I020 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



the Secretary of State, should have resigned the Superintendency when called upon to 

 administer the Government of the colony. By a proclamation dated on the iSth of 

 January, the General Assembly was called together on the 24th of May, 1854. Mr. 

 Charles Clifford, of Wellington, was elected Speaker of the Lower House, and Mr. 

 William Swainson, the Attorney-General, appointed to preside over the Council. As soon 

 almost as the Assembly met, a difficulty arose, as there was no provision laid down in 

 the Constitution Act for what was called Ministerial responsibility, the Act having left 

 it open for the colony to choose the form of its Executive Government. The offices 

 of Colonial Secretary, Treasurer and Attorney-General were held from the Crown, and 

 their holders formed, with the Governor, the Executive Council of the colony. To the 

 demand for responsible Government, Colonel Wynyard replied by adding to the Execu- 

 tive Council Messrs. Edward Fitzgerald, Henry Sewell and Frederick Aloysius Weld, 

 who were influential Members of the House of Representatives. But this arrangement 

 did not work smoothly. Misunderstandings arose between the Executive Officers holding 

 their appointments from the Crown, and the popular Ministers, who resigned, and were 

 succeeded by Messrs. Thomas Spencer Forsaith, Edward Jerningham \Vakefield, William 

 Thomas Locke Travers and James Macandrew. 



The mixed Cabinet, however, did not work satisfactorily, as more than one Ministry 

 resigned office before the i6th of September, on which date the Assembly was pro- 

 rogued. An address to the Governor expressed a willingness of the House to grant 

 supplies to a Government conducted by the old Executive Council until instructions 

 were received from England respecting Ministerial responsibility ; and on this under- 

 standing several Bills became law, the most important of which gave the Provincial 

 Councils the management of the waste-lands of the several provinces. Next year the 

 Assembly commenced business on the 8th of August, when the officer administering the 

 Government informed the Assembly that Her Majesty's Ministers had no objection to the 

 establishment of responsible Government, provided the Colonial Secretary, the Colonial 

 Treasurer and the Attorney-General were pensioned ; and that no enactment was necessary 

 for the formation of responsible Government, as the practice rested on usage only. 

 Colonel Gore Browne, who was to succeed Sir George Grey as Governor, arrived in 

 Auckland on the i5th of September, and prorogued the Assembly. Colonel Wynyard's 

 Administration, extending over some twenty months, was alike peaceful and prosperous, 

 no events of special moment marking his term. 



A new Parliament was chosen, after the sittings of two years, to enable the people 

 to elect Members from whom responsible Ministers could be chosen ; it met at Auckland 

 in May, 1856. Colonel Browne visited, in the recess, the settlements of New Plymouth, 

 Nelson, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago., and found the European population, which 

 numbered some forty-five thousand souls, busily and profitably occupied. The revenue 

 of the colony was one hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds, while when Captain 

 ! itxroy left New Zealand it was only twenty-six thousand six hundred and forty-five 

 pounds. This was an unmistakable indication of prosperity. In the new House of 

 Representatives, Mr. Clifford, of Wellington, was again chosen Speaker, and three Minis- 

 tries, between the /th of May and the 2nd of June, succeeded one another. The first 

 passed a Pension Bill, giving to the officers appointed by the Crown two-thirds of their 



