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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 10
"Double Government."
"Double Government."
Again, not only must I differ from Mr. Weld, both as to his capacity to make Roads before he beats down the Rebellion, but I must differ from him as to the existence in New Zealand of what he calls the "Double Government." There is no such thing in New Zealand—there never has been. A "cry," cried loud enough, may pass for a Truth; and the cry of its being New Zealand's Double Government which is her fundamental evil, has been so loudly cried that many excellent people imagine such a thing exists in New Zealand. But it does not. What we Lave now, what we have ever had in New Zealand since Representative Institutions were conferred on us, is not a Double but a Treble Government:-a tripartite body, composed of His Excellency the Governor—the New Zealand Ministry—and, the Downing Street Colonial Office.
The Mother Country, as I have sought to show at page 29, is part, if not chief, Owner of New Zealand 5 and if the salary of the Governor she sends thither were doubled or trebled, * so as to enable her to secure for the post some
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Lawrence, or Canning, or Elgin; and if to such a man, acting for her as he would do from the inestimable vantage ground df being on the spot—seeing, hearing, learning, for himself—she would entrust her interests in her magnificent joint Property of the Colony of New Zealand, all would go well Such a man would be too much the Statesman to flout a young Institution like a New Zealand Ministry—no New Zealand Ministry could desire other than to work harmoniously with such a man—and this, indeed, would be Double Government.
But, oppressed by tape-tied traditions, you submit to have a third, and a half-blind, † body, 20,000 miles away from
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the scene of action, perpetually "meddling and muddling" in the affairs of your New Zealand Estate—a body, at its whim and pleasure, overriding any measure which the united wisdom of your Steward the Governor, of the Colony's Steward the Premier, and of all the practical men on the Spot, has deliberately pronounced to be the best For the common good!
Sir George Grey is so much an instrument of the Colonial Office, he stands in such abject fear of that famous Bureau, that any illustration of Treble Government drawn from his administration must needs want force. But even Sir George's "sayings and doings will furnish proof of the reality of the monstrous evil I ask you to denounce. He who will consult the published Despatches of Governor Grey will see that some year or so ago His Excellency, having at
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last arrived at the conclusion that the Native Race had long been making game of his "Tract and Treacle" policy, described at page 34, determined to show them that his Soldiers had been sent him for some other purpose than for beating drums, and that "Confiscation" should teach the Ingrates that for this, their third, freak of Revolt, they should be compelled (for the first time) to make some atonement for a crime which though half sport to them was half death for others. This, though a late, was a most wise resolve; and in this, your Representative was in perfect harmony with ours, Here, Sir George Grey and Mr. Fox were one; and had there been no distant "third" portion of the Governing Body to be consulted all would have gone smoothly, and measures been taken which, probably, long ere now, would have landed us on the solid platform of a lasting Peace.
But, unfortunately, Governor Grey had certain Governors in Downing Street to consult—Governors, who, bowing to Bray of Exeter Hall, wincing at whine of Aborigines Destruction Societies, magnetized by minacious Maidstone, terrified by Taunton—at once commanded Sir George to pocket his thunder and eat his words. Ever obedient, Sir George did so—but his doing so very considerably disgusted his Fox Ministry (perhaps it would have disgusted any Ministry), and eventually drove the Fox Ministry from office.
A better Government for New Zealand than a real Double Government—a Government composed of a first class Representative of the Crown (counselled, if you will, not commanded, by quills in Downing Street), and of a institutional New Zealand Ministry, all practical heads, all on the spot—could not be devised by wit of man,——a Treble Government—a Government where all that is done in the
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light in New Zealand, may be undone in the dark at the antipodes—might hoof the angels and kick down Paradise.
* It would well requite the Mother Country to pay the half of a handsome Salary to a first class Governor for such a distant, such an exceptional, Colony as New Zealand. But to secure the priceless advantage of a real Double Government in New Zealand, in the person of an A 1 Governor, emancipated from thrall of Downing Street, New Zealand's infant House of Commons would, I should hope, gladly vote him a salary of £8000 or £10,000 a-year. Probably, some ever "non-content member for Canterbury might hazard the introduction of a Bill for keeping the Salary to the old £8000—but, if he did, he would almost merit the fate ordained for "non-contents" by Charondas the Locrian—a Potentate so annoyed by the multiplicity of Bills proposed by his St. Stephen's that he ordained that any member introducing a Bill, and failing to get it passed, should straightway be led out of the House and at once hanged.
† Many years ago in our naval skirmishes with the Americans, on the Canadian Lakes, the Colonial Office, imagining that the Lakes were Salt, carefully encumbered our vessels with "casks" for the stowage of fresh water before leaving port! Doubtless, the Colonial Office is not so blind now—but the ignorance, if ignorance it be, of the real state of things in distant Colonies still manifested by this famous Bureau, might almost make the angels weep.—Mr. Cardwell is perhaps as hard working, as conscientious a Colonial Secretary as we have ever had, and one who knows as much about Colonies as any gentleman who will be likely to succeed him for the next few years, yet Mr. Cardwell's real insight into the true position of New Zealand affairs may be judged of by the following extract from one of his late Despatches to Governor Grey. He is seeking to convince Sir George (who by the by is on the spot) that the Rebels have been generally, and indeed everywhere, defeated; and as an illustration of this hopeful, peace-coming, state of things, he says—"At Taranaki the Insurgents have been driven from their strongholds, and New Plymouth so far relieved from danger that the Colonial Government have thought themselves justified in discontinuing the services of the Militia."
Now, at Taranaki the real state of things, both before and when Mr. Cardwell wrote, was this—The close siege which the Savage had laid to the very village of New Plymouth, for more than a year, had so far been relieved that the Settler's children could play before his door, or on the village green, without fear of being tomahawked. But no real agricultural operations had been resumed, and no Settler could venture two miles from the Church without peril to his life. The Taranaki Militia was enrolled, not to mind the children, but to march into t ho interior, with her Majesty's troops, in search of the Enemy; and when Sir George Grey's orders came to ground arms and suspend the operations of the War, the Colonial Government very properly disbanded a portion of their Colonial Regiments until the Soldiers should receive fresh orders to march. As to Mr. Cardwell's idea that we had, or have now, got the better of the Rebels, it is simply an utter, a most dangerous, delusion. As straws show the current, just glance, Sir, at the "doings" of our Waikato Prisoners, mentioned in the last pages of this Pamphlet.