,022 AUSTRALASIA ILLUSTRATED. 



to have control over all affairs, while the " Provincialists " desired that the general and 

 local functions of the colony should be relegated to the Provincial Councils. Mr. 

 Stafford, who formed the first permanent Ministry, was a " Centralist," but he held 

 no office himself for six months after its formation in June, 1856, until the November 

 following, when he became Colonial Secretary. Mr. Stafford and three practicing lawyers 

 divided the portfolios among them, the lawyers being Messrs. Whitaker, Richmond and 

 Sevvell. For ten years the colonists had been clamouring for " responsible Government," 

 being desirous of escaping from the control of the Colonial Office. It was now to be 

 seen what they would do with it. Thomson tells, us how, before leaving England, 

 Colonel Browne had an interview with Lord Elgin, the ex-Governor General of Canada, 

 who impressed upon him the easy life a Governor led who reigned over a colony and 

 left the ruling part of it to responsible advisers, and it appeared that Colonel Browne 

 intended to follow Lord Elgin's advice. But the "responsible Ministry" of 1856 was 

 clogged with one restriction which threw the most troublesome portion of the Govern- 

 ment of the colony on the Governor. The purchase of land, and the laws, and all 

 things specially affecting the natives, were to be regarded as matters of Imperial concern, 

 and, as such, under the Governor's especial control. Ministerial responsibility did not 

 yet include responsibility in native affairs. Such were the circumstances under which 

 responsible Government was brought into operation. 



THE NATIVE DIFFICULTY. 



About the time when the General Assembly first met in Auckland, and the Govern- 

 ment of the colony was given into the hands of the colonists, there arose in the native 

 mind two desires. One was to provide a local form of Government for the race ; the 

 other was to discountenance the sale of native lands. Both were regarded by the ruling 

 colonists as inimical to the welfare and progress of the colony. The native race wanted 

 leading rather than restraint, and Governor Browne was quite unable to direct the "king 

 movement" whither it should have been led. Early in his term of office it began to 

 expand, and though he arranged with his Ministers that he should remain responsible for 

 native affairs, he saw only with their eyes and followed their advice, because he had no 

 other knowledge or experience to guide him in cases of perplexity. The responsibility 

 remained with the Governor, but the control of events rested mainly with his Ministers, 

 who began to sap the power that was divided. 



In May, 1857, a Maori meeting was held on the banks of the Waikato River, 

 when Te Wherowhero, who had written to the Queen on the death of Governor 

 Hobson, was elected King under the style of " Potatau, King of New Zealand," and 

 the flag given to the natives by William the Fourth was hoisted as a symbol of his 

 sovereignty. The object of the movement, which was directed by a chief of great intel- 

 ligence named William Thompson, was to obtain law and order, and to replace the 

 power of the chiefs which the advent of the Europeans had almost destroyed. The 

 importance of this movement was at once recognized. " If the Government," wrote 

 Governor Browne when reporting this meeting to the Secretary of State, " does not 

 take the lead and direction of the native movement into its own hands, the time will 

 pass when it will be possible to do so." In the following year, 1858, he held a different 



