§ Viscount Howickwished to ask the right hon. Baronet at the head of the Government, whether he proposed to lay the instructions sent out to Captain Grey on the Table of the House, before they were called upon to vote the Supplemental Estimate for New Zealand?
§ Sir R. Peelmust answer now, as he had answered on a former night the same question, that Captain Grey not being as yet in New Zealand, there would be, with reference to the large proportion of the instructions forwarded for his guidance when he arrived, great inconvenience in making those instructions public at present. There might be circumstances to prevent Captain Grey from reaching New Zealand for a time, a contingency which Government had framed arrangements to meet, and which rendered it additionally 478 unadvisable to make public as yet the instructions sent out for him. Part of the instructions relating to the New Zealand Company, however, had been communicated by Lord Stanley to a deputation from that Company; and he (Sir R. Peel) had no objection to lay the instructions which referred to that Company before the House.
§ Viscount Howickbegged to ask whether the extracts promised by the right hon. Baronet were such as would give the House a general notion of the policy which the Government proposed to act upon for the future, with reference to New Zealand? He, and those who thought with him, considered that the past calamities of the Colony arose from the past policy of the Government; and before Parliament separated, they believed it to be absolutely necessary—should the future policy of the Government with New Zealand, as far as it could be collected, not promise to be more satisfactory than the past—to have another discussion on the subject. He hoped the right hon. Baronet would give, at all events, such extracts from the instructions as would enable the House to form a general judgment as to the policy they contemplated, ere it was called upon to meet a heavy additional demand, occasioned entirely by the past errors of Government.
§ Sir R. Peelsaid, that the noble Lord, when the extracts promised were laid on the Table, would be able to form a judgment how far they gave an insight into the contemplated policy of Government with reference to New Zealand, and could act according to his then view of the matter. He must confess he did not consider they would enable the House to form a judgment as to the general policy assigned to Captain Grey; but, he must repeat, he did not hold it consistent with his public duty to give, at present, any fuller information on the subject.