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On the contrary, the Federal or General Legislature has always retained in its own hands the right, and recognised the responsibility of dealing with each case on its own individual merits and in reference to its individual exigencies.

By the New Provinces Act of the last Session, the Assembly of this Colony vested a general power of subdividing the existing Provinces of New Zealand in the Governor of the Colony, acting under the advice of the Executive Government of the day—thus abdicating one of its most important functions, and placing in the hands of a Government, whose existence depends on temporary, political, and external support—an immense engine of corruption and intimidation. Such a course is, I repeat, unprecedented in the history of any country similarly situated, and unjustifiable by reference to any principle, on which equal political justice between different portions of a community ought to be administered under the institutions of self-government.

But, though the Act in question was general in its operation and apparent intention, it was, in fact, passed for no other purpose, than to meet the individual case of Hawke’s Bay. This was its foregone conclusion; though it is not improbable that a centralizing ministry, bent on the destruction of the Provincial element of our Constitution, congratulated itself on the machinery which was thus placed in its hands all-powerful to effect such an end.

In tracing the history of the Act, I will not do more than allude to the efforts which the Prime Minister of the Colony made, during a visit to Hawke’s Bay, to fan the smouldering flame of disaffection towards continued union with Wellington. Nor need I remind you of the circumstances attendant on the transmission of the writs for the election of the Wellington members, so timed as regards the date of their return, as to result in the failure of the elections and the certain absence from the Assembly of six of the Wellington Representatives till at least the very close of the Session. Nor is there occasion to mention more particularly, the illegal return of a member for Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa, so managed that the latter district knew nothing of the election till it was over, while the pretended representative was allowed to take his seat in the House without remonstrance, and to use his exertions towards the passing of the Act, of the efficiency of which he has publicly boasted.

Of course we are bound to believe that all those events were fortuitous, but certainly, if ever accident had the semblance of design, it was when so many fortuitous circumstances resulted in all that the most skilful designer could have planned—in the absence of those interested in opposing the measure, and the presence of those whose business it was to advocate and support it.

By one means or another, however, the Bill passed and became law. And here I cannot help remarking on the grave responsibility which rests on His Excellency the Governor personally, in reference to the manner in which the royal assent was given to this Act. If the Act was only what it professes to be, an Act of a general character and intent, it at least involved a principle of the greatest constitutional importance; for it not only provided for the alteration of the territorial and political divisions of the Colony established by the Constitution Act; but contrary to all precedent, it vested in the Executive Government the right of altering those from time to time without any reference to the Legislature.

If this important Act was then merely general in its intent, where was the urgent necessity for its immediately receiving the royal assent? Was it not precisely one of those occasions, when the Governor was bound to exercise the privilege vested in him by the Constitution, of reserving the Act for Her Majesty’s assent—a privilege vested in him for the protection of the Constitution itself, as well as of Imperial interests—a privilege which he possesses altogether independent of ministerial control—in fact a sort of tacit appeal against ministerial pressure.

On the other hand, if the Act, though general in its terms, were in fact passed to meet the individual case of Hawke’s Bay, and to enable His Excellency’s advisers to purchase political support, or to triumph over political opponents, it amounted to a practical fraud; against participation in which, to reserve the Bill, would have been a self-respecting protest on His Excellency’s part. The unseemly haste with which the Royal assent was given, under circumstances of which even in the obscurity of Ministerial Responsibility, His Excellency could hardly be ignorant, leaves a personal responsibility on him, from which he will not easily free himself, while this Act remains on the statute-book of the Colony.

Additional reasons for the prudential exercise of the privilege referred to, might have suggested themselves to His Excellency on the most cursory perusal of the Act. It makes only an ambiguous provision for charging new Provinces with any part of the indebtedness of the old one, incurred before the separation—an ambiguity of which I perceive the Superintendent of Hawke’s Bay is already availing himself in an attempt to repudiate all liability for any portion of the debts of this Province! Yet these debts, for which the Revenue and Lands of the united Provinces were pledged, were incurred under the sanction of His Excellency himself, who might have found in the imperfect provision made for their security—not to say the opportunity for their evasion afforded by the new Provinces Act, another reason for withholding the Royal Assent. So also the inexcusable blunder—if indeed it be a blunder, by which the Reserves situated within the new Province of Wellington are vested in the Superintendent of Hawke’s Bay—an indication of haste and precipitancy which might have at least suggested caution in him, who had to bring the law into operation.

The Act having thus passed, and thus received the Royal assent at His Excellency’s hands, no time was lost in pressing forward the severance of the Hawke’s Bay District. It will perhaps surprise those who hear me when I inform them, that the first official intimation which I received from His Excellency’s Government, of its intention to divide the Province of Wellington, was derived from His Excellency’s proclamation declaring Hawke’s Bay a separate Province, which met my eye in the Government Gazette, transmitted to me in the ordinary course by post.