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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Personal Volume

The Peace Party

The Peace Party.

The question of questions before the Parliament of those days was the attitude that the Government and people ought to take towards the native race, and you have seen from the passages which I have read on which side Fitzgerald was ranged. He desired that the natives should be treated not only with justice, but with extreme kindness. He was the leader of the Peace Party, and how rare his advocacy was can be learned from the speech which I have just quoted from. He was Native Minister in 1865, having been appointed to that office by Mr Weld, but he held office for only about two months. But during the time he was in office he introduced and carried what was really the Magna Charta of Maori liberties, the Native Rights Act, 1865, which provided that every person of the Maori race within the colony shall be deemed a natural born subject of her Majesty. The bill was seconded by one I could call my friend—the Hon. Major Sir J. L. C. Richardson—a man who was always to be found on the side of the weak and the oppressed. A glance through the statute books of 1865 will show that the law-givers were affirming principles of much import in dealing with the natives, and also with the duties and privileges of Parliament. In that Ministry there were some very able men. You will recognise that when I give their names. There were Weld, Fitzgerald. Fitzherbert, Sewell, Sir John L. C. Richardson, Major Atkinson, Mantell and J. C. Richmond. On one important policy question, though the Government had a majority, they had not, as Weld and his colleagues thought, a sufficient majority to carry on, and Weld therefore tendered his resignation. I can well remember the news of the resignation coining to Dunedin, and though perhaps the majority of the Dunedin electors were not supporters of the Weld Government, there was a genuine feeling that New Zealand had lost an able Executive.

Another question that Fitzgerald devoted his attention to was that of public finance. He desired that there should be not only audit of the colony's expenditure, but control of it. The audit system in force had been what is called the postaudit system, that is, the Government paid accounts out of the Treasury, and the auditor afterwards audited these accounts, just as auditors do for public companies. Fitz gerald desired that there should be a control, and that before accounts were paid the Comptroller should certify that Parliament had authorised the payment, and that there were funds set aside for the purpose. In January, 1867, he was appointed to the position of Comptroller-General. The name of his office was altered by a later statute to that of Comptroller and Auditor-General, and he held that office till his death, in 1896.

And now I must say a few words about him as a man and a statesman. I have told you what his attitude was on several political questions in the colony, and I have given you a few extracts from his speeches so that you may realise that we had in New Zealand a statesman and a great orator. But he was a many-sided man. He took an intense interest, not only in political questions, but in social questions also. His early essays and speeches show that he had high ideals, and that he was using bin talents and strength for reform. I have referred to his attempts to found a colony in Vancouver. He was also in-terested in the Irish question. He wrote a letter to the noblemen of England upon the condition of Ireland in the sad years of 1848 and 1849, and advocated Irish emigration in those years. He had, even in these early years, dealt-with the Exchequer system page 10 in England, and had written largely on the question. He was a poet, too, for he had then written poetry and songs. In 1853, whilst in the colony, he wrote on psychological subjects and on finance. He was a Home Ruler, and believed that the redemption of Ireland would come if she had a local Parliament. From 1860, when He returned to New Zealand, till 1867 He was the author of many essays, stories, plays, etc. As showing his many-sidedness, may I add that, He was a good lawyer and a law draftsman. He drew the Counties and the Municipal Acts of 1876, and in many financial measures his advice was sought and his draftsmanship adopted. In the "Monthly Review" was published an essay by him on "Dreams," and two papers on the Shakespeare-Bacon controversy. I remember, in 1804 or 1805, being much struck by an article that appeared in the Christchurch "Press" on city architecture. It seemed to me to He influenced by Ruskin, and was yet unlike Ruskin. It was not until twenty years after that I found that Mr Fitzgerald was the author of it. In his lecture on the value of art in the Colonial Museum in 1808 he dealt with the samo subject. I should like to quote many passages from it, but time will not permit me. I may, however, quote its message:—"I would," said he. "suggest to your earnest consideration whether, having not only been placed by our Creator under the authority of a moral law, but placed also by the same power in the midst of a world teeming, from the infinity of greatness to the infinity of littleness, with forms of unspeakable mystery and beauty, it may not be a mistake greater than most of us suppose, to neglect, individually and nationally, the study of this principle of beauty, for the recognition and enjoyment of which we are especially adapted by our nature."