On the 15th November he attended a public meeting of the Association to consider Sir George Grey's proposed Bill for a Constitution for New Zealand, and delivered the following speech in moving the first resolution:—

Sir, although incapable of addressing you for more than a very few minutes, I cannot resist the temptation of this opportunity to express my sentiments on the important question now offered for your consideration. And in doing so, I am above all things anxious to impress upon you the recollection, that the words and actions of this meeting will inevitably form the subject of careful attention and criticism at home, that, if they be wise and worthy, they will support and strengthen the hands of those who are struggling for your rights in Parliament to an extent which can hardly be over stated, whereas, if you betray either feebleness or page 64irresolution on the one hand, or want of calmness, temper, and moderation on the other, you may be very certain that your errors will be promptly taken advantage of, and that in answer to your claims and prayers you will have the old sneer at the unfitness for self-government which you show in your efforts to attain it. The business before you to-day is to pronounce your opinion on the Bill which Sir George Grey offers for your acceptance: now, before you do so, and in order that you may do so with justice and effect, I want you to ask yourselves what this great political object is that you have been striving after, for many long and anxious years, and of which this measure professes to be the realization. There are some who will tell you that it is "representative institutions," for it is the fashion to say that all colonial reformers want "representative institutions." If this be so, then I admit that the Bill ought to satisfy you, for it certainly gives you, in a measure, and after a sort, representative institutions. But I deny that representative institutions are what we have striven and prayed for; we have representative institutions enough already, and can make as many more as we like; this meeting is a representative institution, as soon as we have elected a chairman; but the next question is, what we can do with them when we have them. There is no magic in the word "representative;" no people was ever redeemed or regenerated by the mere election of delegates. No, sir, the object which the colonists of New Zealand have given their energies to obtain, and which they will obtain, if they be true to themselves, is something very different from the mere form of a constitution; it is the substance which all such forms are but methods of exercising; in a word, it is political power; the power of virtually administering their own affairs, appointing their own officers, disposing of their own revenues, and governing their own country. Compared with this object, all questions which concern the allocation of power among different classes of colonists, fade into utter insignificance, whatever importance they may assume at the proper time and page 65proper place. Such questions will be settled among ourselves, when we shall have got the power of governing ourselves. Do not weaken your collective influence by disputing about them now. The contest in which we are now engaged, and which requires our undivided energies to conduct it successfully, is with the central authority of Downing Street, whether exercised through the medium of Governors, or of Nominees, or of Colonial Office instructions. Let us finish that before we begin to quarrel, as of course we shall quarrel like other people, among ourselves, as soon as we have got substantial power to quarrel about. But never forget that the end we aim at is the power of self-government; representative institutions are merely the most convenient and desirable means of exercising it. To give us representative institutions without full powers' is worse than a mockery and a delusion: it is a careful and deliberate provision for keeping the machine of government at a perpetual dead-lock; or; if that be avoided through the weakness of the Assembly, for constituting a political debating club of the worst kind, and investing it with the dignity and the claims of a National Legislature. I have insisted thus strongly upon this preliminary point, because it is clear to me that, if it were not for this juggle and word-play about representative institutions, nobody could have seriously proposed that you should accept such a measure as this of Sir George Grey's as the charter of your liberties. It is a measure for constituting Provincial debating-clubs; that is all. The resolution I am about to propose asks you to reject the Bill, because it does not give you the management of your own affairs: this is the ground upon which I trust that you will adopt it Those who come after me will examine, more at length than I have physical power to do, the provisions of the Bill, and will shew you its short-comings in detail. I will content myself with stating that it withholds from you the disposal of the greater part of the revenue, and consequently of all practical control over the Executive; that it compels you to conform your legislation to Colonial Office instructions; page 66that it contains that ridiculous and inexplicable provision against making any law repugnant to the law of England; that it makes the pernicious element of nomineeism part and parcel of your Constitution; and that, besides all this, it gives a veto upon all local legislation to a Governor not responsible to yourselves. If you think that the privilege of electing representatives to do nothing be sufficient to compensate for such defects as these; if your ambition be to enjoy the name of a constitutional country, while the real power of governing you resides 16,000 miles off, then, I say, throw up your hats, and cheer for the Constitution. But if you think with me, that this Bill will be merely a stumbling-block and an obstacle in your way; if you believe as I do, that by accepting and sanctioning it, you will debar yourselves for an indefinite time from getting any thing better; that you will compromise every principle that you have been asserting, and make it evident to friends and foes that you have been fighting for names, and not for realities—above all, if you feel convinced, as I do, that if you refuse to be put off with the shadow, you will assuredly get the substance, then I ask you to assert those sentiments and views by an emphatic condemnation of the Bill. I do not blame Sir George Grey for offering it; I believe that he is bonâ fide anxious to make every possible concession to you, and indeed that he believes he has already done so; but the fact is, that he has not the power of giving you a good Constitution, if he were ever so well disposed; he is fettered by Acts of Parliament and Instructions, which only fresh Acts and fresh Instructions can revoke. He has no power to give up the veto, no power to give you what is called Responsible Government, that is, the virtual administration of your own affairs. Now, we want no provisional relaxation of arbitaray power, depending on the casual favor of the men who may happen to exercise it; we want the sanction of irrevocable laws for our own rights, and this we can only get from the fountain of law for the British Empire—the Imperial Parliament. Never forget, that the battle of our page 67Constitution must be fought in London; it is by the influence which we can exercise, or the trouble we can give there alone, that we can hope to obtain our local independence; it is because as yet not one of the Australian colonies has taken a stand which entitles and enables it to be heard in London, that not one of them has got local independence yet. I trust that we shall set a brighter example; I trust that we shall shew New Zealand standing pre-eminent and alone among the colonies of England, proclaiming that her people will have nothing to do with counterfeits or half measures; that they will have things in New Zealand called by their proper names—real despotism or real liberty. For my own part, I would far rather live under the avowed despotism of one able and energetic man, acting on his own responsibility, according to his own pleasure than under such a regimen as it is the fashion in Downing Street to call constitutional and representative; a regimen in which the people exercise no real power, and the Government incurs no effective responsibility; in which the utmost privilege granted to the colonists is that of obstructing the action of their own Government, and in which the right of perpetual agitation is dignified with the name of freedom.

The following words from the 'Wellington Independent,' in publishing a report of the meeting, accurately describe the impression which Mr. Godley left on his hearers:—

"The manner in which Mr. Godley expressed himself in moving the first resolution, the emphasis and sincerity with which he declared his sympathy with the Association, and the satisfaction he felt in identifying himself with it, must have carried conviction to every hearer, that his words were not mere words of compliment, but that they came direct from the heart of a staunch and honest supporter of the cause with which his name is identified, the great and sacred cause of self government."