454

Auckland Provincial Government Gazette.

I never held any conversation or answered any questions at the Club at Auckland except in that easy confidence of privacy commonly prevailing amongst gentlemen admitted into such institutions, and without giving that care and attention to precise form of expression, and without that accuracy of recollection which I should certainly have bestowed on any conversation I believed was shortly to be conveyed to Your Excellency’s ears, and to be by you reported, twelve months afterwards, to Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State, for the information of the Queen and the British Parliament.

Especially should I have used greater caution in the respects to which I allude had I known that after such a report had been made I was to be left in ignorance for more than four months of what had been done, of the words and expressions I was to be charged with having used, and of the interpretation Your Excellency was pleased to put upon them. Men’s honour and character—nay, their very lives—are held upon a frail tenure if such things can be done.

The state of affairs when the alleged conversation is said to have taken place was quite different to that which prevailed when I wrote to Your Excellency on the 5th June, 1876. In June, 1875, the Colonial Government had only proposed to abolish the Provinces in the North Island. No form or method of abolition had been made known either to myself or to the public. I was altogether unaware what circumstances might have to be met. When I addressed Your Excellency on the 5th of June, 1876, I had to speak of pressing difficulties which were known to be almost certain to present themselves for solution in consequence of the Abolition Bill having been passed and made applicable to both Islands of New Zealand. It therefore never entered into my mind on the 5th of June, 1876, to allude to a past state of affairs which was not under consideration, or to a conversation which I am alleged to have had twelve months previously to the date of my writing to you, but which I had totally forgotten; and I only addressed myself, I submit, clearly and succinctly to those circumstances which were in existence at the time I wrote, and to events for encountering which provision would probably have to be made.

The charges made against me by Your Excellency, and the enclosures to your despatch, are three in number:—

(1.) My conduct in relation to improperly dictating in my office, as Superintendent, a particular resolution to the Provincial Council of the Province of Auckland.

(2.) Some implied charge, but not openly or fairly stated, of attempting to get the command of the police force of the Province of Auckland to use it against the General Government.

(3.) Of being the author of reports that the Government of this country might attempt to use the Queen’s vessels against the inhabitants of this Colony if any of the Provinces, as a last resource, resisted the bringing into operation of the Abolition Act.

The first of these charges is sufficiently disposed of by my denial of it, and by the statements made in their places in Parliament by members of the Auckland Provincial Council.

The second charge is thus answered:—The Superintendents of all the other provinces but Auckland have the police force under their control, and the law requires that this should be the case, as the Superintendents are by law required to pay the cost of the police force, and are made answerable for the peace, order, and good government of their several provinces. There was, therefore, in the first place, nothing unlawful or unusual in my seeking to be placed in the same position in this respect as other Superintendents. In the second place, when the General Government at last, at my request, agreed to hand over the police force of the Province of Auckland to the Superintendent, representations were made to me, on the part of the chief officer of that force, that this proceeding might injure the position of some of the officers, and lose this province the services of at least one very able and deserving officer, possibly that of some of the others, and of some of the men composing the force. It was then doubtful how long the provinces might continue, and any new arrangement made with regard to the police might only be very temporary. Out of tenderness, therefore, for individual interests, I would not interfere with them to gain an advantage which might be so shortlived, and I relinquished all idea of taking over the police and did not do so. Had I intended to use the police force to support any views of my own, I should certainly have taken it over. The fact of my not having done so was well known to Your Excellency’s advisers when you wrote your despatch of 21st June last.

The third charge is thus answered:—I first heard of the supposed intention of the General Government to use, under certain circumstances, the Queen’s vessels and marines against the people of New Zealand from a supporter of the Government, some time before any of the circumstances alluded to in Your Excellency’s letters. I attached importance to that statement from knowing that on a previous occasion the Government here had made arrangements for doing this in the case of trivial disturbances which they were capable of easily suppressing by police and special constables, as they in fact did.

My complaint, also, was not that a rumour was in circulation to the effect that the Queen’s vessels and forcible measures were to be employed by the supporters of the abolition policy against Her Majesty’s subjects here—a rumour which undoubtedly myself or any other person might be wrongfully accused of having originated—but that the supporters of the Government abolition measures used threats that this would be done. Now certainly, I could not have been the means of inducing them to use such threats, nor could I in any way be responsible for their doing so. Nor again, until your despatch of 21st June last was made public, did myself or the public know your views on the subject. It is, in my belief, greatly to be regretted that they were not sooner made public. Threats of the kind I allude to have been made by supporters of the abolition measures of the Government in my presence—sometimes as warnings, sometimes in a manner offensive to me. Members of the Assembly the other day, in their places in Parliament, testified to the same circumstances. The public Press has done it. I do not think this can be denied. They produced, I believe, important political effects at the time. Now, these warnings or threats are generally disapproved of; it is easy to laugh at them, and they cannot of course be carried out, but I still remain of opinion that they ought never to have been used.

I shall not at present notice those points which I think unconstitutional or wrong in Your Excellency’s despatches of the 21st June last, but I trust you will transmit to the Secretary of State a copy of this my defence to the charges you have made against me.

I have the honor to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s most obedient humble servant,
G. Grey.

His Excellency the Governor.