CHAP. 1] ORIGIN AND HISTORY 41
action on the matter. The Council assured him of sympathy
and support, while asking that responsible government
should be granted, and the House of Representatives, though
at first less conciliatory, agreed ultimately to pass the
necessary votes of supply on the understanding that, pending
the receipt of the decision of the Secretary of State, the
existing members only should constitute the Executive
Council, and no attempt should be made to confuse the posi-
tion of the old members of a Crown Colony Executive with
the members of an executive which rested on parliamentary
Support.t
The decision of the Secretary of State was conveyed in
a dispatch of December 8, 1854,% in which he informed the
Administrator that Her Majesty’s Government had no desire
whatever to offer opposition tothe establishment of thesystem
known as responsible government in New Zealand, and had
no reason to doubt that it would prove the best adapted for
developing the interests as well as satisfying the wishes of
the community, and the only terms which they had to make
was the condition accepted by the General Assembly of
making fair provision for the officers affected by the new
arrangement, who had had a reasonable right to expect that
their posts would be permanent, and who under the new
system would be liable to retire on political grounds. Ac-
cordingly the principle was to be applied forthwith, and
steps were taken to appoint a government of ministers,
pensions being provided for the former members of the
Executive Council.
§ 5. RESPONSIBLE (GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA
In the case of the Cape of Good Hope the question
was inaugurated by Lord Carnarvon in a dispatch to Sir
P. Wodehouse of January 26, 1867.3 in which he announced
that the Imperial Government had decided that the burden
of military expenditure in respect of the Colony must be
assumed by the Colonial Government. The principle of
: Parl. Pap., H. C. 160, 1855, pp. 9 seq. * Ibid, p. 39.
ag H. C. 181. 1870, p. 1. Representative government dated from
