anxious task of guiding the affairs of this your Majesty's remotest dependency, if the power is given and the help continued to us that will make our efforts hopeful; and we humbly pray that the youngest of your Majesty's colonics may not be left to struggle unaided amid political and financial difficulties too great for its strength; but that your Majesty may be pleased to deal with us as an integral part of the empire to which we are proud to belong, and as one where peculiar troubles and dangers demand peculiarly liberal consideration.
The End