Past Colonial Officials.

It is said that in former years colonial appointments were made more for the exercise of official patronage rather than from fitness and capacity in the persons appointed. Certainly with regard to New Zealand it has not been so. Lord Stanley, Lord John Russell, Earl Grey, and other Secretaries of State for the Colonies appear to have endeavoured to find and to select the most eligible men for the services required; and it was a great boon to the new colony that Captain Hobson, Chief Justice Sir William Martin, the Attorney-General Mr Swainson, Bishop Selwyn, and Sir George Grey were all men of enlightenment and high integrity, as well as zeal for the advancement of the colony and the welfare of both races of the population, free from the page 36 taint of the convict system which prevailed in the formation of some of the Australian settlements. Governor Fitzroy was not successful; but he was an officer of high repute in the Royal Navy, and anxiously laboured to fulfil the duties of his important office, and to effect measures which he deemed most likely to overcome great difficulties that existed during his brief term of administration.