sibility; for it proves that this unhappy conflict
might at any time during the last three years
have been terminated,
had the Governor
acceded to the applications
made by myself
and the electors, and granted a dissolution,—had he fulfilled
the duty imposed upon him
by the Constitution Act.

Unfortunately, in this, as in other instances,
His Excellency instead of exercising on his
own responsibility,
the Constitutional power
which has been vested in him, for the express
purpose, amongst others, of preventing and
removing such collisions,
has allowed himself
to be guided by the advice of Ministers, not
merely actuated by party feelings and political
animosities, but who have ever manifested an
eager desire to foment and perpetuate dissensions in the Provinces, in the hope and with
the view of being thereby enabled the more
easily and completely to carry out that centralizing policy, the main object of which is to sap
and undermine, and ultimately
by throwing
discredit
upon them and bringing them into
contempt, to destroy our Provincial Institutions.

Under no Constitution that has ever yet been
framed, could Government be long carried on, or
even exist, if the same course was pursued that
has been followed by his Excellency, in the
present case—or in other words, if the supreme
power in the state refuse to exercise the
power which it ever possesses of preventing, and
at once removing those disputes, differences,
and collisions,
which in every country must,
both between the Executive and the Legislature—and between the different
branches of
the Legislature,
inevitably
every now and
then occur. There is for instance, not one now
present, who will not readily call to mind
what grave disasters have been more than once
averted, when collisions
have taken place
between the House of Commons and the House
of Lords, by the exercise, by the Crown, of the
Constitutional power it possesses, of dissolving
the one and adding to the numbers of the
other.

I must again repeat, that His Excellency the
Governor, by withholding the remedy provided
by the Constitution, is alone responsible for the
conflict, for all its consequences—and for
the damage it has inflicted upon this Province.

I cannot dismiss this topic without congratulating through you, my fellow Settlers, upon the noble and triumphal manner in which they have
vindicated our Constitution.—They have, by thus
demonstrating that if it is honestly carried out
no conflict need long exist—in all probability
prevented any future Governor attempting a repetition of the cruel experiment that has been
practised upon this Province.

It is satisfactory to be able to report the continuance of friendly relations between the Colonists and Natives of this Province. That such
relations have been maintained during the past
eventful year, is owing, under Providence, in
a great degree to the mutual confidence,
which twenty years of friendly intercourse have
established, but still more to the part which
your Representatives took in the last Session
of the General Assembly, in insisting on that
investigation into the title to the disputed land,
which now, after repeated refusals to grant it,
and after virtual military defeat, the Governor has himself proffered in the terms
of peace proposed by him to the insurgents. The conduct of your Representatives
on that occasion, removed from the minds of
the Natives suspicions of the intentions, of the
Colonists towards them, allayed the alarm and
irritation which the unjust seizure of the Waitara land had provoked, and was, I do firmly
believe, the means of averting from this Province, calamities greater than that which has
well nigh blotted out its unfortunate neighbour
from the map of New Zealand.

To the General Government of New Zealand
we have certainly been in no way indebted for
security. Left almost absolutely without military protection, and without the arms necessary
for self-defence, we should have been in a position truly disastrous had the insurrection spread
to this Province—as at the commencement there
was every probability that it would. And at
present, I regret to say, that our position is
little better. Two small military detachments,
in different parts of the Province, are all the
protection we have. While arms have been sent
to Otago, to Canterbury and to Nelson, our population, even on the very frontier remains unprovided with them; and not a single armed
vessel floats within 300 miles of our harbour.
The energy of the General Government seems
to be absorbed, in concentrating around Government House at Auckland, the whole of those
armaments which her Majesty’s Government has
provided for the defence of the Colony.

It is the more incumbent upon me to urge
upon the inhabitants of this Province, European
and Native, to avoid all causes of irritation, and
those foolish panics which sometimes alarm the
public mind, and to promote by every means in
their power those friendly feelings, which from
the first day we set foot on these shores have
animated the large majority of either race.

To the continuance of such feelings, we may
look much more confidently for the aversion of
a calamity, which would be equally ruinous to
both races, than to any assistance in the way
of military aid, likely to be rendered us by that
Government, which during the critical events of
the past year has treated the interests of this
Province with supreme indifference and neglect.

Under ordinary circumstances, it would have
been my duty, as on former occasions, to have
laid before you a full statement of the present
position and future prospects of the Province,
and to have submitted to your consideration all
the measures I deemed necessary to promote
its progress; but as a considerable number of
your members must in a few days leave for
Auckland to attend the General Assembly, and
as I understand that it is neither your desire
nor intention to remain in Session after their
departure, I feel that I shall best consult your
wishes and convenience,
by simply placing
before you our Financial position, by asking
you to make provision for the resumption of
public works, and by submitting only those
Bills which are of pressing urgency.

This course will probably appear to more
readily commend itself, when it is remembered
that in my last address, (which circumstances
prevented being taken into consideration),
entered so fully into those questions of policy,
which had long agitated the public mind, that
it would be difficult
for me to enlarge upon
them.