AGAINST TEE CGLOMY.

17

B.—No. sa.

1865.

89. While these objects were being effected, the motives of the Colonists were exposed to the most adverse and cruel criticism, for, it soon became evident that the presence of the Imperial troops subjected them, the Ministry, and by implication, Your Excellency, to the imputation of being actuated by base and unwort.,y motives; and Air. Weld, therefore, in his memorandum of the Bth of April, adopting the suggestion of your memorandum of the previous day, states, with regard to the employment of those troops, that "it is impossible longer to accept assistance so unwillingly rendered," and, records the determination of the Government henceforth to provide for the defence of the Colony. They were further impelled to this course by the consideration that " the forced inaction of the British Army renders it a source of weakness to the Colony, and rather retards than promotes that peace which it was their hope ere this to have established, and they expressed their belief that the political action ot the Military Officer commanding has resulted in fresh embarrassments and detriment to the public service." Mr. Weld admits, in his memorandum of the 11th July, 1865, a reasonable liability for Colonel Warre's operations at Taranaki, even though, to a great extent, they were marred by the inaction of the Lieut.-General, but he declines recommending any appropriation for the Imperial forces then in the Colony. Just previously to this the Colonial Trrasurer had forwarded, on the 23rd of March, 1865, the sum of £500,000 in four per cent. Colonial Debentures, in payment of Imperial claims, and had asked, as a practical recognition of the efforts of the Colonists in the performance of the duty imposed upon them, that the Home Government should give their guarantee to the remainder of the Three Million Loan, or should make an annual grant in aid of the extraordinary expenditure for the next four or five years. Neither of these requests have been granted, although so ably and earnestly recommended by Your Excellency. 90. From that time to this the policy of the Colonial Government, whether under Mr. Weld or Mr. Stafford, has been in the direction of peace and self-reliance. Loyal tribes which have been threatened or attacked have been supported, forays on our borders have been repelled, and attempts have been made to apprehend the cruel murderers of Mr. Volkuer and Mr. Fulloon, while constant efforts have been directed towards winding up the policy of 1863. In these exertions successive Ministries have received Your Excellency's most cordial co-operation. It is a matter of much gratification to find that, so far as we can read aright the present indications of the Native mind, there appears a very fair hope that at length peace is permanently restored to the land. 91. With the Colony now rests the duty of preserving, unaided, the public peace, for there is no need for the Colonists to ask themselves the question which was put by Sir. G. C. Lewis, in his Memorandum of the 26th July, 1860, to Governor Browne, when lie writes —" What is the degree of protection which the inhabitants of a British Colony are entitled to expect from the Home Government is a matter in which it is impossible to speak in the abstract. It is no doubt necessary to punish aggression, to defend the centres ol population, to maintain a hold upon the keys of the country; but beyond this the amount of assistance given must depend on the demands to which the Naval and Military forces of the country are subjected elsewhere." From this position the Imperial Government has receded. It no longer insists upon the instructions issued by Mr. Cardwell to Your Excellency, on the 26th of July, 1863, when he says—"\our duty as the Representative of your Sovereign is to take such measures as may, in your judgment, be best calculated to put down rebellion, to restore 'peace and order, and to stop the expenditure of blood and treasure. When you shall have accomplished these objects, and the Army maintained at so great an expense shall have been reduced to the moderate numbers suited for the times of regular and peaceful administration, Her Majesty's Government will not be desirous to withdraw from Colonial Ministers any part of that authority in the conduct of Native affairs which has been already vested in their hands." Even this position is no longer held ; but the Colonists are now informed that they may have the services of an Imperial Regiment, which might be retained "in the Colouy in case the grant of £50,000 per annum for Native purposes shall be continued ;" but this Regiment, in case of its retention, was not to be "left in distant and isolated posts," nor "employed virtually as a frontier or /Native police," but " concentrated at the chief towns, viz., Wanganui, Aew Plymouth, and Auckland," and, if necessary, "at Wellington or Napier ;" for, as Lord Carnarvon remarks in his Despatch to Your Excellency of the Ist December last, with respect to the troops—" It is not with the object of being useful that they are now in New Zealand. The Colony has long since adopted the duty of protecting itself, and Her Majesty's troops are no longer there for the purpose of protecting it, but merely remain, or ought merely to remain, in default of the transports necessary for sending them away." It is scarcely to bo wondered, therefore, that the Colony should decline to pay the sum of £50,000 annually for a service which was not designed to assist it in the preservation of the peace, and which, moreover, bore with it a forced expenditure of £50,000 in addition to the expenses of an armed constabulary to defend the frontier. 92. The claim whicli New Zealand prefers to the material assistance of Great Britain, sue asks to be considered on the ground of right, as well as on the grounds of wisdom and generosity. In endeavoring to illustrate and support this position I select the year 1857-8, as one peculiarly adapted to the circumstances ot the case, being guided thereto by three considerations : because the Return, from which 1 shall quote, was drawn up for that year with especial reference to the subject under review ; aud because, on the 12th February, 1858, Governor Browne issued his proclamation, declaring that active measures would forthwith be taken against all persons in arms against Her Majesty's authority ; and also because, on the LSth May, 1801), Lord Carnarvon communicated to the Colony the fixed determination of the Imperial Government so keep jealously in their own hands the administration of Native affairs, which might " at any time involve the employment of the troops and the consequences of an expensive conflict." It was, then, but natural that the Colonists, while loyally responding to the call of the Governor to aid him in the Imperial duty of upholding Her Majesty's supremacy by force of arms, aud in keeping inviolate the lights of the Native proprietors of land, should look around them, in order to ascertain for themselves the nature and extent of the obligations they were about to incur. They were, at that time, under an engagement to the Crown, entered into in 1858, to contribute annually the sum ot £5 for every soldier in the Colony, towards the expenses of Her Majesty's Military Forces serving in New Zealand ; an engagement peculiarly burdensome to a Colony whose whole revenue, of every kind, ordinary and territorial, was only £237,245, and one, which for its magnitude and the demands it created, was, in comparison with other Colonies,