The Colonial Office snubbed Colonel Wynyard and Mr. Swainson, and informed them that responsible government could be initiated without an Act of Parliament.  A year, however, passed before the General Assembly was summoned together, and then it merely did formal work, as the Acting-Governor had taken upon himself to ordain that there should be a dissolution previous to the establishment of responsible Ministers.  This put everything off till the middle of 1856, by which time Colonel Wynyard had left the Colony.  To his credit be it noted that he had kept out of native wars.  Moreover, in his time, thanks to the brisk trade caused by the gold discoveries in Australia and the progress of sheep-farming in the South Island, the Colony was waxing prosperous.

The second Parliament met in 1856, and still for a time there was confusion.  First, Mr. Sewell formed a ministry which lived for thirteen days; then Sir William Fox another which existed for thirteen days more.  After that, Sir Edward Stafford took the helm and made headway.  A loan of L600,000 was the fair wind which filled his sails.  Judgment in choosing colleagues and officials, very fair administrative abilities, attention to business, and an indisposition to push things to extremes in the House were some of the qualities which enabled him to retain office for four years, and to regain it more than once afterwards.  Until 1873 he and his rival, Mr. Fox, were considered inevitable members of almost any combination.  Native affairs were in the forefront during that period.  Mr. Fox, the most impulsive, pugnacious, and controversial of politicians, usually headed the peace party; Sir Edward Stafford, much more easy going in ordinary politics, was usually identified with those who held that peace could only be secured by successful war.

The other principal moving cause in public affairs between 1856 and 1876 was the Provincial system.  That had had much to do with the confusion of the sessions of 1854 and 1856.  Then and afterwards members were not so much New Zealanders, or Liberals, or Conservatives, as they were Aucklanders, or men of Otago, or some other Province.  The hot vigorous local life which Provincial institutions intensified was in itself an admirable thing.  But it engendered a mild edition of the feelings which set Greek States and Italian cities at each others’ throats.  From the first many colonists were convinced that Provincialism was unnatural and must go.  But for twenty years the friends of the Provinces were usually ready to forego quarrelling with each other when the Centralists in Parliament threatened the Councils.  There were able men in the Colony who devoted their energies by preference to Provincial politics.  Such was Dr. Featherston, who was for eighteen years the trusted superintendent of Wellington, and who, paternally despotic there, watched and influenced Parliament, and was ever vigilant on the Provinces’ behalf.