Chapter V.
1851–1852.
Demand for Local Government—Friction between Mr. Godley and the London Council of the Canterbury Association—Australian Gold Diggings, and their effect on Canterbury—Survey of first year’s work of colonisation—Society of Canterbury Colonists—Visit of Governor Grey—Land Sales—Constitution Bill, including provision for Provincial Council—Criticism of the Canterbury Association—Resignation of Mr. Godley, and his departure for England and death.
The first year of the Canterbury Settlement was an important period in the general politics of New Zealand, as the problem of constitutional government was then under consideration. On June 18, the Provincial Council Bill was introduced in the Legislative Council, then sitting in Auckland. Mr. Godley, in the previous year, had taken a strong part in opposing Sir George Grey’s “Paper Constitution,” which, while granting nominal self-government, retained all real power in Downing Street. He was now equally insistent that the implied promise of Earl Grey should be fulfilled, and that the Canterbury Settlement should be constituted a separate province with real power to manage its own affairs.
Sir George Grey had not forgotten Mr. Godley’s former opposition, and he raised the jealousy of the Nelson settlers against the Canterbury Settlement by