174 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART Ix 
constitutions to lay down rules by which the Governor could 
be removed on votes of two-thirds majorities of either house. 
This attempt was not approved by the Imperial Government, 
and dropped, but it was only an attempt to recognize what 
is the rule, that a Governor who cannot work with ministers 
must be recalled, unless he has acted on Imperial grounds, 
and the dispute is not one between him and ministers, but 
between the Imperial and Colonial Governments. 
As a matter of fact, the Governor is exposed to censure 
by his Parliament, and it would depend on the terms of the 
censure whether or not he was recalled by the Imperial 
Government. A man’s usefulness need not by any means 
be gone because he has been censured. There are several 
instances of censure on record, both in respect of actions 
which were in effect Imperial and of actions which were 
Colonial. For example, in 1861 an attempt was made by 
the Legislature to censure Governor Sir W. Denison in New 
South Wales for his action in sealing a land grant himself 
when the Secretary declined to do so ; he acted in accordance, 
or in supposed accordance, with his instructions from the 
Imperial Government, which until 1855 had had the ultimate 
control of the lands, and felt itself bound to make the grant 
alluded to, and the motion of censure was not actually carried.! 
In 1877 a vote of censure was passed by the New Zealand 
Parliament upon the Governor, Lord Normanby, because of 
his action in declining to appoint Mr. Wilson to membership 
of the Legislative Council when a vote of non-confidence in 
ministers was pending, on the ground that it was not proper 
for the Governor to take notice of a matter in agitation in 
the Lower House as a reason for refusing to accede to advice 
tendered by his ministers. The Governor then asked his 
ministers to advise him what reply he should return to the 
resolution passed by the Lower House, but they declined 
bo advise him, and declined to accept his view that they 
should either resign and give him the chance of obtaining 
new ministers who would assist him or defend his action. 
Accordingly Lord Normanby sent home the correspondence, 
! New South Wales Legislative Assembly Votes, i. 58, 416, 647-743.