100

midable opposition" which they encountered
in the Houses of the Legislature, and which
threatened to put a stop to the public
business. This fact was first brought to
the knowledge of the Officer administering the
Government by the Memorandum in question.
Till he read that document, he had been led
to believe that the Ministers were steadily
supported in the House of Representatives by
large, majorities; and though he was aware
that their proposals were sometimes criticized
and opposed by small minorities, he imagined
that such opposition arose, from the natural
working of representative institutions,* and was
not merely harmless, but serviceable as the
means of subjecting important legislative mea-
sures to scrutiny by the elected guardians of the
public interests. With respect to the Legisla-
tive Council, he has been assured not only
that it has exhibited no organized opposition to
the measures proposed by the Government,
but that, on the contrary, a member of the
Government in the House of Representatives,
speaking in that House, recently thanked the
Legislative Council for having improved some
measures sent to them by the Representative
House, and expressed his hope that they would
continue to afford such valuable assistance in
the work of legislation. The Officer Admin-
istering the Government assures the House
that he was never by anybody told of any
formidable opposition to the Government in ei-
ther House of the Legislature, and that he is
still at a loss to understand the statement, with
regard to such opposition, in the memorandum
of Mr. Fitzgerald and his colleagues. He
was also totally unconscious that the House of
Representatives had exhibited any disposition,
still less a general determination, not to grant
the supplies necessary for carrying on the
service of the Government, unless he should
consent to a total departure from the Minis-
terial arrangements for which the House had
expressed to him its warmest thanks. At any
rate, these facts were suddenly communicated
to him, and so much in the form of pressure
upon his judgment that he could not be blind
to a sudden change of mind on the part of the
authors of the memorandum. He could not
doubt that, for reasons of which he was him-
self unconscious, they had repented of their
consent to the original ministerial arrange-
ment, and that they were insisting, and
with something like a threat of deplo-
rable consequences if he refused, on
obtaining far more than the agreement into
which they had deliberately entered with him.
Nor could he fail to be struck with the manner
in which the resignations of those gentlemen
were presented to him. It was settled on
Tuesday the 1st August, that the final consi-
deratiorr of the difference between them and
him should take place at a meeting of the
Executive Council at 3 o'clock on Wednesday
the 2nd. But before noon on that day, Mr.
Sewell's resignation was delivered, and it was
followed, after an interval, but before 3 o'clock,
by those of Mr. Weld and Mr. Bartley. At
the appointed meeting for three o'clock, Mr.
Fitzgerald alone attended; and it was only
when the Officer administering the Government
declared that his opinion was unchanged,
thereby shewing that the successive resignations
of Mr. Sewell, Mr. Weld, and Mr. Bartley,.
had not affected his judgment, that
Mr. Fitzgerald then and there wrote and
presented his own resignation.

The above statement of facts, which are
within the knowledge of the Officer Adminis-
tering the Government, will, he trusts, satisfy
the House, that it is not their duty to sustain
the late Ministers in their difference with him.
For two reasons in particular, he should feel
deep regret if their natural feelings of disap-
pointment at the present stoppage of the busi-
ness of the Session, and at the present down-
fall of such ministerial responsibility as he can
consent to, should induce them to view his
conduct in an unfavourable light. In the
first place, he cannot conceal from himself
that, if the House should deliberately adopt
the Memorandum of the 1st of August, the
unhappy events which are therein hypotheti-
cally predicted, or, at any rate, events which
it is equally painful to contemplate, could
scarcely be averted, whilst unquestionably
the Session would be lost, and long delays
must ensue before the colony could reap the
benefits of legislation by its General Assembly.
Secondly, though this, he acknowledges, is
quite a minor consideration, and one which
he is not entitled to press on to the notice of
the House, he should himself incur a severe
disappointment of the pride and pleasure, which
he has felt in supposing that the successful
initiation, at least, of Responsible Govern-
ment would take place during his tenure of
office as Her Majesty's representative in New
Zealand.

He earnestly implores the House to weigh
with calmness and circumspection the ques-
tion which this Message submits to them; and
he relies with confidence on their being de-
sirous of at least attempting to get through
the Session beneficially for the Colony, by the
aid of that amount of Ministerial responsibi-
lity, more than which it is not at present in
his power to aid in establishing, and which,
by their Address to him of the 21st June,
they declared to be satisfactory under the cir-
cumstances. And he hereby engages to take
into his most serious and favourable consider-
ation any suggestion having that object in
view, which they may please to present to him,
either by Address, or through a Member of the
House enjoying his confidence.

He suggests that, at any rate, the House
should pass a measure for the complete estab-
lishment of Responsible Government, similar
in principle to those which are known to have
been framed by the legislatures of Jamaica, and
one or two of the Australian Colonies. Such
an Act, it is scarcely necessary for him to add,
must of course be reserved for Her Majesty's
assent according to the provisions of the Con-
stitution Act.