NEW ZEALAND GOVERNMENT GAZETTE,
(PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.)
Published by Authority.

All Public Notifications which appear in this Gazette, with any Official Signature thereunto annexed, are to be considered as Official Communications made to those persons to whom they relate, and are to be obeyed accordingly.

WILLIAM HICKSON,
PROVINCIAL SECRETARY.

VOL. XIV. THURSDAY, 2nd MAY, 1867. No. 15.

SPEECH OF HIS HONOR THE SUPERINTENDENT ON OPENING THE THIRD SESSION OF THE FOURTH PROVINCIAL COUNCIL OF THE PROVINCE OF WELLINGTON.

MR. SPEAKER AND GENTLEMEN OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL,—

Although I still adhere to the opinions I have on opening previous sessions expressed on native questions, though I believe as firmly as ever that there is not the slightest probability of the friendly relations which have for so long subsisted between the two races in this Province being disturbed, and that even if they were we are well able to protect ourselves with no other assistance than that of the tribes who have hitherto remained loyal, and have on so many occasions during the insurrection rendered the most signal services, yet I am free to confess that I cannot regard the removal of the whole of Her Majesty’s troops without some misgivings, some apprehensions as to how far the peace in the sister provinces of this island may not be thereby imperilled.

There is little doubt that some few months ago the rebels, owing to the defeats they had sustained during the last two years in all their encounters whether with the Imperial or Colonial forces, had become so completely disheartened that they were prepared to retire from a struggle which they had no reasonable chance of winning. It is equally certain that since they have seen the troops embarking as fast as transports can be found, their hopes and courage have revived, and that a very considerable number of them are inclined and only waiting to try their strength with the police.

While on the one hand there is every reason to believe that the two residents best allowed to remain, and a large proportion of a few of the most important of the posts which are now being abandoned for a year or two longer, a European population would, within that period, have been placed in the districts where the displacements have taken place, sufficiently numerous to hold their own, if not to deter the natives from attempting a fresh outbreak; there is on the other too much cause to fear that as soon as the posts are given up the country will be again occupied by the rebels—the settlement of the confiscated lands effectually prevented, and that the enormous sacrifices made by the Colony will have been made in vain.

What makes this withdrawal the more to be deprecated is that while the Colony is not financially in a position, in consequence of the manner in which its large contributions towards the suppression of the rebellion have been wasted by the Imperial authorities, to support an adequate local force, even supposing such a force could be organized and retained in a state of efficiency, that a considerable portion of the troops are not to be sent home but are to be quartered in the Australian colonies, and this without the payment of that head money being insisted on which has been so urgently demanded and as far as possible exacted from New Zealand.

It will, I think, yet be regretted that owing to the action taken by the Colony and the Imperial Government may plead in justification of their removing troops from a Colony in which their mere presence would serve as a sufficient guarantee for the preservation of peace against those rebellious in colonies where their services are neither required nor asked for—that they have only taken the Colony at its word—have simply complied with the repeated requests of its Ministers.

When I last met you, I announced that I had entered into an agreement with the various tribes claiming a title to the Manawatu-Rangitikei block, by which I hoped to set at rest the formidable land dispute which had for several years threatened the peace of the Province. After intimating that, at the great native gathering at Takapu, on the banks of the Manawatu, I had formally accepted the cession of the disputed block to the Crown, as the only means