NEWZfiALAND RULERS AND STATESMEN UUUflflUUUW w I i iiiiliiiiiiiiii 'Hi"' hill ! Ml! i! I m'/sivrr^rs''^^'^ V}7^: *■'- v., - ^ '.i^i-:f /6 KDWARD CIRHON WAKEKIELI). NEW ZEALAND RULERS AND STATESMEN Fro}n 1840 to 1897 WILLIAM GISBORNE FOK.MFRLV A IMEMREK OF THE HOUSE OK KE FRESENTATIVES, AND A RESPONSIIiLE MINISTER, IN NEW ZEALAND WITH NUMEROUS PORTRAITS REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION P. C. D. LUCKIE LONDON SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY Liviitcd Fetter Lane, Fleet Street, B.C. 1897 mi CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introductory — Natives — First colonization — Governor Hobson — Chief Justice Sir William Martin — -Attorney-General Swain- son — Bishop Selwyn — Colonel Wakefield — -New Zealand Company — Captain Wakefield — Wairau massacre — Raupa- raha — Acting-Governor Shortland — Governor Fitzroy . CHAPTER II. Governor Sir George Grey, K.C.B. — Lieutenant-Governor Eyre — New Constitution — Progress of Colonization — Recall of Governor Sir George Grey ....... 33 CHAPTER III. Representative institutions — Acting-Governor Wynyard— Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield — Mr. James Edward FitzGerald — Dr. Featherston — Mr. Henry Sewell — Sir Frederick Whitaker — Sir Francis Bell — First Parliament — Responsible govern- ment — Native policy — Sir Edward Stafford — Mr. William Richmond — Mr. James Richmond — Sir Harry Atkinson — Richmond-Atkinson family .... • • • 57 CHAPTER IV. Sir William Fox — Sir W'illiam Fitzherbert — Mr. Alfred Domett — Sir John Hall ......... 102 vi Contents CHAPTER V. I'AGE Session of 1856 — Stafford Ministry — Provincial Question — Native Government — Land League — King Movement — Wi Tami- hana — Sir Donald McLean — Mr. F. D. Fenton — Session of 1858 — Taranaki Native Question — Waitara War — Fox Ministry — Mr. Reader Wood — Mr. Walter Mantell — Respon- sible Government — Return of Sir George Grey as Governor — Domett Ministry — Whitaker-Fox Ministry . . . 125 CHAPTER VL Sir Frederick Weld — Major Sir John Richardson — Major Atkin- son — Weld Government — Discord between Governor and General-in-Command — Colony calumniated — Mr. James Richmond — Stafford Ministries, 1865 and 1866— Colonel Sir George Whitmore — Governor Sir George Bowen — Sir Julius Vogel— Mr. J. D. Ormond— Dr. Pollen— Mr. G. M. Water- house — Governor Marquis of Normanby — Vogel Ministry — Mr. J. Macandrew — Sir Robert Stout — Mr. Wm. Rolleston — Governor Sir Arthur Gordon — Governor Sir W. Jervois — Sir G. M. O'Rorke — House of Representatives — Legis- lative Council . . . . . . . . -173 CHAPTER VH. Labour Movement — Socialism — New Zealand Legislation and Administration — Finance — Land — Constitutional Reform — Labour — Law Reform ....... 236 CHAPTER VHL Mr. John Ballance — lion. R. J. Seddon— Hon. W. P. Reeves- Mr. John McKenzie— Mr. J. G. Ward— Captain W. R. Russell — Mr. George Hutchison— Mr. Scobie Mackenzie — Sir James Hector — Captain Edvvin, R.N. — Captain Fairchild — Conclusion . . . . . . • • -277 Appendix A 3^2 Appendix B 3^4 Index 3i7 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Edward Gibbon Wakefield ...... Fj Te Wheoro (Member of the N.Z. House of Representatives) Bishop G. A. Selvvyn. Sir William Martin Bishop G. A. Selwyn . Native Chief. Major Ropata Sir George Grey . Mr. James Edward FitzGerald Dr. Featherston . Mr. Henry Sewell Sir Frederick Whitaker, K.C.M.G vSir Thomas Gore Browne . Sir Edward William Stafford, G.C.M.G Mr. C. W. Richmond .... Mr. James Richmond and Grandcliiid Sir Harry Atkinson, K.C.M.G. Sir William Fox, K.C.M.G. . Sir William P'itzherbert Mr. Alfred Domett, C.M.G. Sir John Hall, K.C.M.G. . Sir Donald McLean, K.C.M.G. . Native Chief Tawhiao. (Commonly called the Maori Kin Mr. Reader Wood Mr. W. S. Moorhouse . Sir Frederick Weld, G.C.M.G. Colonel Sir G. S. Whitmore, K.C.M.G Sir George Bowen, G.C.M.G. Sir Julius Vogel, K.C.M.G. Mr. John D. Ormond . Mr.' George M/Waterhouse . Sir James Fergusson,[Bart. . PAGE ontispiece 7 13 31 35 65 67 69 73 85 87 93 97 99 103 107 109 123 135 149 151 171 175 183 185 187 191 193 196 Vlll List of Illustrations The Marquis of Nornianby, G.C.M.G. PAGE Dr. Pollen • 199 Mr. James Macandrew . 203 Sir Robert Stout, K.C.M.G . 205 Sir Hercules Robinson, G.C.M.G. (Now Lord Rosmead) . 209 Mr. W. Rolleston . 211 Sir Arthur Gordon, G C.M.G. (Now Lord Slanmore). • 213 Sir W. F. D Jervois, G.C.M.G., C.B ■ 215 Lord Onslow, G.C.M.G. . 217 The Earl of Glasgow, G.C.M.G. • 223 Sir George Maurice O'Rorke Hon. Charles Christopher Bowen 229 • 235 Mr. John Ballance Hon. R. J. Seddon • 279 . 281 Hon. W. P. Reeves Mr. John McKenzie Captain W. R. Russell , ^^287 Mr. George Hutchison Mr. .Scobie Mackenzie • 303 • 305 Captain Edwin, R.N. Captain Faiichild • 307 • 309 ERRATA. Page 26, lines 4 and 13, for Nyapuhi read Ngapuhi. Pages 55 and 56, speech of Hone Heke to be in inverted commas, down to end of line 4, page 56. Page 89, line 4 from bottom, y^r 1S65 read 1875. Page loi, line i, after Simon insert Maccabeus. Page 132, line 20, yir unconditional transfer ;-t'(Z// anomaly. Page 154, line 16, for Waikonaiti read Waikouaiti ; and, same Y\ne,for Waigongorau 7-ead Waigongoro. Page 200, line ^, for 1876 read 1896. Page 202, line \^, for hyperbole 7-ead hyperbola. Page 215, line 2, for 1880 7-ead 1889. Page 225, line 2, add, The Earl of Ranfurly has lately been appointed as his successor. Page 228, line 22, after himself insert and his House. Page 231, line 23,/^;- not 7'ead now; line 26, /i;;- governor 7-ead council ; erase rest of line 26 and lines 27 and 28 to full stop in latter line ; line 2g,fnr present re^^/ former. Page 235, line 3 from bottom, et-ase the Right Hon. Sir Charles Synge. Page 249, line 10, between was and 1894, at the end of and between 1894 and being, i/tsert 1993 ; and, in next line, for 1S94 7-ead 1893. Page 258. line 9, for authority 7-ead authorities ; and line 27, for ;i^4,i27 610 ;r^?i/;{^4, 127,619. Page 268. line i\,for scenes read waters. Page 283, line 5, after Sir William Fox i/tsei-i and in this latter case he was not born to the office in the sense of natural fitness for it, but in the sense of succession to it as the great leader of the Opposition. Page 2S4, line 14, add. He has lately been appointed by Her Majesty a member of the Privy Council. Page 304, line i'j,for Patia read Patea. Page 321, Index, ez-ase Richmond, Judge Simon, loi, 232. Index, page 322, line 4, for Seddon, Hon. P. J., read Seddon, Hon. R. J. ERRATA. Page 121, line Q,for these read \h\s. Page 153, line 14 from hoiiom, for repellant re^K/ repelling. Page 218, line 5 from bottom, /"or Uriwera read Urewera ; also same correction in Index, page 322, in same name. Page 246, line 8 from bottom, /!;;• 6745 >'t'ad 62^<-). NEW ZEALAND EULEES AND STATESMEN CHAPTER I. Indoductory — Natives — First colonization— Governor liolison — Chief Justice Sir William Martin — Attorney-General Swainson — Bishop Selwyn — Co'onel Wakefield— New^ Zealand Company — Captain Wakefield — Wairau massacre — Rauparaha — Acting-Governor Shortland — Governor Fitzroy. In 1886, my work on " New Zealand Rulers and States- men from 1840 to 1885 " was published. My object then was to interweave the political history of New Zealand from its foundation as a British Colony with slight personal sketches of the public characters of the chief political men in New Zealand, who have been prominently engaged, from time to time, in the leading events of that history. And in the hope of adding interest in the personality of those men, I inserted, when practicable, their portraits. As that work is out of print, I propose now, ten years afterwards, to revise it, and embody it in a new work on the same lines, bringing a series of sititilar sketches to the close of i8q6. The advice of friends, whose opinion I highly value, has induced me to take this course ; but B 2 Nnv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen I do so with considerable reluctance and hesitation, owing to the comparatively much greater disadvantages under which, from my lengthened absence from New Zealand, and from other causes, I now labour. I make the attempt with a sincere wish to do my best, and in the earnest hope that my feeble effort may add, however little, to the public interest in a colony for which, from a long residence and many years of public life there, I entertain a strong affection. The Colony of New Zealand has been from the first the puzzle of politicians. Its history is a series of grave and intricate problems. Take for instaix:e the assumption of British sovereignty founded upon what is called the Treaty of Waitangi ; the native land question ; the mutual relations of the Crown, the natives, and the colonists ; the work of colonization in the midst of civil warfare ; self- government ; internal defence ; the union of the two races under conflicting conditions. These problems were, in one sense, worked on a small scale, but their solution involves serious issues, affecting the honour of the Crown, and the livec, property, and welfare of those directly concerned. The consequence has been that public men taking part in political administration of New Zealand have from time to time been called upon to deal with very difficult and important questions. Many of these men have shown, in the performance of these duties, ability, public spirit, and other great moral qualities of no ordinary kind. It is true that they have only been able to prove their worth in a small and remote country, and that their fame, unlike that of great men at the centres of civilization, has not been spread far and wide. But the test of statesmanship is not altogether its exercise on a large stage, and before many witnesses. Statesmanship consists in ascertaining sound principles of political action, and in wisely adapting them tocircum- C apt a 171 Cook - 3 stances of time and place ; and its reality depends not alto- gether on the question whether it affects a small colony or a great empire. It is this feeling which leads me to hope that even rough sketches of the personality of prominent New Zealand rulers and statesmen may not only be a just tribute to themselves, but also in some measure interest- ing and instructive to others. So far as I am aware, no such information has been afforded by any of the books hitherto written about New Zealand, except indirectly in a few cases. Many of the men in question are dead ; others have retired from public life ; and time will soon obliterate the recollections of those who, from personal knowledge, are able to supply what is wanted. A long residence of many years of official and political experience in New Zealand induced me to undertake this work, in the hope that I may be able, however imperfectly, to give some record of those who have taken leading parts in the politics of that country. Portraits of many of them are also given, with the object of adding interest to that record. The birth of New Zealand as a British Colony was strange and troublesome. Mrs. Mother-Country, as represented by the Colonial Office, did not seem glad that a Colony was born into the world. Outside Downing Street, however, preparation had long been made for this event. Captain Cook, the great English navigator, had for all practical purposes discovered New Zealand in 1769, and in the same year he took possession of the island in the name of King George III. Moreover, when New South Wales was declared in 1787 a part of the British dominions, New Zealand, though not named, was within the proclaimed boundary. Captain Cook found a fine country, sparsely inhabited by a barbarous race of cannibals. Forty years after Captain Cook's death English missionaries occupied the Bay of Islands, almost B 2 4 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen at the northern extremity of the North Island, a place which afterwards became historical in connection with the first recognized colonization of the country. In 1830 the natives were roughly estimated to number about 100,000 souls, of whom all but 3000 or 4000 lived in the North Island. The different tribes were scattered over widely separated districts, and their occupation consisted in cultivating" fertile patches of land, in fishing, and in fighting each other. They were naturally warlike ; their inter-tribal wars, before Europeans came, were incessant, and their customs in warfare were savage and ferocious. Physically, the natives are middle-sized and well formed ; their skin is of an olive-brown colour, and their hair is generally black. Their voices are pleasant, and their gestures, when not under warlike excitement, are grace- ful and dignified. The}' have wonderful memories, and are natural orators. They show great aptitude for European customs. They have always recognized among themselves tribal tenure of land, and each tribe holds communally among its various sections, lands, forests, cultivations, and fisheries, the respective boundaries of which are all named and are well known among the tribes generally. Missionary influence rapidl}' spread, and whole tribes became converts to Christianit}'. The tranquillity thus produced gave rise to regular attempts on the part of many persons, mostly British subjects, to settle in the country and to obtain from the natives enormous tracts of land for nearly nominal considerations. The British Government were fully aware of what was going on, and when further inaction on their part became impossible, they took no definite course, but vaguely did as little as they could, and did that little badly. The old farce of allowing their hand to be forced was solemnly re-enacted. A British resident, Mr. James Busby, with no power and with uncertain responsibility, was appointed Captain Hobson 5 at the Bay of Islands. Then the Colonial Secretary for State, at Mr. Busby's instigation, recognized the inde- pendence of the native race, and presented it with a National Flag. As a set-off to this international absurdit}', Baron de Thierry, a Frenchman, proclaimed himself sovereign of New Zealand. Mr. Busby retorted by creating on paper a provisional government, with himself at the head, of the " united tribes of New Zealand," a proceeding which Sir George Gipps, Governor of New South Wales, well described as " a silly and unauthorized act of paper pellet fired off at Baron de Thierry." To make the complication worse, a report soon sprang up that France was about to make New Zealand a convict colony. In 1839 the New Zealand Company, founded with the object of reviving systematic colonization, after long and fruitless negotiation with the Colonial Office, took the bold step of sending to New Zealand a pre- liminary expedition, under the command of Colonel William Wakefield, with instructions to purchase land from the natives, and to select the site of the first settle- ment. All this threatening crowd of circumstances at last roused the Secretary of State to the necessity of establishing substantial British authority in New Zealand. Captain Hobson, an officer of the Royal Navy, was forth- with sent out as Consul, with a dormant commission as Lieutenant-Governor, and W'ith orders to negotiate with the native chiefs for the cession of the sovereignty of the Islands to the Queen of England. Captain Hobson was the first Governor of New Zealand, and during his brief rule of somewhat less than three years, he found a " sea of troubles." The burden of his office acting on an irritable temperament and a delicate state of health was fatal to him. He died while he was Governor on September loth, 1843, at the early age of forty-nine. He had many good qualities ; he was 6 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen straightforward, just, sensible, and anxious to do his dut}'. Placed in a position of exceptional embarrassment, he was daily beset by no common difficulties. His first duty was to negotiate with uncivilized tribes for the country which he was commissioned to govern. Then he was called on to substitute peace, order, and good government for absolute anarchy ; and to do this under difficult and dangerous conditions. On the one hand an aboriginal race, armed, warlike, jealous of its own position, suspicious of interference and ignorant of English laws, language, and habit, occupied the country. On the other hand there was an ugly rush of promiscuous adventurers, representing in many instances the worst phases of civilized life, claiming to have purchased enormous tracts of native land, eager to acquire more, and offering in return the fatal, but too tempting, gifts of guns and gunpowder. The Governor, without money and without physical force, was expected to combine the conflicting elements and to subject them to a satisfactory system of peaceful administration. Meantime, except for a few months during which he was subordinate to the Governor of New South Wales, he was at a distance of halt the globe from his official superior, and could not expect to receive replies to his letters in less, at the earliest, than eight months. To make his diffi- culties greater, the country itself was practically un- traversable, and coastal communication, except by sailing vessel, specially despatched for each trip, was unknown. The New Zealand Company was engaged at the other extremity of the North Island in negotiating, in spite of the English Government, with the natives for the purpose of acquiring large territories and of founding settlements. Under all these circumstances it is not surprising that Captain Hobson should have made mistakes, but it is surprising that he made so few. His Captain Hobsoii J gravest fault was his treatment of the New Zealand Company, but in this course it must be owned he only followed the original lead of the Colonial Office. Far from appreciating the struggle of that Company to introduce systematic colonization and trying to make it useful as a powerful factor in that great work, he re- garded it with unmitigated aversion and pursued it with Te Whcoro (Member of the N.Z. House of Representatives). unceasing enmity. He felt towards it as Mr. Bumble felt towards Oliver Twist. But the New Zealand Com- pany was no poor suffering workhouse bo}'. It had influence in the Imperial Parliament and in the English press ; and moreover, whatever were its faults, it had on the whole a just cause. It stood out distinctly and by itself from the mass of those harpies who greedily 8 Neii' Zealand Rulers and Statesmen clutched at all land for selfish purposes. The aim of the latter \vas to make money quocunijiie modo^ the aim oi the Company was colonization. And at last it gained its aim. Curiously enough it is partly owing to the course taken by Captain Hobson and to the persistence of the Company, that New Zealand, differing in that respect from other colonies, has been colonized from separate centres under distinct and different conditions. This circumstance, trivial as it may seem, has been the effective cause of the rapid growth of the Colony and of its wonderful vitality. To revert, however, to Captain Hobson, it is only right to say that in the main his administration was very creditable to himself. He succeeded in quickly obtaining the cession of sovereignty to the Queen in the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi. And, however unfavourably jurists may criticize that treaty, there is no doubt that its moral influence has done much to secure the loyalty of many native tribes, and that it has been and is still regarded by them as the charter of their liberties. Captain Hobson also selected Auckland as the seat of government ; and, altogether apart from political questions, he selected at the time one of the best sites in the Colony for a large town. His promptitude preserved Akaroa from the French flag. He vindicated the law b}^ the trial and execution of the murderer Maketu. He established government and had excellent laws passed for the ad- ministration of justice and for regulating property and civil rights. Governor Hobson died an unpopular man. At Auckland people were dissatisfied because he could not sanction large public expenditure. In the South the settlers of the New Zealand Compan}- detested him because he had not made Wellington the seat of govern- ment. But in his case, as in the case of many other public men, justice has been posthumous. His memory Captain. Hobson 9 is now generally respected, and the correctness ot his judgment under extraordinarily difficult circumstances is generally admitted. At the time of his death the natives who knew him well held him in high esteem. In a petition from some chiefs to Her Majesty for another Governor there were these touching words : " Let him be a good man, as this Governor who has just died." Bishop G. A. .s^ bir William Martin. Three men of high standing and closely connected with the early history of New Zealand began their public career in the time of Governor Hobson ; these were Chief Justice Martin, Attorney-General Swainson, and Bishop Selwyn. Mr. Martin, afterwards Sir William Martin, was the first Chief Justice of New Zealand. He was a man of high attainments ; able as a lawyer, dis- 10 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen tinguished as a scholar and linguist, endowed with a mind of great power, earnest thoughtfulness, and possessed of a large fund of information. He had moral qualities of high order, and his disposition was remarkable and modest and gentle. His nature was altogether one of light and sweet- ness. As a judge he was beyond praise. He was patient, just, sagacious, and firm. He gave invaluable aid in pre- paring the first legislation of the Colony. His physical frame was weak, and he suffered much from ill-health. To this, and to the requirements of his judicial position, may probably be owing an imperfection in his character. He was too much a man of the closet, and too little a man of the world, and he rather inclined in some matters to what was philosophical more than to what was practical. He had an enthusiastic love for the native race, and he did mvich for its welfare. He held strong views on the native land question and on the mutual relations of the two races, and communicated those views from time to time to successive Governors. Much of what he wrote on native subjects was based on sound principles ; but in many cases he did not make enough allowance for practical necessities. He dwelt more on what ought to be done than on what could be done. It is certain, however, that his views as a whole had a wholesome influence both in the Colony and in England, and aided to restrain public men, who glibly spoke of settling the native question once for all, from rushing into foolish policies and dangerous experiments. Sir William Martin retired from the New Zealand bench in 1857, and after a life of much great and good work died in England in 1880 at the age of seventy-two. Mr. William Swainson, the first Attorney-General of New Zealand, was an able lawyer, but an indifferent politician. He conducted admirably cases in the Supreme Court, and was very skilful in drafting laws in simple Mr. Willia)ii Swainson 1 1 and effective language. But as a statesman he was not a success. He had a prudish horror of pubhcity, and of the profane crowd. He hked to sit behind tlie throne and to pull the strings. Sinuous and secretive in his nature, he worked unseen. He prided himself on being a safe man, and yet he was often a dangerous counsellor in public affairs. He almost persuaded Acting-Governor Shortland to renounce the Queen's sovereignty over part of New Zealand. He allowed Governor Fitzroy to issue illegal grants of land, and to waive illegally the Crown right of pre-emption. He induced Acting-Governor Wynyard to play fast and loose in 1854 with responsible government, and to com- mit grave absurdities. For instance, on his advice that Acting-Governor strained at the gnat of entire respon- sible government in the absence of ofificial instruction, and yet at the same time swallowed the camel provided by Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield in the shape of a pro- gramme submitted to the Legislature revolutionizing the Constitution just then granted to New Zealand by the Imperial Parliament. Again, Mr. Swainson, who was at the time a member of the Legislative Council in the General Assembly of New Zealand, was appointed by the Acting-Governor to be Speaker of that Council, thus enabling him, as was well said at the time b}^ Mr. James Edward Fitzgerald, " to run to earth in the Speaker's chair." Mr. Swainson once hazarded a definite kgal opinion of a startling character. It was in the case referred to as occurring in the time of Acting-Governor Shortland, namely, the limitation of the Queen's sovereignty in New Zealand. The repl}' of Lord Stanley, then Colonial Secretary of State, was sliort, sharp, and practically decisive ; he did not enter into technical questions, but broadly laid down the axiom that the Ro3al Commission under the Great Seal could 1 2 Nczv Zealand Rulers and Slalesiiten not be impugned by ibe subject, niucb less the servant, ot tlie Queen. As a rule Mr. Swainson was rather vague in legal opinions on public matters. He could not, like the Delphic Oracle, be read in two opposite ways, but he was rather addicted to mysterious language. When responsible government was established in 1856, Mr. Swainson almost altogether retired from public life. He has written two or three books on the subject of the early colonization of New Zealand. He died at Auckland in 1884. A notice of Bishop Selwyn as a bishop does not per- haps properly, in strictness, come within the scope of this work, but a few words on the part he took in political questions largely affecting the natives, and generally on the great ability and noble qualities of his character, will not be out of place. His action in respect of native political questions has often been much blamed as an improper and unjustifiable interference on his part as a bishop. It cannot, however, be rightly held that the head of a spiritual mission to an uncivilized race should fold his hands and stand passively aside while the civil power is inflicting, according to his conscientious belief, gross injustice, involving the welfare and even the exist- ence of that race. It is idle to say that a missionary should altogether confine himself to the spiritual interests of his uncivilized flock when civil wrong seriously injures those interests. For instance, there is no doubt that in New Zealand a widely-spread and deeply-rooted feeling in the minds of many native tribes that subjection to civil rule would despoil them of their lands and make them slaves, caused a great falling-off from Christianity and gave rise to partial insurrection. Under these circumstances, it was not only the right, but the duty of missionaries to protest against the policy which, in their opinion, tended to bring about or intensify such consequences. Of course Bishop Sehi'yn 13 it is presumed that the protest was made under a due sense of responsibihty and within the due Hmits of dis- cretion. Bishop Sehvyn was not one who would shirk his duties ; he was no common man, and his mind was cast in no common mould. His great characteristics were force of will, zeal, eloquence, courage, and moral heroism. His main defect was an impetuous temper, Bishop G. A. Sehvyn. which occasionally made him dictatorial and indiscreet. He felt it his duly to protest against Earl Grey's instruc- tions in 1846, which he, in common with nine-tenths of those who have read them, interpreted to mean confisca- tion of native territor}'. He also remonstrated, in i860 and afterwards, with those in power, on the causes of, as he believed, a mistaken and fatal native policy which 14 New Zealand Riders and Statesmen originated and prolonged the Waitara War. The ex- pression of his views may now and then have been in some respects intemperate and unreasonable, but every allowance ought to be made for the nature of the man, the difficulty of his position, and for the strength of his convictions. He was no selfish critic ; he spared no efforts and personal risk to save life and to restore peace and good-will between the two races. Generally, with regard to his character, it must be owned that his great abilities, his devotion to the missionar}- cause, his self- denial, his energy, his unwearying toil, his widespread influence over the native mind, and his other eminent services, have left ineffaceable footprints on the sands of time in the early colonization of New Zealand. He had qualities and gifts which few possess, and he never spared himself in their use for good. Like other men, he had faults and mistakes. His strong will was occasionally too unbending, and his impetuous temperament made him occasionally rash. Vigorous himself in mind and in body, he allowed too little for the weakness of others. But his character was never tainted by paltr}- and selfish considerations. He was a noble specimen of physical and moral man. Although later than other missionaries in the field, he laboured more abundantly than them all, traversing on foot the whole breadth and length of New Zealand, unceasing in his spiritual ministrations to the native race, and almost delighting in danger and priva- tion. His indomitable enterprise in spiritual work led him also, in after j-ears, to extend the borders of the mission over Polynesia. His footsteps in that respect have been followed by the late Bishop Patteson, whom Bishop Selwyn specially chose for that purpose, and who suffered martyrdom in that missionary work for which he was eminently fitted. A son of Bishop Selwyn is now mis- sionary bishop over those multitudinous islands. BisJiop Sclwyn 15 In 1^54 Bishop Selwyn wasllic chief factor in initiating and estabhshing a representative church constitution for the Church of Enghind in New Zealand, whereby the Church was endowed with, and has since enjoyed, the great pri\ilege of representative self-government. This was obtained by the labour and influence of Bishop Selwyn from the local Parliament, and was, to my mind, the greatest of the many great achievements of Bishop Selwyn. It conveys, as I think, a lesson, the moral of which should be taken advantage of in the present day by the Church of England in the United Kingdom. Representative self-government is, I think, the key to the solution of the difficulties which now beset the Church of England in the shape of requirement of Church reform and of a position befitting that Church, enabling it to carry out that reform. In the place of its present un- worthy and unsatisfactory political position forcing it to apply from time to time for grudged doles of reform from a Parliament in which it is not properly represented, the Church of England in the United Kingdom should, I think, follow the lead of Bishop Selwyn towards self- government, the effects of which has been so eminently successful in respect to that Church in New Zealand. Parliament should be petitioned to grant to the Church of England in the United Kingdom representative self-government within certain constitutional limits on the leading lines established forty years ago under the auspices of Bishop Selwyn for the Church of England in New Zealand. It is true that the Church of England in New Zealand was not a State Church, but there is no reason why powers of self-government and State esta- blishment should not co-exist in the Church of England in the United Kingdom without either of those principles impairing or derogating from the other. The proof of the correctness of this statement is the fact that for 1 6 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen nearly three centuries these two principles of self- government and State establishment have so co-existed in the established Church of Scotland. Bishop Selwj'n died in 1878 at Lichfield, as Bishop of Lichfield, and is buried in the cathedral of that town. His name will never be forgotten in New Zealand ; he was a man of whom New Zealand, where he worked as no other man could work for a quarter of a century, will always be proud. A ruler, however despotic, almost always encounters an opposition ; and the more despotic he is, the more dangerous that opposition becomes. Governor Hobson met his opposition in the New Zealand Company and its local representative, Colonel William Wakefield. Colonel Wakefield was a member of the very able family of that name, with which the colony of New Zealand is closely associated. Edward Gibbon Wakefield was practically the founder of the Colony ; and it is, in a great measure, owing to him that New Zealand did not become a French colonv, and possibl}- the receptacle of French convicts and recidivists. As he comes afterwards on the local political stage, I shall defer my notice of him at present. Colonel Wakefield, his 3'ounger brother, was not unlike him in some respects, but it was rather a watery resemblance. One remarkable faculty of Colonel Wakefield was his reticence. Speech may serve to disguise thoughts, but a close observer often hears much between the words spoken. Silence is generally im- penetrable ; it covers as with a thick veil the features of the mind ; and the man who speaks is at great dis- advantage as compared with the man who persistently listens. No one who had an interview with Colonel Wakefield knew what he really thought and what he really meant to do. His manner was attractive and, in outward appearance, sympathetic, but the inner man Colonel Wakefield 17 was out of sight and hearing. The feehng of the inter- viewer was that of taking a leap in the dark. Colonel Wakefield, like the mole, did his work underground. At the same time, he was an able and faithful servant of the New Zealand Company, and, in the midst of great difficulties, did good service in laying and building up the foundations of the settlements of Wellington, Nelson, and New Plymouth. The difficulties which Colonel Wakefield encountered in New Zealand were formidable. Colonization, in the sense of first forming a settlement, is in itself no easy task ; the founder should be intelligent, practical, just, firm, prudent, trustworthy, energetic, patient, persevering, and otherwise specially fitted to be a leader of men. This rare combination of qualities is requisite under favourable circumstances ; and even the planting of a new settlement in any new country is difficult. But the difficulty is immeasurably increased when the country is altogether strange, where land for settlement must be bought from a barbarous and warlike aboriginal race, when the Home Government and their local representa- tives are hostile to the undertaking, and when those who direct it are so distant from their agents that usually little less than a year elapses between the transmission of letters and the receipt of replies ; more especially so when, as in the case of the first expedition sent by the New Zealand Company, no provision had been made beforehand for the land for the landing and settlement of about 1000 emigrants. Colonel Wakefield showed himself to be no ordinary man \\\ coping with these difficulties. A large territory, the .tenth part of which was reserved for the benefit of the natives, was purchased, or rather agreed to be purchased, for a valid purchase required confirmation by the Crown ; and in 1840, within eighteen months from the issue of the first prospectus in c 1 8 Neiv Zealand Rulers ajul Statesmen England by the New Zealand Company, 1200 settlers were in Port Nicholson in New Zealand. In the same year the settlement of Wanganui, and in the following year, 1841, the settlementsof New Plymouth and Nelson, were formed by the Company. Of course, it was not possible that all this could be done without grave mis- takes resulting in a crop of fresh difficulties arising from native claims, from complaints of settlers, from the mutual relations of both races, and from other causes. While, no doubt. Colonel Wakefield and the New Zealand Company were partly responsible for these difficulties, it is equally certain that others must also be justly held responsible. In common fairness to the New Zealand Company and to Colonel Wakefield, it should be said that their action on the whole was creditable and practi- cally successful in the systematic colonization of the southern half of the North Island of New Zealand, and, indirectl}', of the whole South Island. As an illustration of the hostile spirit which charac- terized the relations of the New Zealand Government established at Auckland towards the southern settlement, I may mention one circumstance. No provision was made or attempted to be made by that Government for the administration of law at Wellington, where at first the settlers, for all practical purposes, found themselves in a state of anarchy. For the maintenance of peace and order they formed among themselves a kind of pro- visional government. This instinct of self-preservation was regarded at Auckland as an act of rebellion ; and the Governor actually dispatched soldiers to put down what he thought fit to treat as treason. One great boon which the New Zealand Company has conferred on New Zealand, both directly itself and in- directly by associations formed under its auspices, has been the systematic introduction of valuable settlers. Colonel Wakefield 1 9 The general body of emigrants selected was very good ; and in the higher classes, attracted by the scheme of colonization, there were many men admirably qualified by education, ability, and social influence to give a high tone to young communities. It is scarcely possible to overrate this advantage ; its wholesome eff"ect may be traced in every branch of colonial life in New Zealand, and, moreover, it creates an imperishable heritage of good for the future. Colonel Wakefield did not live to see the full success of his work. He died in 1848, not before the seed which he had sown had become a living growth, but before it overspread, as it has done since, the greater part of the South Island. In connection with Colonel Wakefield, I would men- tion his brother, Captain Wakefield, R.N., the founder of the Nelson Settlement. He had previously served with distinction in the British navy ; and when he entered the service of the New Zealand Company, soon proved his special fitness for the practical work which devolved upon him in forming and founding a new settle- ment. His conciliatory manners, his moral worth, his good common sense, and his other many great qualities, gained him the love and confidence of all classes of his fellow-colonists. All who knew him bitterly lamented the unhappy fate which cut short his life in the Wairau massacre, in the forty-fourth year of his age, and on the threshold of a colonial career full of hope and promise. I give the following extracts from obituary notices of Captain Wakefield, written at the time in the Nelson newspaper. The first was written by Mr. Francis Jollie, and the second by Mr. Alfred Domett ; both these gentlemen were distinguished Nelson settlers, and Mr. Domett, as will be seen in the course of this work, afterwards took for many years a leading part in the public service of New Zealand. c 2 20 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen The first extract is as follows : — " For the task of founding a colony, he (Captain Wake- field) was by nature pre-eminently qualified. It was his forte, one might almost sa}' his hobby. But hobby as colo- nizing might be with him, he had all the requisite strength and breadth of character for doing the thing well and nobly. He possessed the physical temperament for it, that which it would be well for all settlers to have, perfect coolness and self-possession under all circumstances ; small im- pressionability to those ordinary physical or moral in- fluences which might weigh down the animal spirits ; at the same time there was none of that frigidity and want of earnestness of purpose which generally characterize men of similar temperament ; on the contrary, when known, no man probably ever displayed in finer beauty and proportion those valuable qualities of soul which obtain the esteem of society and the warm-hearted sympathies of the intimate and discriminating few. . . . His judgment in all matters of practical life was remark- ably sound ; he had seen the world of life and action, and brought away from it all that was valuable for guidance and conduct in affairs." The second extract admirably portrays the inner life of a man heartily and successfully engaged in the prac- tical colonization of founding settlements : — " That we could give our readers some picture of him as he was ever to be seen among us ! At early morning, chatting with natives gathered round his door, the result generally being a gift of a blanket, or payment of a promised bag of flour or sugar on some old visit ; in his daily progress from the port to the town, stopped at every other step ; listening, with benevolent aspect, patiently to all sorts of unreasonable complaints, un- reasonable requests, digging his stick in the ground, or taking a pinch of snuff, the only symptom of emotion shown ; now making some little job of work for this Colonel Wakefield 21 man on his own account ; putting down another's name for the company's employ ; here, advising the new- comer as to the best employment of his capital ; there, anxious to learn from a country settler the state of his crops, all the details of his progress ; now disentangling with the newspaper editor some puzzling problem of colonization, made a science, with its intricate, ever- varying, yet mutually dependent elements ; then interesting himself in some old woman's fresh litter of pigs, or cabbage, the pride of her heart ; discussing with this man the run of a new boat ; with that the practical probability of a plan for working the flax plant ; assist- ing every rational enterprise, dispelling every faint- hearted misgiving, with money where possible, with countenance and kindness where not ; ever less anxious to lead than to suggest and assist ; now at a public meet- ing speaking calmly, earnestly, rationally ; now helping to organize a literary or agricultural society, or visiting and superintending a children's school, quietly overlook- ing the gradual organization of a new community, helping it forward when impeded, clearing the way for its self-development rather than attempting to construct it on preconceived designs or systematized formulas ; looked up to by all, individually as well as collectively ; his whole heart in the colony, and everything advan- tageous to it, with high intellectual enlightenment and soul for the most generous theories ; so cautious, prudent, practical ; the tyranny of self thrown ofl", therefore mild, just, and uncompromising opponent of all other tyrannies of law or custom ; shrewd in discovering character, yet charitable in construing it ; so wise, temperate, and firm ; unassuming, with self-confidence ; commanding respect when seeming to show it ; never for a moment the slave of passion, always the active servant of duty ; he was by nature cut out for the founder of a coh^iy, for a leader of men. 22 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen " Then how simple in his mode of Hfe, how temperate in all his habits ! In a little house, but an open one ; with large hospitality, but plain and unpretending ; rising at midnight from the sea-cot he always used, to watch a ship enter the harbour, then not so familiar to the pilots ; on a boat excursion, wet through and shiver- ing, yet refusing the dram sent round ; setting an ex- ample everywhere of indifference to luxuries, of frugality, temperance, yet seemingly so unconscious the while, duty appearing taste or accident, because so naturally, so easily performed ; can we refuse this man the name of great because only foremost in an out-of-the-way nook of the world-encircling British Empire, because not dignified with sounding titles, nor rewarded with ex- travagant salaries ? " Captain Wakefield was killed at the Wairau massacre, which took place in June, 1843. The origin of that catastrophe was a disputed claim between the New Zealand Company and some natives to land in the Wairau Valley, near Nelson. Colonel Wakefield, as agent of the company, claimed to have purchased the land in question ; and Rauparaha and Rangihaeta, as chief proprietors, disputed that purchase. Captain Wakefield, relying on his brother's claim, sent men to survey the land ; and the natives burned down the huts of the surveyors, after removing the property within the huts to a safe place for the owners to take away. The police magistrate at Nelson issued a warrant for the arrest of Rauparaha on a charge of robbery and arson ; and an armed party of forty or fifty Europeans, accom- panied by Mr. Thompson, the police magistrate, and by Captain Wakefield, set out to execute the warrant. The party came on Rauparaha and a hundred of his followers in the Wairau Valley, and endeavoured forcibly to arrest him. A conflict ensued, and the Europeans, who, with Colonel Wakefield 23 two or three exceptions, had never before seen a shot fired in anger, became disorganized and panic-stricken ; thirteen fell in fighting, and nine, taken prisoners, were killed in cold blood. Five natives were killed fighting, and eight wounded. Among the Europeans killed were Mr. Thompson, the police magistrate. Captain Wake- field, Mr. Richardson, Crown Prosecutor at Nelson, and Captain England, formerly in H.M. 12th Regiment. There is little doubt that Captain Wakefield, and those with him who organized the expedition, committed a serious error of judgment in taking that course ; but, apart from the fearful penalty they paid for their error, great allowance, under all the circumstances, must be made for them. The Nelson settlers were obliged, owing to the neglect of the Government, to rely altogether on their own voluntary efforts for the execution of law, and for the protection of life and property. They were ignorant of the customs, temper, and warlike nature of the natives, and they fell, not unnaturall}', into the mistake that a prompt and bold course would alone suffice to ensure success, and be most suitable to their own national character. This was just one of those critical cases which should not have been left to be dealt with by the popular feeling of newly-arrived colonists, young, enthusiastic, and over-confident, but by the matured judgment of responsible rulers. Bold, or rather rash, courses sometimes succeed ; and success, for the time, uplifts them in public opinion to the level of statesmanship. Cautious counsels sometimes fail, and failure causes their popular condemnation. True states- manship lies not either in the one or the other alterna- tive, but is found in fixed principles of right suitably applied to particular circumstances. Sometimes it lags behind, and sometimes it anticipates public opinion ; sometimes it succeeds at once, and often it temporarily 24 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen fails ; but contemporary popular applause and immediate success are no tests of its truth ; the proof of a true statesman is generally posthumous. Although New Zealand native chiefs cannot, strictly speaking, be classed under the head of " Rulers and Statesmen," an occasional notice of some of the leading men among them will serve in some measure to explain the influence which, from time to time, they exercised on the colonization of New Zealand, and to illustrate the extraordinary difficulties which their action imposed on the Government of that Colony. A few words, therefore, may now be said about " Rauparaha," who, at the time, stood conspicuous in the foreground of '' native diffi- culties." Rauparaha and his tribe had been, a consider- able time before the first colonization of the country, forcibly expelled by the Waikato and Bay of Islands tribes from his native district of Kawhia, on the central western coast line of the North Island, and had, in their turn, forcibly seized and occupied the coast on both sides of Cook Strait. In early youth Rauparaha was famed for skill and courage in native warfare, and especially for wiHness and cunning. As he grew older, unscrupulous and cold-blooded treachery was his predominant quality, but he also showed fertility of resource in critical circum- stances, enterprise in his designs, and perseverance in their execution. He bullied the weak and fawned on the strong, while he plotted against both. Colonel Wakefield in 1839 described him as then about sixty years old, as rather under the average height, with a countenance expressive of keenness and vivacity, with a receding forehead and deep eyelids, slow and dignified in his action, and easy in his address except when his wander- ing and watchful looks betrayed suspicion as to his safety. This suspicious conduct, as nominal ally of the Govern- ment, induced Governor Grey in i'S_).6 to arrest him RauparaJux 25 suddenly and keep him prisoner on board a man-of-war for ten months. Rauparaha never recovered from this blow. When he was released he continued for a time under surveillance, and then was given absolute freedom, but all his influence had gone, and he died shortly afterwards. Imprisonment, in the Maori mind, carries with it irre- vocable degradation ; it reduces the prisoner to slavery, and he never is restored to his former rank and authority. I may here notice another remarkable fact which the experience of fighting between the two races in New Zealand has proved, namely, that campaigns, followed even in some cases by indecisive results in our favour, but ending in cessation of fighting, have, as a rule, been succeeded by permanent tranquillity, and that the native insurgents have never resumed hostilities against us, and not unfrequently have become our firm friends. The Bay of Islands war ended altogether in 1846, and the natives who fought against us have ever since been loyal and faithful subjects of the Crown. In the southern parts of the North Island, in Taranaki, in the Waikato countr}^, and on the- east coast, the fighting, more or less successful on our part, has led to lasting peace. Generally speaking it may be said with truth, that the natives who have fought against us have succumbed less from any sense of subjugation than from a conviction that it is more for their own interest to be our friends than our foes. No sense of bitterness or injustice has permanently remained on the weaker side as the residuum of contest. The safe conclusion is that the relations between the two races in New Zealand have never been those of the oppressor and the oppressed, or of the conqueror and the conquered ; but that, on the whole, those relations, anomalous as they have been, are gradually approxi- mating to a sound and satisfactory state, and that their occasional disturbance has been owing to exceptional 26 Nezv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen and temporary, and not to organic and permanent causes. Tamati Waka Nene was the leading chief of the " J*^apuhi " tribe. He was a man to whom the Colony of New Zealand owed much. It was mainly through his influence that his tribe were the first to sign the Treaty of Waitangi in 1 840, by which the Maories acknowledged themselves to be subjects of Her Majesty ; and although a portion of them, under " Hone Keke," in 1845 disputed the English supremacy, 3'et when subdued by English troops and Native Allies, their own kinsmen, they adhered ever since to their pledges, and since then have well earned their name as the "Loyal N^apuhi." '* Tamati Waka Nene" died in 1874. He had adhered to the Government with unwavering fidelity, and to the day of his death was the staunch supporter of English rule. His funeral was attended by a large number of both races, and according to his own desire his body was buried in the Church cemetery at the Bay of Islands, notwithstanding one of the most honoured of Maori customs that a chief's remains should be buried secretly in some remote spot known to only a few trusty followers. After his death the New Zealand Government have erected a handsome monument to his memory. For fifteen months after Governor Hobson's death the administration of the Government devolved on the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Willoughby Shortland. Mr. Short- land was altogether unfit for that onerous duty ; and it was owing to the accidental intervention of Chief Justice Martin and Bishop Selwyn that he did not embroil the Colony in a native war by taking active part in opposition to the advice of the Attorney-General, Mr. Swainson, in a quarrel between two native tribes arising out of acts of vengeance conimitted against each other. As Acting- Governor Shortland did not, at the last moment, give Mr. Wilhmghby Shortland 27 effect to his purpose, it is only necessary to refer to it as an illustration of the growing difficulty in connection with the aboriginal race. This difficulty, small as it seemed at first, soon became formidable, and, owing chiefly to vacillating policy and imprudent action, afterwards gave rise to native wars and to enormous expenditure of blood and treasure. The first question which arose was whether tribes who had not signed the Treaty of Waitangi were British subjects. That question was at once definitely answered by the Colonial Office in the affirmative, but the practical course consequential thereon was dallied with, evaded, and involved in vague, unintelligible, or contradictory instructions. Of course, it would be mani- festly absurd to contend that the Imperial Government were bound by the premiss to enforce British law at all hazards throughout New Zealand. But I submit that the Imperial Government were bound to form some definite conception of their duties and responsibilities in relation to the aboriginal race of a country which they made a part of the British dominions, and that they were further bound to give practical effect to that conception by some distinct and continuous line of action. It is comparatively easy to be wise after events ; and I shall therefore refrain from stating what policy, in my humble opinion, should have been vmdertaken. But the general complaint in New Zealand has been that the Imperial Government, when everything was in their hands, had no native policy at all, but wrapped up the whole question in folds of mystery, trusting apparently to pro- vidence and procrastination. This it is which has added so much to the difficulties of New Zealand Governments, both when New Zealand was a Crown Colonv, and, hereditarily, since it has become self-governed. And, apart from administration, the cost ultimately entailed has been enormous. Millions have been expended by 28 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen the Imperial and Colonial Governments in suppressing native insurrections, the occurrence of which the antece- dent expenditure of thousands in firmly adopting some straightforward policy would probably have prevented. It is not my wish to throw the whole blame on the Imperial Government. Grave faults have been com- mitted by local men, officials and settlers. I am only arguing that the neglect and the vacillating and contra- dictory instructions from successive Secretaries of State in the course of twenty years, during nearly the whole of which the Imperial Government had the direction of native affairs in New Zealand, had in a great measure created and aggravated the difficulties under which the Colony laboured. The Governor who succeeded Captain Hobson was Captain Fitzroy, R.N., who arrived at Auckland in December, 1843. Captain Fitzroy had considerable professional abilit}^, but he certainly was little qualified to govern New Zealand at that time. He had many amiable qualities, but he had not the temperament, the knowledge of men, the force of character, and the rare mental faculties which fit a man to rule in trying times and under difficult conditions. It would have been indeed difficult to select a Governor likely to succeed in the then existing circumstances of the Colony. The points of contact and of probable conflict between the two races were fast multiplying as colonization grew and gradually spread. Land was the chief source of discord. Many persons suppose that the Treaty of Waitangi was the main cause of mischief, inasmuch as it recognized, or was held to recognize, a native proprietorship, stated to be unfounded in fact and unreasonable otherwise, over all lands in New Zealand. That supposition I conceive to be wrong, because I believe that, in the absence of any treaty, the natives would have asserted that pro- Captain Fifrjroy, R.N. 29 prictorship and have maintained it b)' force of arms. All that the treaty did in this respect was to recognize an existing fact and to interpose the right of pre-emption by the Crown, as a sakitary protection of the natives from ignorantly sacrificing their lands to the greed of unscrupulous speculators, and as probable security for the growth of sound and systematic colonization. The treaty, however, was not unattended by inconvenient and objectionable consequences. Those tribes which had not agreed to the treaty naturally thought that they were still independent of and unaffected by it ; and some of those which had agreed to it were persistently taught by interested persons that they would become a con- quered race, and that the first badge of their slavery was that in the matter of land they were not allowed to do what they would with their own. This teaching was, of course, a mere cunning device of the land speculator to urge natives to agitate for free trade in their lands ; and it was pregnant with great evil. Few natives were able to understand that the restriction was conducive to their own lasting welfare. But, apart from the question of land, vague apprehensions were arising in the minds of many natives that colonization, so far as they themselves were concerned, was a great mistake. New customs, a new language, strange laws, and the accumulating nvmi- bers of the in-coming race, would soon supersede and ultimately extinguish the aboriginal people. Misconcep- tion, jealousy, and suspicion combined to arouse in several tribes feelings of antagonism, while a conscious sense of their own power as a warlike race, many armed with guns, all thoroughly acquainted with the country, and able to sally forth from almost inaccessible fastnesses against scattered and unarmed settlers, made some tribes eager to resist by force further intrusion, and even to expel the comparatively few settlers who had already come. On 30 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen the other liand, there were working amongst the natives in our favour forces which only needed fostering care and encouragement to ensure in good time their peaceful predominance. Among these were the love of gain, the higher influences of religion and civilization, faith in our good intentions and good deeds, the gradual cessation of their own bloody feuds and barbarous habits, and the substitution of settled law and lasting comfort. It was essential, in the interests of peace and general prosperity, at the critical time when these conflicting currents were gathering strength, to settle a policy best fitted to counteract the one adverse to colonization, and to ap- point as Governor some one qualified to give effect to that policy. Unfortunately, neither course was followed ; there was no policy, and the new Governor, however good were his intentions, had not capability for his office. There was, no doubt, abundance of good advice in didactic despatches from Downing Street, but no in- telligible course, as one to be followed, was laid down ; and if it had been possible for a Governor to frame a policy out of various and conflicting instructions, no means were given to make it practical. Captain Fitzroy, as Governor, had he been endowed with very great abilities, would probably, under the circumstances, have failed ; but, unhappily, his qualities were such as to make his failure certain and complete. He was rash and im- pulsive, weak and injudicious, and at the same time, paradoxical as it may seem, obstinate and self-confident. He was unskilful in the management of men, unversed in constitutional principles, and altogether ignorant of political economy. His official action was inconsistent and mischievous ; he did much to set race against race, and class against class ; and when he was recalled in 1845, two years after his assumption of office, his ad- ministration of public affairs had culminated in war. Captain Fitzroy, R.N. 31 misgovernment, financial paralysis, and general confusion throughout the Colony. The responsibility of a Gover- nor in those days was not, it must be borne in mind, shared in the Colony by his advisers or by the legislature, for his function was, in fact, autocratic. His Executive Council was wholly composed of Government officers holding office at his pleasure, and constituting the ma- Nalive Chief. Major Ropata. jority of the Legislative Council, then the only Chamber for enacting laws, and presided over by the Governor, and in which he could also speak and vote, was similarly constituted. It is not, therefore, unfair to speak of the Governor as individually responsible for executive and legislative action, especially as he admittedly exercised his autocratic power to the utmost, even to the disregard 32 Nezv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen of his instructions from the Colonial Office, to which the Governor of a Crown Colony is subject. The catalogue of his mistakes is a melancholy retrospect. He acted most indiscreetly at his introductory levees at Auckland and Wellington in singling out individuals for his criticism in terms of praise or blame. The pardon of Rauparaha and Rangihaeata for the Wairau massacre was given in such a wa}^ as to make it appear unnecessarily insulting to colonists, and to natives as a concession extorted from cowardice. He suddenly ^yaived the Crown's right of pre-emption over native land, first imposing on the private purchasers of such land a fee to the Crown of ten shillings an acre, and then, a few months afterwards, reducing that fee to one penny an acre. He wantonly set aside the award of the Land Commissioner at New Plymouth, thereby paralyzing the progress of settlement there, and ensuring conflict between the two races in the district, when he could easily, by proper exercise of prudence and firmness, have made an arrangement which would have been just to all parties and have secured, in all probability, the future peace and prosperity of all that part of the country. He utterly disregarded law and his instructions in dealing with what were known as the old land claims. Commencing with a ludicrous condona- tion of the first native cutting down of the flagstaff at Korerareka, he ended by losing the settlement. He issued a variety of debentures, from five shillings upwards, and then unlawfully declared them to be legal tender. In the course of half a year he made one port alone out of many a free port, abolished all customs duties in New Zealand, and re-established them. He treated the New Zealand Company's settlements with culpable neglect, or with mischievous interference. CHAPTER II. Governor Sir George Grey, K.C. B. — Lieutenant-Governor Eyre — New Constitution— Pr >gress of Colonization— Recall of Governor Sir George Grey. A GREAT personage now comes on the scene. Captain George Grey, formerly an officer in the army, was sud- denly transferred, in the latter part of 1845, from South Australia, of which he was then Governor, to the Governor- ship of New Zealand. He had eminently distinguished himself at Sandhurst College, and subsequently, while still a very young officer, he had energetically conducted difficult explorations in North-Western Australia, and had, in his published account of his journeys, shown singular powers of observation, and laid down sound principles of conduct in the treatment and civilization of aboriginal races. At the early age of twenty-eight he was appointed Governor of South Australia, when that colony was labouring under exceptional difficulties, and during his administration there for a little more than four years, he gave proof of remarkable ability and judgment. The leaders of both great political parties in England at the time joined in his praise, and in declaring his special fitness to deal with the crisis which had arisen in New Zealand. As Governor Grey was, within three years after he was appointed to New Zealand, made a Knight Commander of the Civil Order of the Bath, it will be convenient to refer to him as Sir George Grey, the name by which he is best known. D 34 ^C2v ZcaliDid Killers and Statesmen It is very diflicult to present to the reader anything approacliing to a faithful portrayal of Sir George Grey in relation to his public career in New Zealand. He has played three distinct and dissimilar parts in New Zealand. From 1845 to 1852 he was Governor of New Zealand when it was a Crown Colony and when he had autocratic power, subject of course to instruction from the Colonial Office, but still practi- cally autocratic, not because, like Governor Fitzroy, he disregarded those instructions, but because his great ability and influence gradually moulded those instructions to his own will. Again, from 1861 to 1868, Sir George Grey was for the second time Governor of New Zealand, but under the widely different conditions of responsible government, which substantially transferred power from his own hands to those of his constitutional Ministers. And again, since 1874, he has been a leading member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and was himself Premier for two years, from 1877 to 1879, under two successive Governors. All who know any- thing of human character know that it is much affected by changing circumstances and conditions, and that, under their influence, many qualities at some times lie dormant, and at others are developed into activity. Hence are seen the distinct and almost irreconcilable phases of character which often one man presents at different periods of his life. This variety of character notably appears in the threefold career of Sir George Grey in New Zealand, and constitutes the chief difficulty of describing at the outset his mental qualities. And yet I think that it is better to tr^- to do so at first in order to aid the reader in tracing through successive scenes, as they are given in their respective places, veins of character more or less distinct and continuous accord- ing to surrounding influences, and illustrative of the Sir George Grey 35 inner nature of this conspicuous New Zealand ruler and statesman. The character of Sir George Grey is an intricate study. It is easy enough to praise all the merits, and to say little or nothing of the faults, or to reverse the process. But neither of those pictures would be true. The diffi- culty is to show, in true perspective, the compound Sir George (Jrey. nature modified as it is b}^ the mutual action of its parts, and by the influence of outward things, and to give a not unfaithful presentment of the man. Sir George Grey has extraordinary abilities. His perceptive faculties are singularly keen ; liis memory is very retentive, and his mind is stored with varied and valuable information. He is highly intellectual, and his n 2 <6 Nezv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen reasoning powers are of a high order. He is far-seeing, and, if he chooses to do so, he can look deeply into large questions, and form sound conclusions. Cautious by nature, he is, when he makes up his mind, firm and courageous in action. He is persuasive in writing, eloquent in speech, with a considerable sense of humour and pathos, and his manner is at times extremely winning. These precious gifts, joined as they were in the prime of his life with indomitable energy, must have raised him to the highest eminence, but unfortunately they were alloved with constitutional defects which the surroundings of his public career have aggravated, and which have frustrated his achievement, not of greatness, for great he is with all his faults, but of the highest positions of public useful- ness. Sir George Grey is too fond of personal prestige and power, and cannot brook rivalry. His disposition is occasionally inclined to be secretive and unsympathetic, indisposing him to the frank interchange of views and to trust in friends. His controversial powers too often lead him into personal antagonism, and he is too apt to snatch at an immediate triumph, real and temporary though it be, over his antagonist at the sacrifice of exact accuracy in statement and of true logic in deduction. Another fault is that in writing and in speaking he sometimes paints things in exaggerated colours. Although naturally he has a kind heart, he has in politics too little warmth as a friend, and too much bitterness as an opponent. The surroundings of his early life, for at least fifteen 3-ears as the Governor of Crown Colonies, with almost despotic powers, and with undivided responsibilities, gave abnormal activit}- to these defects. Unfortunately when he became again the Governor of New Zealand, con- stitutional government and the exceptional relations at the time of the Colony to the Imperial Government, owing to the native war, did not, as thev might have Sir George Grey 37 done at an earlier period of his life, check those te.iJeii- cies, but only acted as incentives to their activity, and embittered him in his disappointment of direct personal success. His subsequent entrance, after an interval of six years, into political life as a member of the House of Representatives gave an additional impulse in the same sinister direction. A leader of a political party may become, in a certain time, autocratic, but he must first, as it were, stoop to conquer. He must first gain the entire confidence of his followers, and he must gain that by wise intellectual superiority ; he must at first give as well as take ; he must earn their goodwill by proofs in his relations to them of trust in them, of deference to their feeling in small things, and even occasionally in substantial concession. I must, however, reserve the descriptions of those three parts of Sir George Grey's public life in New Zealand for their appropriate places in this book. I only refer to those parts now in illustra- tion of their joint effect on his political character. At the same time it is only just to say generally on this subject that, however much outward influences, acting on inward features of character, may have shut out Sir George Grey from some of the highest public positions as a statesman, it is impossible to deny with truth that he has well earned an imperishable memorial in the great good which he has, in the course of a long public life and in different parts of the world, con- ferred on his fellow-creatures, and in the future work, which he will leave, in human probability, to others, of giving full eflFect to some of his ideas (in advance of the present age) for securing the greatest good of the greatest number. The first thing which Governor Grey had to do when he first assumed the government of New Zealand in November, 1845, was to suppress the native insurrections 38 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen^ at Kororareka, Bay of Islands. He took at once active steps to accomplish that object ; and within three months the defeated natives sued for peace. In the meantime the southern district of Wellington became the scene of native disturbance, owing ostensibly to dis- puted claims to land, but, in reality, springing from the mistaken and injudicious action of Governor Fitzroy in relation to the Wairau massacre, and to other causes of discord between the two races. Sir George Grey, who was, at that time, almost everywhere in New Zealand, lost no time in dealing summarily with this more serious and more extended insurrection. He rose to each emer- gency, and showed alike great ability in military and civil affairs. His energy in pushing forward, where requisite, military operations ; his skill in making the most of small means, and in dealing unexpected and decisive blows ; his firm but conciliatory attitude towards the native race generally ; and his administrative capacity, worked a remarkable change in the condition of the colony. He instinctively saw that the formation of trunk roads was the best means of securing the peace of the country and the progress of settlement ; and he used the limited funds at his disposal in prosecuting that object with the aid chiefly of military and native labour. A threefold advantage, in addition to the work itself, was thus gained ; the presence of the soldiers was utilized in the peaceful subduing of the country ; the natives employed were working towards the same end, and also were taught habits of civilization ; and the limited labour of the settlers was not diverted from their own industrial avocations. Sir George Grey acquired over the natives a personal influence which no other single person has ever exercised. Undoubtedly that in- fluence was partly attributable to the power with which he was, as the representative of the Crown, invested in Sir George Grey 39 the direction of all civil and military affairs, including the expenditure of money. But there is also no doubt that the force and other great qualities of his character were mainly the cause of that influence. Power and money cannot alone secure and retain respect. The Maori race is quick in detecting weakness and insincerity, and in imposing on the possessors of those qualities ; but those of that race who came into touch with Sir George Grey at once felt the magnetic power of a master mind, and were soon convinced that it was better for them to be with him than against him. And he showed, on his part, genuine interest in their welfare and civilization. And here I would like to say a few words respecting the native policy of Sir George Grey during his first administration in New Zealand, for there are many who think, as I believe mistakenly, that that policy was only a series of makeshifts and evasions. My view is that, considering the circumstances of the country, and the small means at his command, his native policy was judicious, far-sighted, and founded on sound principles. He fought in order to suppress insurrection, and to secure life and property, but he scrupulous!}' observed the good faith of the Crown, as pledged to the native race in the treaty of Watangi. His legislation and his administration were specially directed to matters directly affecting natives for their real good. At his instance laws were passed to resume the Crown-right of pre- emption ; to prevent the sale to natives of the munitions of war, and also the sale to them of spirituous liquors ; and to facilitate the administration of justice in litigation in which natives were concerned. Administratively, he appointed resident magistrates with extensive powers, imder special laws in native districts ; he subsidized native schools, and he laid the foundation of a national educational system, which would ere now, under more 4<^ Neiv Zealand Rulers and Sta 'esmcn favourable Imperial auspices, have included the S(^uth Sea Islands ; he provided savings' banks ; he established hospitals and other charitable institutions with valuable endowments in land ; and he gave special encourage- ment and aid to the material improvement of the natives, and to their advancement in civilization. In his pur- chases of native land for the Crown, he introduced the special feature of paying the purchase-money in instal- ments spread over a number of years. This simple feature was of important use in two ways ; it put a stop to the immediate and too often reckless dissipation of the whole price of the land, and it served as a security for the future good behaviour of the native sellers. It is impossible to prove that this policy, if continued under Sir George Grey's personal direction, would have pre- vented the occurrence of the subsequent native war ; but certainly this much can be said of the policy, that for several years, while it was in progress, there was unbroken tranquillity throughout New Zealand. And I think that it must be clear to those who have observed this policy closely, and who judge it impartially, that, far from being flimsy patchwork, it had in it the ele- ments of prudence and foresight and of lasting good. Successful as Sir George Grey was in gaining native confidence, he cannot be similarly congratulated on his relations to the colonists, especially to those in the northern settlements of the North Island. For this result he was not wholly to be blamed. His policv was necessarily unpopular. He was forced, in establishing sound finance, to resort to additional taxation and to curtail public expenditure ; his duty required him to put a stop to profitable speculation in the private purchase of native land, and to lucrative trade with natives in fire-arms and ammunition ; he also found it necessary to disallow irregular and extravagant land claims. In the Sir George Grey 41 southern settlements his chief unpopularity was owing to his possession of almost despotic power, and to the delay, on his recommendation, of the grant of repre- sentative institutions. Before I refer to the latter point, I would say that, though Sir George Grey's policy was necessarily unpopular, that unpopularity was needlessly embittered by his constitutional tendency to personality and exaggeration in controversial argument. He had a fatal facility for overdoing his case, however strong it was ; of seeming unfairness by laying too much stress on small points ; and by persistently inveighing against individuals, when it was quite enough to attack the system. Governors should be impartial, and should learn to " condemn the fault, and not the actor of it." The unpopularity of Sir George Grey in the southern settlements mainly arose from the belief generally and, as I think, wrongly entertained that he was opposed to representative institutions. In 1847, Earl Grey, then Secretary of State for the Colonies, sent out a Ro^-al Charter, making organic changes in the constitution of the colony. The colony was divided into two provinces ; and provision was made for appointing a Lieutenant-Governor of each, for granting provincial representation, and also for a Governor-in-Chief, and for a Colonial Parliament with a representative chamber. This new constitution had been prepared without any previous consultation with Sir George Grey ; and, on his earnest representation after it had been promulgated, the greater part of it was suspended for five years. Reflection and experience have, I think, generally sustained the soundness of the view which Sir George Grey took, that the introduction then of such a fundamental change in the constitution of the colony would have been hazardous to peace, and would have led to great administrative confusion. The con- dition of both races was critical ; and the transfer of 42 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen political power to a handful of colonists was unjust to the numerically greater native race. That transfer would have actually taken place, for the charter limited the franchise to those who could read and write in the English language — an attainment which, at the time, not a dozen native adults possessed. It is a misnomer, therefore, to call that charter representative in the true sense of the word. Earl Grey had, moreover, accom- panied his gift with a long despatch elaborately setting forth the impolicy of recognizing proprietary rights in the natives over what he called waste lands. This des- patch contained, interspersed here and there, a few copybook cautions to keep specific promises, but its whole tendency was repugnant to the honourable understand- ing on which the two parties had agreed to the treaty of Waitangi. This despatch and the charter would have soon set New Zealand in a blaze from north to south, but, fortunately, the great influence of Sir George Grey, who quietly set them both aside, reassured the native mind. No subsequent attempt to appropriate for the Crown, as of right, the native waste lands in New Zealand has been made. I wish that I could also say that the mistake of leaving the natives, practically, without the means of self-government had also been put right. But, anticipating somewhat the progress of events, I must say that, although the foolish electoral restriction in Earl Grey's charter was done away witli, the succeeding constitution did little to supply that fatal want. For many long years the natives justly felt that they were constitutionally outlawed, and that there were no seats left for them at the great feast of repre- sentative institutions. To this cause may be fairly attributed much of the native difficulty that afterwards arose, in the " King " movement, in land leagues, and in actual insurrection in some districts. Lieuteimnt-Governor Eyre 43 Contemporaneously with the new charter, Mr. Ed- ward John Eyre came as Lieutenant-Governor of the , southern province of New Zealand. His position was at once anomalous, for substantially the constitution of which it formed a part was in abeyance. He remained, however, for three or four years as Lieutenant-Governor to administer the affairs of the province under the direct control of the Governor-in-Chief ; and he also had a nominated Provincial Council to make local laws subject to the overriding power of the Colonial Legisla- ture, consisting of a nominated Legislative Council. The administration of Mr. Eyre was only nominal, for he was not allowed by Sir George Grey to exercise any real authority. Mr. Eyre became afterwards well known as the Governor of Jamaica during the riots in 1865 ; but with that portion of his life I have nothing to do. He was, however, a remarkable man, and though he was not able in his subordinate position in New Zealand to do much there, a few words about him may not be un- interesting. He was ambitious and full of energy. Both qualities led him into and through dangers and difficulties to which ordinary men would have succumbed. But, on reflection, even his warmest admirers felt that he was too rash, and that, however much he proved his own courage and fortitude, he often did so without any corresponding prospect of public good. This was the general impression produced by his overland journey from Adelaide to Kinsf George's Sound, on the western coast of Australia — a feat which first made him famous. A good story is told of Mr. Eyre's bo3'hood, which, if true, is typical of his character. He was, it is said, very fond of fishing ; and he was so anxious to devote every moment of davlight to that pursuit that he took it into his head, after a day's fishing, to go to bed in his wet clothes, in order to lose no time in dressing at daybreak. 44 ^^^ Zealand Rulers and Statesmen This youthful excess of zeal nearly cost him his life, but still it showed itself in other shapes in his maturer years. His ability was not of a very high order, but it was considerably above the average standard. His faults were that he was too impulsive, fussy in details, rash, obstinate, and too fond of much writing. He had, how- ever, many estimable qualities ; and in New Zealand he had not, as T conceive, fair play. The suspension of the charter left him officially stranded ; and Sir George Grey did not treat him generously, or even with strict justice, though it must be owned that Mr. Eyre was often irritating and injudicious. The unfairness on the part of Sir George Grey towards Mr. Eyre consisted in publicly making little of him, in worrying him officially, and in aggravating each anomaly of his position till it became absurd and intolerable. Another constitvition for New Zealand was soon in course of manufacture ; and this time it was framed, with a few alterations, on a plan proposed b}- Sir George Gre}'. This constitution was based on the broadest popular principles consistent with the status of a British colon}^ The Colonial Legislature consisted of the Governor, a Legislative Council, and a House of Repre- sentatives. The Legislative Council was composed of members nominated by the Crown for life ; and this, I may observe, was the main alteration from what Sir George Grey recommended, his proposal (a much better one, in my opinion) being that they should be elected from time to time by the Provincial Councils. The House of Representatives was elected for five years, but it was subject to dissolution by the Governor at any time. The franchise (a small property one) was liberal, but though it was not restricted (like that in Earl Grey's charter) to those who could read and write in the English language, it practically excluded for a long Sir George Grey 45 time to come the bulk of the native population, because technically the general native tenure did not come within the term " property." Power was given generally to the Legislature to make laws for the peace, order, and good government of the colony, provided that they were not repugnant to the law of England, that they did not levy duties on the supplies of Her Majesty's forces, and that they were not at variance with Imperial treaties. Acts were subjected to disallowance by the Queen within a limited time ; and, in a very few cases, they were required to be reserved for the signification of her Majesty's pleasure thereon. Except in regard to certain payments specially authorized by the Constitution Act itself, the whole revenue was made subject to the control and appropriation of the colonial legislature ; but any revenue unappropriated was made divisible among the provinces in like proportion as the gross proceeds of such revenue should have arisen therein respectively. The Legislature was also given, with a few exceptions, ample power to alter the constitution of the Colony ; and since the constitution came into force the colonial legislature has made, from time to time, under that authority, or under authority granted by subsequent Im- perial Acts, various changes in the constitution. The Colony was also divided into six provinces, each of which was allowed to have an elective superintendent and an elective Provincial Council. In each case the election was for four years, but the power of dissolution at any time was vested in the Governor ; and, on its exercise, a fresh election, both of the Council and of the Super- intendent, was requisite. The Superintendent was eligible by the electors of the whole province ; and the members of the Provincial Council respectively by those of electoral districts. The franchise was the same as in the case of the election of a member of the House ot 46 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen Representatives. A qualification to vote in any of these cases was also a qualification to be elected. Acts of provincial legislatures were subject to disallowance by the Governor, or, when reserved, to the signification of his pleasure thereon. There were some subjects, such as customs, superior courts of law, coinage, postal service, lighthouses, Crown and native land, &c., on which pro- vincial legislatures were not authorized to make laws. On all other matters their legislation was liable to be overridden by any act of the colonial legislature incon- sistent therewith. Otherwise, the provincial legislatures could legislate for the peace, order, and good govern- ment of their respective provinces, provided that their laws were not repugnant to the law of England. I have given the foregoing summary of the leading features of this constitution, because it is the groundwork of the political history since, up to the date at which I am writing, of New Zealand. And this important fact leads me to make a few general remarks on the subject. On the whole, the Constitution was admirably suited to the Colony, so far as it affected the colonists, but, as I said before, it should have been supplemented by some special provisions for the government of the natives. The franchise was more liberal than that proposed by Earl Grey, but the communal tenure of land by native tribes practically precluded individual natives, with few exceptions, from its enjoyment. It is true that the Act provided that the Crown should have power, if it thought fit, to maintain the laws, customs, and usages of the natives, so far as they were not repugnant to the general principles of humanitv, in all their relations to and deal- ings with each other, in particular districts to be set apart for that purpose. But that provision was quite in- adequate to what was really wanted, and has never been acted on. The proper object was not to segregate the New Cojistitiition 47 natives, and so to stereotype their own uncivilized habits, but to endow them with simple regulations for the con- duct of their relations in local matters both towards each other and towards the settlers, and to enable bodies of both races, where practicable, to adjust these regulations, from time to time, to changing circumstances. And further, provision should have been made for facilitating the special representation of natives in the colonial and provincial legislatures and in municipal councils. Every effort should have been made to work up towards the complete political union of both races. Unfortunately, as it was, the natives were left in a comparative state of anarchy, while the colonists were in the full enjoyment of free institutions. Experience of the constitution has shown some other defects, to which I shall shortly allude. The provinces were left too much in a state of financial and legislative dependence on the colonial legislature. This precarious state was made worse by the perpetual con- flicts going on in that legislature between parties repre- senting, more or less, provincial or colonial views. As Provinces were mainly fed from the crumbs which fell from the colonial table, the provincial party was alwa3's trying to upset as much as possible, while the colonial party, anxious to starve their opponents, ate what they could and wished to pocket the rest. The consequence was that finance, legislation, and administration were thrown into lamentable confusion. Ultimately, this led to the premature overthrow of Provincial institutions ; but I reserve my remarks on that subject for their fitting place in this work. Sir George Grey, who probably did not care to administer a constitution which would wholly strip him of personal power, left the Colony in December, 1853, before the constitution came into full force. Sup- posing it were the fact that he wished to avoid the work of his own hands, it is curious how " the whirligig 4^ Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen of time brings in his revenges," for he returned as Governor in i860, and administered the constitution for seven years under responsible government ; and again, in 1876, he became a member of the New Zealand House of Representatives, and fought the hopeless battle of the provinces. He did much, however, in 1852 in the way of introducing the new constitution ; and, in my view, his preliminary arrangements were marked by some serious mistakes. The reasonable course would have been to summon first the New Zealand Legislature, and to leave to the representatives of the people in Parlia- ment assembled to determine the colonial policy in rela- tion to the provinces financially, and in other important matters. Instead of doing this, he took on himself to make land regulations of a sweeping character, to bring first the provincial portion of the constitution into active existence, and to make financial and other arrangements tending to throw as much power as possible into the hands of the superintendents and the provincial councils. Whatever may be the merits of that policy, it was, I con- ceive, clearly wrong in him to forestall the action of the House of 'Representatives, the constitutional exponent of the wishes of the people. I must now shortly refer to the colonization of the South (or Middle) Island in its central and southern parts — colonization which began during the first administra- tion of Sir George Grey, and which has exercised great influence on the political condition of New Zealand. The settlement of Nelson had been formed by the New Zealand Company in 1841, but that settlement was merely on the northern fringe of the island, and was quite isolated by the natural features of the countr}-. Akaroa also, on Banks' Peninsula on the east central coast, had been formed by a French company, and had a few French residents. With these small exceptioi.s, the Progress of Colonization 49 whole island, it may be said, was almost an vmknown land till 1847. Only about 2000 natives in all lived there, and they were thinly scattered, some in the Nelson district, some on the west coast, some on Banks' Penin- sula and on the adjoining mainland, and some in the southernmost parts of the island. Sir George Grey for a very small sum of money bought the rights of the natives, after the reservation of ample blocks for them- selves and for their descendants. This judicious course opened up nearly the whole island for European settle- ment ; and the New Zealand Company, in whom at that time the colonization of the waste lands of the Crown in the southern half of the North Island, and in the whole of the South Island, was vested, availed itself of the opportunity by arranging for the foundation of the settlements of Otago and Canterbury. The settlement of Otago, on the south-eastern ex- tremity of the South Island, was founded by a bodv of men belonging to, or sympathizing with, the Free Church of Scotland. This association bought from the New Zealand Company a block of 400,000 acres ; and the first emigrants arrived in March, 1848. The settlement grew and soon enlarged its boundaries; and in 1853 Otago became under the new constitution a province comprising all the southern portion of the island to the south of the river Waitaki. Canterbury, on the central eastern coast of the South Island, was founded by the Canterbury Association under a special arrangement with the New Zealand Company ; and the first emigrants arrived in December, 1850. The original design was to establish a settlement composed entirely of members of the Church of England ; but this exclusive idea was soon given up, and the settlement became a flourishing com- munity of all denominations. In 1853, Canterbury, com- prising the central portion of the South Island, also E 50 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen became a province in New Zealand. Another important event in connection with the colonization of New Zealand took place in 1850. For some time previously the New Zealand Company had been falling into financial difficulties ; and the Imperial Parliament had not only transferred to the company an immense territory for the purpose of colonization, but had advanced to it above 200,000/., with the proviso that if the company could not repay this money in 1850, it must surrender its charter and property to the Crown. This surrender took place accordingly, and, as compensation for the property, a lien of five shillings an acre was imposed by the Imperial Parliament on all Crown lands sold in the Colony, and was made payable to the company, up to the amount of 268,370/. This imposition was grossly unjust to the northern settlements in the North Island, as they had been formed not by, but in spite of the New Zealand Compan}'. I may here observe that Sir George Grey resisted this demand, and practically ignored the Imperial Act under which it was made. For this he received from the Colonial Office the first serious reprimand which it had ever administered to him ; and this " little rift '' did much, I think, to bring on the discord which in after years prevailed between himself and that Department. To return, however, to the New Zealand Company, it is only just to say of it that, whatever may have been its faults in details, it has done a great work. Its action at first secured New Zealand as a British possession ; and afterwards, in the face of great political and financial obstacles, it successfully laid the fovmdations of the settlements of Wellington, Wanganui, New Plymouth, Nelson, Otago, and Canterbury. One other ver}- important act which Sir George Grey did a few months before his departure requires a few words beyond the slight allusion which I have made to Land Regulations 5 1 it. That act was the issue of his land regulations of 1853. It was questionable in law whether he had the power to make of his own will these regulations ; and, even if he had the power, it was not constitutionally proper to anticipate the action of the Colonial Parliament which was about to be assembled ; and certainly, in so far as the real interests of the country were con- cerned, the regulations have been a failure. The leading feature of these regulations was the reduction of the price of Crown land from one pound to ten shillings and five shillings an acre. The intention, no doubt, was to place the acquisition of freeholds within the reach of every man ; but the result, over the greater part of the Colony, was directly the reverse, and should have been anticipated. Runholders and speculators, were only too successful in monopolizing at nominal cost enormous territories ; and those of them who were not rich enough or who could not borrow enough to do this at once, " picked out the eyes of the land," to use an expressive phrase, in order to render the remainder of the land of little or no value to any but themselves. No one more than Sir George Gre}' should in his heart deplore the effect of these land regulations, for he is an earnest advocate of the multiplication of small freeholds ; and that effect has been to lock up large estates in the hands of comparatively few landholders. New Zealand, in the course of the eight years of the first administration of its affairs by Sir George Grey, underwent a great change. The cessation of native dis- turbance, the restoration of finance, the revival of colonization, the growth of prosperity, and the estab- lishment of free political institutions were the chief characteristics of that change. It is not flattering, but simple truth, to sav that that change is mainly attributable to the wise and far- E 2 52 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen sighted policy, as a whole, of Sir George Grey and to his able administration. The recall of Governor Sir George Grey, from the Governorship of New Zealand requires special notice. It was one of those discreditable manoeuvres to which occasionally men, dressed in brief authority, resort Avith the object of getting rid of some high public officers who •are subordinate to them, and who have the misfortune to differ from them. Removal is effected under a false pre'.ext, and degrada- tion is inflicted without open accusation and opportunity for self-defence. It is the art of punishment without the trouble of trial and conviction. The process is easy and safe to those who do not scruple to use it. An inciden- tal line in a despatch tells the obnoxious officer to repair to some other place, or that his successor is just ap- pointed. The latter intimation, giving a month's notice, was made to Governor Sir George Gre}- in about a dozen words written in a despatch on another subject. And afterwards a wretched pretence of apology was recorded that " the intimation given for your convenience at the end of your term of office, that your successor would very shortly be appointed, seems to be mistaken for a premature recall." This is merely insult added to injury. Certainly it was only due to a man in the position of Governor Sir George Grey, who had for twenty-six years, almost continuously, rendered great services to the British Empire, and who had twice been specially sent to New Zealand, owing to native insurrections having broken out there, either that he should plainly have been told that he was removed from office because he had lost the confidence of the Home Government ; or, if that were not the cause, that he should have received some acknowledgment of his services, and have been at the same time toM that he was only replaced Sir George Grey 53 because his term of office was considered to have ex- pired. With respect to this after-thought, or after- statement, as to the expirati*^! of the term of office, I may say there was no legal limit to that term, and it has not, I believe, been usual to apply, as a matter of course, the customary limit to the case of a Governor specially sent to a colony to deal with special circumstances, in the midst of his labours. It may also be reasonably asked why this reason was not given together with the curt intimation that a successor was, or very shortly would be, appointed. Altogether, it is evident that Governor Sir George Grey was treated with less con- sideration than is accorded in a gentleman's family to the humblest menial. New Zealand, I am glad to sav, made some amends for this cruel injustice to Sir George Grey. On the first intimation of his recall, both Houses of the Legislature, by simultaneous addresses, marked their high regard for him personally, and their apprecia- tion of his distinguished public services ; and numerous bodies of colonists reiterated those sentiments. Later on, the Executive Coimcil, consisting of the Ministry of the dav, bore witness in the followmg words to his devo- tion to the Empire and to public duty during his long and distinguished career : — " Again and again dvu"ing the last twenty-six years, when there has been danger and difficulty in the administration of colonial affairs, your Excellency's aid has been invoked by the most eminent statesmen of the day. Sacrifices you have disregarded, and trials have served as opportunities of evincing devotion to public dut}', and we cannot but regard it as indicative of the indifference, if not positive disfavour, with which the colonies o{ the Empire are regarded when loyalty, zeal, and high intelligence displayed in the administration of their affairs are passed by without even the courtesy of a cold acknowledtiment." 54 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen In 1877, Sir George Grey became Premier of New Zealand, the colon}' to which he had been twice specially sent bv the Imperial Government as Governor in times of emergency, and where he had rendered such signal public services. His Ministry was only in office for two years, but it left the permanent impress of its policy, the principles of which, as stated in the Governor's speech opening the second session of the New Zealand Legisla- ture in 1879, were Manhood Suffrage ; Triennial Parlia- ments ; representation proportioned to population ; facilities for occupation of small farms, or rural allot- ments ; and purchase of native lands on terms fair to both races. Each of these principles is at present (1897) in force in New Zealand. Since 1894, Sir George Grey, owing to old age and increasing infirmities, has retired from New Zealand politics, and has resided in England. On his arrival in England, he was appointed by Her Majesty a member of the Privy Council. In New Zealand, on September 5th, 1 895, the House of Representatives unanimously passed the following motion on the retirement of Sir George Grey : — Motion made, and question proposed, " That this House desires, on the retirement of the Right Hon. Sir George Grey, K.C.B., P.C., from his seat in Parlia- ment as member for the city of Auckland, to place on record its high sense and appreciation of the great services rendered by him to New Zealand, as Governor, in obtaining for it a free Constitution and conducting its affairs in times of great difficulty ; and, as a member of this House, in promoting beneficent legislation and dis- playing the deepest interest in everything that concerned the welfare of the Colony ; and that this House trusts that he may long be spared to enjoy the repose which he has justly earned for his services to his country." — {Hon, Mr. Seddon.) Sif^ George Grey 55 A singular incident in the debate on this motion was that Mr. Hone Heke, a grandson of the celebrated John Hake, the leader of the native insurrection in the Bay of Islands in 1844, and who was fought and conquered by Sir George Grey in 1845, made the following speech in praise of Sir George Grey : — Mr. Heke : I desire to add to the eulogiums made by the leaders of the House, speaking, as I shall, from the native aspect of the resolution. It has been often ex- pressed by the natives that throughout the Right Hon. Sir George Grey's career in New Zealand in the early part of its history he undoubtedly gained the respect of all the natives throughout New Zealand, although in several parts of this island, including the Bay of Islands and against my own people there, he opposed them as it was his duty to do so — although, in my opinion, those troubles could have been averted by more peaceable means. However, the time has now passed for comment, and on this occasion I desire to place on record my appreciation of his kind endeavours to further the interests of the natives in New Zealand. In conclusion, I may also state that, although some of the chiefs were opposed to his actions and his desire to bring about reforms among the natives, they were in the end, I believe, some of his strongest friends. I also further desire to add that I am echoing the feeling of all the natives throughout New Zealand when I say that they had, and still have, a very sincere and strong respect for the ability and kindness with which Sir George Grey has looked upon them and cared for them throughout his whole public career in New Zealand. Indeed, many amusing and very interesting incidents have been told to me by my own elders regarding the right honourable gentleman and themselves in the early days of this colony. However, those scenes and the memory of those days are 56 Neiv Zealaiui Rulers and Statesmen tifradually fading into oblivion ; but I hope there is one thing that will not fade from our memories, and that is, his great ability and the good works that he has left behind him. The public career of Sir George Grey is now, in all human probability, ended, but history will record it as one of the most remarkable in the English Imperial Service witnessed during the present century. Gifted with extraordinary abilities ; thrown from early youth, almost continuously, into varied situations, requiring all the qualities of a great statesman, he has shown himself equal to the most critical emergencies, and his public services in Australia, in New Zealand, and in South Africa are countless in number, and incalculable in worth.. His practical knowledge of the principles of mercy, truth and justice on which the treatment of an uncivilized race by a civilized race should be based, when colonization brought both together, was admirable. As an explorer, as a naturalist, as a writer, and as a speaker, apart from politics he will ever hold a distinguished position. His generous gifts to public institutions at Auckland and at Cape Town of his priceless collections of books are of im- measurable public utility. It is, however, as a statesman that he will chiefly be judged. And though he may be censured in details, the general verdict will, I am confident, be, and be justly, highly favourable, as, on the whole, entitling him to a very high position in statesmanship. He was ever in advance of his age, and met, as usual in that case, with frequent and bitter opponents. Time, however, the prover of all things, has generally shown his opponents to be wrong, and himself to be right. When the mist disappears things will be seen in their true pro- portions ; and that justice which has been denied to himself will be accorded to his memory. CHAPTER ITT. Representative institutions — Acting-Governor VVynyard— Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield — Mr. James Edward FitzGerald — Dr. Feather- ston — Mr. Henry .Sewell — Sir Frederick Wiiitaker — Sir Francis Bell — First Parliament — Responsible government — Native policy — Sir Edward Staflbrd— Mr. William Richmond — Mr. James Rich- mond — Sir Ilarvy Atkinson — Richmond-Atkinson family. Another era in the political history of New Zealand began with the departure of Sir George Grey. Self- government succeeded to autocratic rule, and the change was sudden. Provinces which had been administered by officers appointed by the Crown, and for which laws had been made by councils nominated by the Crown, were at once called on to elect their own Superintendents and their own Councils ; and these superintendents and councils at once entered into their respective duties of administration and of legislation. Unchecked, without experience, and revelling as it were in political freedom, some naturally seemed at first as if too much license had made them mad. But there was this method in their madness : they strove to get into their hands as much power as they possibly could ; and there was no proper restriction on their excess in that respect. Sir George Grey only encouraged their ambition ; and his immediate successor. Colonel Wynyard, who, as senior military officer, temporarily assumed the administration of govern- ment, did not care to take a different course. It was left to Colonel Wynyard to summon the General Assembly, 58 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen as the Colonial Parliament was called, but he fixed the day of its meeting in May, 1854, five months after he assumed office. Accordingly, altogether, for nearly twelve months, elective superintendents and elective provincial councils did almost as they pleased ; and the representative of the Crown was playing into their hands, while the Colonial Parliament, which included the House of Representatives of New Zealand, was forced to stand out in the cold, and look helplessly on the scene. It was as if a man who succeeded to a large estate found that for a whole year after his succession he had no voice in its administration. Another strange spectacle was seen in the person of Colonel Wynyard. Although in command of a regiment, and senior military officer, he had contested and won the election of Super- intendent of the Province of Auckland ; and he actually retained that elective office for seven or eight months, while he was also at the same time Acting-Governor of the Colony. It is true that there was no special enact- ment in the Constitution Act against the combination of those offices, but the Secretary of State, on being appealed to, most properly declared its incompatibility with the spirit of the constitution. I am fully sensible of the value of political freedom, and I do not blame Super- intendents and Provincial Councils for doing what they could and what they thought best for provincial interests ; or the electors of the Province of Auckland for electing the man they thought most fit for the office of Super- intendent. It seems, however, to me repugnant to the true sense of the free institutions which were given to New Zealand that the Provincial Councils should have been allowed by the action of the Governor to forestall the Parliament of the Colony ; and that, though this is a minor matter, the Acting-Governor of the Colony should also have been the Superintendent of a Province. Colonel Wyiiym-d 59 I have little to say about the public character of Colonel Wyn3'ard. He was a good soldier, but he was wholly unused to politics. He was fonder of the show of personal power than of personally deciding how to exercise it ; and, accordingly, he was always willing to be guided by what he thought good and safe advice. As Acting- Governor he was led by the Attorney-General, Mr. Swainson ; and, as Superintendent of the Province of Auckland, he was led by the Auckland Provincial Soli- citor, Mr. Frederick Whitaker. The Secretary of State did not consider these joint offices compatible, and Colonel Wynyard resigned the office of Provincial Super- intendent. He soon afterwards left New Zealand for the military command of the Cape of Good Hope. He died in England in January, 1864. His departure from New Zealand was regretted by many personal friends. The quadruple position, while it lasted, of the Acting- Governor, the Superintendent, the senior militar}- officer, and the officer commanding a regiment, had occasionally its ludicrous aspect in the interchange of official and, sometimes, controversial correspondence between those high authorities. But the serious anomaly was the combination of the offices of Acting-Governor and of Superintendent, inasmuch as it materially added to the undue bias already given by executive action to provincial institutions. I heartily appreciate the worth of those institutions, and their admirable adaptation, in their constitutional place, to the peculiar condition of New Zealand ; and, at the same time, I fully recognize the practical colonizing work done under them during their twenty-two years of existence. My contention is that they would have done better work, and would have existed longer if artificial stimulus had not been un- constitutionally applied to them in their earliest days, and if they had been left to their natural and legitimate 6o New Zealand Rulers and Statesmefi growth. It is of course impossible to prove what might liave happened under other circumstances, but it is not unreasonable to believe that the strength and success of provincial institutions would have been better ensured by allowing them to take operative effect under political con- ditions fixed, within constitutional limits, by the represen- tative Colonial Legislature, than by forcing them, through executive action, into precocious activity in forestalment of that Legislature. I have great faith in the self-adjust- ment of constitutional machinery, if left to its own proper working, but no faith in its manipulation by an outsider. Had not that machinery been thrown out of gear when first set in motion, the Colony would have been spared infinite civil discord, enormous waste of power and of money, and the premature abolition of an important factor in its system of self-government ; and would have made greater progress. I do not believe that the first New Zealand House of Representatives, if it had had a clear course, would have unduly favoured central power. The members were leading men, and, coming as they did together from different and distant portions of the Colony, they were quite aware of the necessity for real local self-government. At all events, they would have given effect to the popular will on some distinct and definite principles. As it was, they found everything in confusion. Politically, the Colony resembled the tradi- tional midshipman's chest in which everything wanted lav at the bottom. A lavish hand had scattered among the provinces colonial revenue and power. The consti- tution was a chaos. The superintendents and their supporters, when elected as members of the House of Representatives, formed a provincial party anxious to keep all that they had been given, and eager to get more. Their policv, as a whole, was to extort everything possible from a paralvzed Parliament. Another party, Colonel Wynyard 6i resenting what hud been done outside Parhanient, unduly leant towards centrahsm. Thus were sown seeds of bitter discord, which afterwards bore baneful fruit. No doubt, inider any circumstances, conflict between centralism and provincialism would have taken place, but it would have been free from those evil influences which arose from the two-fold feeling, on the one hand, that the Governor had forestalled the Parliament ; and, on the other hand, that what had already been given should not be taken away. Unfortunately, this bad state of things was aggravated by special difficulties which, during the session,' were brought about by the weak and injudicious conduct of the Acting-Governor, and which made the first Parlia- ment a fiasco^ and its action a complete failure. The position of that Parliament was singular. The elective chamber, which was of course the mainspring of the whole, contained no representative of the Govern- ment ; and, owing to the Parliament being the first, there was nothing to show which members possessed, or were likely to possess, the confidence of the majority. Moreover, the old Executive Council still existed ; and it was notorious that none of its members would trv to conduct the public business through the Legislature. In fact, the Attorney-General, Mr. Swainson, who was appointed by the Governor a member of the Legislative Council, had also been appointed by the Acting-Governor to be the Speaker of that body ; thus wholly precluding him from taking part in the debates and ordinary pro- ceedings of the Council. The whole situation seemed to have been carefully planned with a view to a deadlock, or, at least, to great embarrassment. Bearing in mind, however, that the purpose of this work is, primarily, to give short sketches of the leading public men in New Zealand, and, secondarily, to inter- weave with those sketches some account of the chief 62 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen events in which those men respectively took part, I proceed to give the sketches first of those now coming on the poHtical stage. In this wa}' I hope to enable my readers better to understand, and to take more interest in, the succession of events, and in the proceedings of the actors ; and, at the same time, I hope thus to describe in a more connected form, and in more consecutive order, the chief features of the political history of New Zealand. Undoubtedly, the principal member of the first New Zealand House of Representatives, when it first met, was Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield. His reputation was known throughout the British Empire as the author of systematic colonization ; and as the founder, practically, of the Colonies of South Australia and of New Zealand. He was the first to lay down the great principle of selling Crown lands in new territories at a substantial price, and of devoting its proceeds to the colonization of those terri- tories. His name also was closely associated with the mis- sion, in 1838, of Lord Durham to Canada, and with the introduction there of responsible government. Thecolo- n izing work of the New Zealand Company was mainly owing to his foresight, energy, and great abilities ; and that work would probably, but for his serious and protracted illness, have lasted longer and been more successful. Wishing to recruit his strength by change of scene and climate, and to take a part in the new representative institutions, he came to Wellington, New Zealand, in 1853, and was elected both to the Provincial Council of the Province of Wellington, and to the Colonial House of Representa- tives. Naturally, he occupied a large space in the public interest. Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield had a large and vigorous mind ; and his writings are remarkable for original thought, lucid expression, and logical power. He did more than any other man in placing British Colonization on the basis of economic principles and in Mr. J. E. FitzGerald 63 its systematic advancement. Unhappily, the moral force of his character did not correspond with its intellectual strength. His great defect was untrustworthiness. He was always trying to manage men, and in the pursuit of his object he was unscrupulous. His deceptiveness was ineradicable, and, like the fowler, he was ever spreading his nets. Always plausible, and often persuasive, he was never simple and straightforward. He was calculating and self-contained, and had no particle of generous chivalry in his nature. Skilful in handling puppets in high places, he was the last man to draw together a political party and inspire it with enthusiasm and with confidence in himself as its leader. Had it not been for these fatal faults he would have taken the first place in the representative ranks of local statesmen in New Zealand, and he would not have, as the result showed, brought on himself discreditable failure. It is, however, probable that he was never, after his long illness in England, the same man that he was before in power of mind ; and certainly in New Zealand his health was weak ; and age and infirmity must have impaired the vigour of his intellect. After 1854 he took no political part in public affairs, and was scarcely ever seen outside his house. He died at Wellington in 1857. Another distinguished member of the first House of Representatives was Mr. James Edward FitzGerald. This distinction was not owing to what he had already done, but to the promising ability which those about him could not fail to recognize, and the proof of which the perusal of his speeches and his writings, since his arrival in the Colony, gave to others. Mr. FitzGerald, then a young man, came, in 1850, with the first emi- grants to the new settlement of Canterbury. In 1853 he was elected first Superintendent of the Province of Canterbury. Short as the time bad been since his 64 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen arrival in New Zealand, Mr. FitzGerald had proved hini- sell to be no ordinary man. He wrote very well, and his speeches were those of a real orator. He was at the sams time a good debater, and he had considerable power of humour and pathos. His mind was imbued with large principles, and was richly stored with information of various kinds. A thorough Irish gentleman, he was, like his countrymen, quick, impulsive, witty, and winning in manner and conversation. There were no rising states- men of the day in New Zealand of whom greater expectations were formed. The pity of it is that those expectations were not fulfilled. In politics Mr. Fitz- Gerald has been a brilliant failure ; his parliamentary career has been the flash of a meteor — dazzling for the moment, but leaving no lasting trace behind. He would not give, and he could not command, confidence. In 1865 he wrecked the Ministry which he joined. As Superintendent of the Province of Canterbury for three years, he did nothing of mark. The truth is that, with all his great gifts, he was impracticable and unpractical. He was rash, impetuous, and inattentive to good advice ; he had too much faith in himself and too little in others. In the House, he was " the Rupert of debate " ; and his attacks were grand, but they were nothing else ; and, especially, he never possessed in adequate measure that rare attribute of a statesman, the art of playing a losing game. Either too jubilant ox too depressed, he never knew that " golden mean " of temperament which moderates elation in victory and sustains hope in defeat. After the resignation of the Weld Ministry, of which he was a member in 1^65, he mav be said to have suffered political collapse ; and shortly afterwards he became Controller of the Public Accounts. He showed great ability in his administration of that office, and his com- prehensive grasp of the subject with which he had to Mr. /. E. FilzGcrald 65 deal, and his remarkable lucidity of expression, charac- terized his whole treatment of the public accounts. Mr. FitzGerald died in New Zealand, while holding this office, in 1896, universally regretted. In his death the Colony lost a public man of great worth. He was a consummate orator, and endowed with great intel- lectual gifts. Had he possessed more persistenc}' of Mr. Jau^es Edwaril VilzGeraUl. purpose, he would, if he had devoteil himself to Imperii! politics, have attained one of the highest positions. The study of human character shows that often in men, endowed generally with like abilities, an apparently slight divergence of faculties serves to make those abilities comparatively useless, or effective. The want, or posses- sion, of one particular quality determines whether the V 66 Nezv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen bundle of sticks sliall be loose or bound. This thought forcibly strikes me when I turn from Mr. FitzGerald to Dr. Isaac Earl Featherston, the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington, and also a member of the first House of Representatives of New Zealand — a man who fills a large space in the politics of the Colony. Like Mr. FitzGerald, Dr. Featherston had great intel- lectual abilities and a strong love of personal power ; but he had also what the other had not — steadfastness and force of purpose. It was that distinctive quality which gave Dr. Featherston energy of will and concentration of strength, and which enabled him for twenty-five years to be a great political power in New Zealand. He was one of the early settlers in Wellington, and for several years before the establishment of free institutions he strenuously fought in the public press and on the plat- form for the great cause of constitutional freedom. He was the leading public man in Wellington ; and when the Province of Wellington was created he was chosen as its Superintendent, and, by repeated re-election, con- tinued to be its Superintendent for eighteen years. Dr. Featherston had extreme views on some political subjects. He was an ardent Provincialist. He believed that every province should be a distinct self-governed territory, with which the central government of the Colony should interfere as little as possible ; and that in the few cases where its action was required in special terms by the Constitution, it should act on the advice of the Superin- tendent. Like most men with strong wills, he was naturally autocratic, but he had sense enough to see that in a demociatic country he must have public opinion on his side. Accordingly, he was despotic through, and not in spite of, the people. But he was no vulgar dema- gogue. He was a refined and highly-educated gentleman, somewhat reserved in his general manner, and not at all Dr. Featherston ^7 given to hunting for popularity. His influence overmen was almost magnetic, and his party was ever faithful and devoted. One quality, essential to leaders of men, he specially possessed, and that was unswerving loyalty to his political supporters. He never deserted them, never betrayed them, but was their firm friend through good report and through evil report. Faith in him on this Dr. Featherston. account did much to attract and secure for him public support. Another characteristic feature, which always earns general respect, was his thorough unselfishness, in the lower sense of the term ; there was nothing mean or mercenary about him. He was fond of power, but his sole aim was to use it for what he thought was the public good ; and in that cause the object of his life was to F 2 68 New Zealand Rulers atid Statesmen spend and be spent. Often sufferini^ from ill-health, his mental energy was such that, in the fulfilment of his duties, nothing daunted him, and in that course he cheerfully underwent toil and suffering with a spirit of thorough self-devotion. There were, however, failings in Dr. Featherston, which lessened his usefulness. He was apt to be extreme in his views, and, with constitutional obstinacy, he re- fused concession or compromise when it could be fairly yielded without surrender of principle. In this way he sometimes vmnecessarily placed himself outside the pale of practical politics. He was rather too much a party man, and disposed to give up to party what was meant for mankind. High politics also were often more to his taste than the more commonplace task of colonizing the country ; and, unfortunatel}', occasions arose when his controversial proclivities intensified opposition, and pre- cluded the union of contending parties, when otherwise it might have taken place, on common ground of public good. This characteristic belongs more to the earlier period of his public career. As I proceed in my work, the reader will have opportunities of seeing the influence of Dr. Featherston, as well as of other leading men, on political events. It is enough now only to add that in the course of time, when party contests were fought on a broader stage, and personal feelings of earlier days had gradually subsided, a fairer estimate was formed of Dr. Featherston ; and it was generally admitted that, with some failings, he was a man of great public worth ; " a man, take him all in all," those who knew him in New Zealand cannot hope to " see his like again." He was appointed in 1872 Agent-General for New Zealand in England, and the news of his death in 1876 was received in the colony with miiversal regret. Mr. Henry Sewell was another leading member of the Mr. Henry Sew ell 69 first House of Representatives. He was an English solicitor, and he had been actively connected with the formation of the Canterbury Settlement, where he re- sided. He was a man of culture and of considerable ability ; and his conversation sparkled with cleverness and wit. He excelled in happy classical quotations. With aptitude for official administration, he combined Mr. Ileniy Sewell. good debating power. He was remarkably quick in seeing the points of a complicated subject, though in treating it he used too much the arts of an advocate. His speeches, though occasionally eloquent and effective, often had the flavour of forensic insincerity. But this fault points to more serious reasons why Mr. Sewell was not able to- secure public confidence. His nature was /O Neiu Zealand Rulers and Statestnen supple and pliant; it was not robust enough to stand alone, but clung to natures of stronger fibre and of firmer growth. His mind had breadth, but it was slip- pery, and unable to grasp closely great principles ; its strength was dissipated on small things. He never took a step forward without first planning within himself how he could, in case of change of mind, go back again. There was in him no fixity of purpose. The political stage was to him what the warren is to the rabbit : he was ever dodging in and out of holes. There was an utter want of repose in his temperament. He was fussy, restless, too easily impressionable, and full of false alarms. Probably this natural disquietude taught him to be, what he certainl}- was, fertile in resource and skilful in evasion. He was fond of office ; and he was not exclusive in his political associations. Besides being a member of a hybrid Ministr}-, partly responsible and partly not, in 1854, he was a member of eight Ministries from 1856 to 1872, both years included. For many years he was, as it seemed, the only alternative Attorney-General, the other being Mr. Frederick Whitaker. In opposition Mr. Sewell was altogether out of his element. He was irritable and aggressive. He threw out clouds of skir- mishers in the shape of embarrassing questions and of aggressive motions. He excelled in guerilla warfare, but he had not weight and force enough for direct attack. Mr. Sewell was at different times a member of the Legislative Council, and a member of the House of Representatives ; and although he never took the lead in politics, he did, both in and out of office, much useful work. His great intelligence and his unwearied industr}' were always available in the public service ; and he had many warm friends. He left New Zealand shortly after Sir Frederick WJiitakcr 71 his retirement from the Stafford Ministry in 1H72 ; and he has since died in England. The Legislative Council was composed of men ap- pointed by the Crown for life ; but they were at liberty at any time to resign ; and in some instances members resigned, and afterwards became members of the House of Representatives. At the time in question Mr. W. Swainson, the Attorney-General, whom I have already noticed, was a member of the Legislative Council ; but he, to quote again the expressive phrase of Mr. FitzGerald, " had run to earth in the Speaker's chair." There were two other members, even then well known as public men, to whom I wish now specially to refer. These men are, Mr. (afterwards Sir) Frederick Whitaker, and Mr. (now Sir) Francis Dillon Bell, each of whom after- wards received, in consideration of his public services, the knighthood of the Order of St. Michael and vSt. George. Sir Frederick Whitaker was probably the most remark- able public man in New Zealand, not because he has been most in the foreground, but rather because in the back- ground he has exercised great influence on the political affairs of the Colony. He has been the rudder more than the figure-head of the State vessel. For forty years, from the time when he was a nominee member of the Legislative Council during the administrative of Governor Fitzroy to the date of his retirement from the Premier- ship in 1883, he has been an appreciable factor in the history of New Zealand. He has often held office, colonial and provincial, but he has never been prominent, in the popular sense, even when he was Premier, though in reality always a power in office and out of office, both before the throne and behind the throne. In order pro- perly to understand what a man does, it is necessary to understand the man. I propose now, in the case of Sir 72 Neiv Zealand Rn/crs and Statesmen Frederick Whitaker, as in that of others, to sketch first his character in. its broad outhne, leaving what he did to subsequent notice in its proper place. He was a member of the legal profession, which in New Zealand combines the functions of barrister and solicitor ; and he had, from the earliest days of the settlement of Auckland, ably and successfully practised in that profession. His ability to devote much time to politics was owing to his enormous capacity for intellectual work. Although not a man of high culture, nor a genius, he had a rare combination of compensating qualities. He was shrewd, cautious, far- sighted, persuasive, patient, watchful, persevering, and most industrious. He was not an eloquent or moving speaker, and his persuasiveness was felt more at interviews than in public debate. Few lawyers make effective speeches on the platform, or in popular branches of the legislature. The reason is, I think, because they speak too much in the forensic style of addressing juries ; and that style widely differs from those which the masses and their representatives respectively appreciate. Sir Frederick Whitaker was seldom effective in addressing a multitude, or the House of Representatives of which he was occasionally a member. He succeeded better in the Legislative Council, where debate more resembles mild conversation in a quiet room. His chief fault in speaking was the reiteration of the same idea in different words, a practice which he probably learned at the bar. He can be clear and forcible, when he chooses to be so ; and, when he had a bad case, few could surpass him in mystifi- cation and in the art of saying nothing in many words. He overdid what he drew, and in his invective he was apt to be somewhat coarse when he only meant to be satirical. As a public man, however, he was not by any means ill-natured or vindictive. In his official correspon- dence he was rather verbose and inelegant. He excelled Sir Frederick WJiitakcr 71 in drafting bills ; all the clauses were admirably arranged, and their language was simple, comprehensive, and precise. He had good administrative knowledge, but he has shown it more in advice than in actual administration. The singular characteristic of Sir Frederick Whitaker throughout his long public career in New Zealand is that he has always done more as an adviser of others than as Sir Frederick Whitaker, K.C.M.G. a performer in his own person. He has been a man of many counsels. He has made elaborate plots, but generally some one else has been the chief actor in them. As Prime Minister he comparatively failed ; and the same may be said of him as Superintendent of the Pro- vince of Auckland, although while he was onh' an ordinary Minister, or onl}- Provincial Solicitor, or even in 74 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen Opposition, he was influential and effective. I can only attribute this curious fact to the quahty of secretiveness wliich he possessed in no ordinary degree. A person may be a capital stage manager, but yet be unable to take the principal part. Sir Frederick Whitaker can work well unseen, but he has no taste for public performance. He sits in seclusion, and invisibly weaves the warp and the woof for public use. This leading feature in his character was much to be regretted. It is dangerous to divide responsibilit}' and action ; good influence is lessened, and intrigue, insincerity, and imprudence are engendered by that division. The public soon ceases to place trust in policy and conduct liable to be controlled b}- those sinister conditions. This want of trust has been felt in relation to Sir Frederick Whitaker. He has been too much the shadow of a statesman. In February, 1884, the Order of K.C.M.G. was conferred on him by the Queen. He died in December, 1891. Sir Francis Dillon Bell, the other member to whom I wish to refer, may be said to be co-equal with Sir Frederick Whitaker in political knowledge of New Zealand, though that knowledge was acquired under different conditions. Sir Francis Bell, in early youth, sat at the feet of the founders of the New Zealand Company's settlements, before the actual colonization of those settle- ments had begun. It was there that he imbibed the official experience which, in the course of years, has become his second nature, and has distinguished him as one of the best public officers which New Zealand has ever known. He went to that colon}- soon after the formation of the settlements of Wellington and New Plymouth, and was agent of the New Zealand Company till TS50. He then entered the public service as a Com- missioner of Crown Lands, and was holding that office when he was a member of the Legislative Council in Sir pTaucis Dillon Bell 75 I8^4. Throughout his whole official career, in the various public offices which he has held, including his late office of Agent-General in London for New Zealand, he has rendered eminent services to the Colon}-. As Commissioner of Land Claims, from 1856 to 1862, he unravelled with vmwearied industry and with great skill an intricate and confused entanglement of land questions seriously affecting the interests of both races. And as a Special Commissioner on the West Coast of the North Island, from 1879 to 1 881, he, conjointl3Mvith Sir William Fox, enabled the Government to adjust most difficult land questions which had been for twelve years the source of continuous discord between the Europeans and the natives in that district ; which had paralyzed settle- ment, and threatened immediate war. His political career, though by no means unimportant, has not been so distinguished ; but I may hereafter have occasion to refer to portions of that career. What I want now shortly to do is to sketch the leading features of his character ; and T have alluded to his t\\'0-fold career as an official and a politician, because I hope that the sketch may serve, in some measure, to illustrate the two-fold aspect of that character. Sir Francis Bell has a mind remarkable for its percep- tive faculties and for its analytical power. Although not what is called a deep reasoner, he is seldom illogical ; he is diligent in collating facts and arguments ; and he is skilful in marshalling them in support of his conclusions. His industry is indefatigable ; his fondness for work grows by what it feeds on ; and, in fact, he often makes work for his own enjoyment. Patient, painstaking, and exact in his investigation, he delights in making clear what is dark, and in making simple what is complicated. His official reports are able and exhaustive ; their main faults are too much stress on details, and too little condensation. /6 Neiv Zealand Rulers a)ul Statesmen In fact, the general failing of Sir Francis Bell is abnormal facility in writing and in speech. That facility intensifies his natural impulsiveness and indecision ; his words run away with him. In official matters the failing is mini- mized by the direct pressure of a distinct duty, and is inconsiderable ; but in the political sphere, which is larger and less definite, the failing becomes a serious drawback to his usefulness. He is apt to waver in his political views, and is not adhesive in his political attachments. He cannot bear to lose any part of his freedom to go where he wills, and to do what he likes, and is loath to subject it to the exigencies of party, and to the interference of other men. Moreover, his political mind is somewhat nebulous and indistinct. Sir Francis Bell was for twent^'-four years in one House or the other of the Colonial Parliament ; and was for five years Speaker of the House of Representatives. He was also for some time in the Provincial Councils of Wellington and Otago respectively. He has also been thrice a member of New Zealand Ministries. In Parliament, his speeches were generally good, and occasionally eloquent, though, like his writings, they would have been more effective if they had been more condensed. The proceedings of the New Zealand Parliament of 1854 "^^^ ^ painful illustration of time wasted, force frittered away, and a great opportunity lost. Acting- Governor Wynyard, or rather Mr. Attorney-General Swain son who pulled the strings behind the scenes, was mainly to blame for what took place. The delay in summoning the Legislature had aggravated the diffi- culties of the situation ; but that delay had given an opportunity for obtaining from the Secretary of State in England instructions as to the course to be followed in the event, which certain I3' should have been foreseen, of the House of Representatives requesting responsible The Neiv Zealand Parliament (7/1854 77 government. Advantage had not been taken of that opportunity ; and at a critical juncture everything was allowed to drift. The only measure which the New Zealand Government had prepared in the course of two years for the consideration of Parliament was a Dower Bill consisting of five lines. The importance of due preparation must be measured by the then existing circumstances of the Colon}-. The provinces severally were distinct settlements, scarcely known to each other, and without any partnership of social and mercantile interest. Intercourse between them at that time was difficult and most infrequent. As an instance of that infrequency I may say that a month elapsed before the first proceedings of the Parliament at Auckland were known at Christ Church in the province of Canterbury, and probably a few days longer at Dunedin in Otago. The trouble and the cost of bringing together at one place the representatives of all parts of the Colony were enormous ; and the sacrifices which those representatives were called on to make in leaving their homes and occupations for several months were very great. More- over the whole time was out of joint. General govern- ment had been reduced almost to an absurdity. The colonial coachman had thrown away his reins ; and the six provincial horses were pulling, each its own \v'ay ; there was no room for the native race inside or outside the coach. Politically, all was confusion ; and care seemed to be taken to cause the first Parliament to be the m.eans ot making that confusion worse confounded. At first there were gleams of hope. The House of Representa- tives politely asked for responsible government ; and the Acting-Governor aflably offered to add three members of the House to his Executive Council. The House grate- fully accepted the offer ; and it was arranged that the old members of the Exccuti\e Council should lesitrn, when 78 Nevo Zealand Rulers and Statesuicii called on to do so by the ActiiK^-Governor, and on the condition that a i^uitable pension should be granted to them upon their retirement. Mr. FitzGerald, Mr. Sewell, andMr. FrederickA. Weld, afterwards Sir Frederick Weld, became the new members of this hybrid council. I have already noticed Mr. FitzGerald and Mr. Sewell ; and as Sir Frederick Weld in 1864 took a more prominent part in politics, I defer my notice of him till I come to that year. It is most improbable that these gentlemen thought that such an anomalous arrangement could succeed even during the session. In fact their explanation subse- quently was that they were led by verbal understandings to believe that the Acting-Governor would call on the old members of the Executive Council to resign as soon as the new members advised him to do so, on condition, of course, that a Pension Bill would be passed. Like many other verbal understandings, this alleged one brought with it disappointment. After a painful expe- rience, for a few weeks, of carrying on their backs the politically dead body of old officialdom, Messrs. FitzGerald, Sewell, and Weld resigned. The intrigues of Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, and the secret advice of the Attorney- General, Mr. Swainson, had probably much to do with this collapse of the new ministers who were still enjoying the confidence of a large majority of the House of Repre- sentatives. Much also was due to the weakness of the Acting-Governor ; but it is only fair to say that Mr. FitzGerald, the so-called Premier, contributed to the cause of his own failure, b}^ his flightiness and want of tact and judgment. There was, moreover, the latent adverse element in the House of strong Provincial feeling, which was awakening into life at the first symptoms of the growth of a substantial Colonial Govern- ment. Provincialists cared nothing for the old Executive, but llicv were determineel to resist to the utmost any The New Zealand Parliaineut ^Z" 1854 79 real ministry which did not akogether play into their hands. The collapse of Parliament and of a Colonial Ministry was the opportunity of Provincial Councils and of Superintendents. Mr. FitzGerald, though a Super- intendent, was not an extreme Provincialist ; neither were his colleagues ; but there was an extreme Provin- cial party represented by Dr. Featherston. Dr. Feather- ston had been prevented by illness from taking any part in the proceedings of the House ; but he was watching what was going on ; and at his signal armed men would spring up like the clansmen of Roderick Dhu. It was probably this known antagonism, awaiting its oppor- tunity, that alarmed the new ministers, and convinced them that they would need all the status and strength of really responsible position to carry their measures through the Legislature. Be that as it may, the catastrophe soon came. Colonel Wynyard prort)gued the Parliament for a fortnight ; and the prorogation took place amid sensational scenes of discreditable excitement. The Legislative Council, I may observe, had taken no active part in the crisis except by passing a resolution approving of responsible government, and adding that the Acting- Governor had done in the matter as much as he could do. I may also state that Mr. Thomas Hartley, a barrister residing at Auckland, had been appointed a member of the Legislative Council, and had been added to the Executive Council for the purpose of representing the Ministry in the Legislative Council. After the interval of a fortnight, the Parliamentary curtain was again uplifted for another tragic farce. A promiscuous ministry was got together by Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who took care, however, to omit himself, and was added to the original Executive Council. The Vice-Regal speech opening the second session, and unan.imously approved, it was said, by that Council, was 8o Nezv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen the climax of absurdity. Among other schemes, it was proposed to mals.e the Legislative Council elective, to appoint a Lieutenant-Governor for the Province of Auckland, to enable Superintendents to dissolve Pro- vincial Councils, and to form a kind of federal convention apart from the General Legislature. Colonel Wynyard and his old Executive went in for revolution. They had scrupled to introduce complete responsible government pending the receipt of instructions from the Secretary of State ; but they did not scruple without his knowledge to propose to the Legislature a policy which not only in some respects was ultra vlres^ but which, if passed, would destroy the fundamental principles of the Constitution, the ink of which was scarcely dry. This piece of ex- travagant folly was received by the House of Repre- sentatives with deserved contempt, A vote of want of confidence was forthwith passed by a majority of two to one ; and the House determined to grant supplies to the old Executive till responsible government could be com- pletely established, and to pass certain urgent measures. Twelve Bills were scrambled through in a fortnight ; the most important was one which practically gave to Superintendents and Provincial Councils the entire ad- ministration of the waste lands of the Crown in their respecti\e provinces. The session of 1S55 was merely nominal ; it was only held with a view to passing an Appropriation Act ; and it was oflficially announced that it would be followed by an immediate dissolution. Only five or six members from the southern settlements at- tended at the session. Two important incidents occurred before its close. The Secretary of State intimated that the Home Ministers had no objection to the establish- ment of responsible government in New Zealand, pro- vided that the old executive councillors got suitable pensions ; and the new Governor, Colonel Thomas Gore Sir Thomas Gore Browne 8i Browne, afterwards Sir Thomas Gore Browne, arrived in the Colony, and in proroguing the Legislature announced his intention to carry on the Government hy responsible advisers. A proclamation was shortly afterwards issued dissolving the Legislature, and a general election en- sued. In the meantime the paralysis of the Colonial Govern- ment and of the Colonial Parliament had caused much mischief. On the one hand, the irregular way in which provincial institutions had been forced into precocity, though at first it gave them the show of great success, sapped their natural strength, and ultimately shortened their existence. A conflict between colonial and pro- vincial institutions began, and never ceased till, eighteen years afterwards, the provincial institutions succumbed ; but then nothing satisfied the conqueror short of their absolute extinction, and thus a great political disaster was consummated. The prudent and wise course would have been to have adapted the institutions to changed circumstances ; but prudence and wisdom are rarely listened to in the flush of long-contested victor)-. It is impossible to measure the enormous damage which public interests have suffered from the continuance of the conflict and from its result. Had provincial in- stitutions been brought into force constitutionally and under legitimate direction, there would have been co- operation where there was discord, and there would now be better local self-government throughout New Zealand. The two political forces, colonial and provincial, should have been adjusted to each other on some general plan, and have been made to work together towards one common end — the advancement of the whole country, and not have been allowed to act in mutual antagonism, — in fact, to be pitted against each other in a duel of death. The problem must, under any circumstances, G 82 Nezv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen have been extremely difficult ; but the first steps taken in the attempt to solve it made it practically almost insoluble. The sword at last may be said to have cut the knot. On the other hand, the Native question began anew to grow into a formidable difficulty. The increasing alienation of native land under the system of land- purchases by the Crown, the virtual exclusion of the natives from representative institutions, and the growing want of local government in native districts intermingled with, or bordering on, European settlements, led, on the. part of many tribes, to the Native Land League and to the Native King Movement. The Natives felt that they were gradually becoming landless and outlawed. I do not mean to say for one moment that they were treated with intentional injustice, or were an oppressed race. All the land they sold was fairly paid for, and none was bought without the consent of the owners. Much also had been done to provide them with courts of justice adapted to their special wants. The chief fault lay in the constitutional system which failed to provide them with suitable means of local and general government. The proper supply of that primary want would, I do not doubt, have soon led to the adequate protection of their interests as landowners by means which would have been more effective than those of a Land League, and not antagonistic to the progress of colonization and to the welfare of both races. As it was, the Land League and the Native King were, throughout a large portion of native territory in the North Island, the symbol of national self-preservation. The Land League was first formed in 1854 among some of the Taranaki tribes, for the purpose of preventing any further sale of native land ; and in 1856 this league and the sphere of its influence were lartjelv extended. The '' King Move- Si?- TItoiuas Gore Broiviie 83 ment " began in 1856 contemporaneonsly with the ex- tension of the League, and was on the face of it intended to consoHdate the league as well as to impersonate self- government. Although it would probahl}- have been impossible to avert altogether, by timely measures in respect of Native government, the outbreak of Native difficulties, I venture to believe that prudent polic}- in the direction of that government would have in a large degree restricted the extent and mitigated the pressure of those difficulties. The critical time was during the introduction and first establishment of the Constitution of 1853, during the transition of power from the hands of the Governor to the hands of the Colonists ; and three years were then allowed to pass away without any real endeavour to make proper provision for Native government. As soon as representative institutions were supplemented by responsible administration, efforts were made to remedy this serious neglect, but, in the meantime, the loss of much precious time had aggravated the evil, and had greatly increased the difficulty of its cure. Moreover, other circumstances, to which I shall take future occasion to allude, intervened to make these efforts abortive, and to plunge the country into a protracted civil war. Again, but in this case with terrible reality, the sword was called on to cut the knot. Governor Gore Browne landed at Auckland on the 6th of September, 1855. He was an officer of distinction, having commanded the 41st Regiment during the Afghan campaign of 1842. He was appointed to New Zealand from the government of St. Helena. The change did not hold out an agreeable prospect to any one who disliked troublesome work, but Sir Thomas Gore Browne was not a man of that kind. He was always ready to do his dutv conscientiously and with G 2 84 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen quiet determination. Naturally simple and retiring, he was quick, intelligent, and had great moral courage. He was a high-toned English gentleman, endowed with " that chastity of honour which feels a stain like a wound." His weak points were that his mind lacked robustness, and that he had a too nervous temperament, one almost femininely sensitive. He felt more than he reasoned. He could never be coerced to do what he thought wrong, but he was apt to be misled by adroit persuasion. And his chivalrous loyalty to those with whom he had once made common cause was unquestion- able. Always willing to sacrifice himself, and to bear more than his own share of the burden, he would sooner cut off his right hand than play fast and loose with his allies. His soul abhorred meanness and all duplicity. The misfortune of Sir Thomas Gore Browne was that his administration in New Zealand was not wholly based on the responsible S3'stem. When he first established responsible government, he felt himself bound to except what he considered as included in imperial questions, namely, the purchase of native land, and other matters directly affecting the native race. This exception, I think, was a mistake, but, under the circumstances, it was very pardonable ; and I am bound to say that my present view of it has been formed by the light of what afterwards took place, and not b}- what existed at the time. The Natives were not then represented in the Legislature ; and, looking at the relations subsisting between the natives and the Crown under the Treaty of Waitangi, and in other ways, it seemed at that time more reasonable that the Governor, as the representative of the Crown, should directly deal with matters specially affecting the natives, than that dealing should devolve on men virtually chosen, from time to time, by the majority of the House of Representatives. The original Sir Thomas Gore Bj'Ozvuc 85 mistake lay in not properly providing for Native repre- sentation ; but, even independently of that, I believe that it was a mistake to try to separate responsibility and power ; for, whatever nominal arrangements might be made, the Governor could have no real power unless he had also, what he had not, the command of the purse- strings ; and the Ministers, as the representatives of the Sir Thomas Gore Browne. Colonists, would practically be held responsible lor any serious mischance resulting to the Colony from the inde- pendent action of the Governor, for native questions also, more or less, intimately affected the Colonists ; and, on any serious point of difference with the Governor, the Ministers would not only be bound to remonstrate, but, if he persisted in his course, also to resign. The 86 New Zealand Rulers and Statesmen confusion of two incongruous systems is fatal to good government. For these reasons, it would have been better at that time to entrust the administration of all native affairs, like all other affairs, to responsible Ministers. The Secretary of State, however, to whom the question was referred, agreed with the Governor, and the exception was confirmed. The Governor did hi.^ best to make this two-headed system a success, but he could not do impossibilities. He would have been a good Governor of a Crown Colony ; and he would have been a good Governor of a Colony with responsible government ; but he could not be both at the same time. By the wa}-, I may observe that it is a mistake to think, as man\' still think, that the Governor of a con- stitutional Colon v has little to do, and that an ordinary man can well enough discharge that duty. Setting aside the question of social fvmctions, it is no easy task to hold the balance fairly between two or more contending parties, and to give responsible government fair play. Great knowledge of constitutional principles and of human nature, great tact, good judgment, and strong self-control are essential to the office. Moreover, there are innumerable opportunities of which a wise and experienced Governor can, even in politics, avail himself, while at the same time he remains strictly impartial, with great advantage to the whole country. Governor Sir Thomas Gore Browne failed, as I said before, in administering an impossible combination of two systems. The failure soon came. He allied himself, in a most important portion of his Native policy, with his respon- sible Ministers ; and, independently of the merits of the question itself, he necessarily became a part}' man, and his usefulness as a constitutional Governor was destroyed. The merits of the question will come, in their proper place, under consideration. For the present purpose I Sir E. W. Stafford 87 need only refer to the two-fold system of government as the root of the evil. Whatever opinion is come to on the whole subject, I cannot conclude this short general sketch of Sir Thomas Gore Browne in connection with his government of New Zealand without bearing witness to his singleness of heart, his self-devotion to what he held to be his duty, and to the many sterling and attrac- Sir Edward William Stafibrd, C.C.M.Cl. tive qualities of his character. Sir Thomas Gore Browne, I regret to add, died in England in April, 1887. The General Election of 1855 brought into the House of Representatives some new members who afterwards took distinguished parts in the politics of New Zealand. Among them was Mr. Edward William Stafford, now Sir Edward William Stafford, G.C.M.G. He was at the 88 Neiv Zealand Rulers and Statesmen time Superintendent of the Province of Nelson, and was looked upon as a rising man ; but no one then would have ventured to predict that he would be twice Prime Minister of New Zealand, within the next thirteen years, for periods of five and four years respectively. Super- ficially viewed, Sir Edward Stafford would not be thought to be a man likely to have great public influence. His faults are outward, and it needs a closer search to find out his latent fund, which he has in large measure, of political ability. He talks too much, puts himself too much in the foreground, and is wanting in suavity of manner. But behind these rather repellent features there is in him a large reserve of genuine public worth. It is not that he has unusual talents, but that those he has are suitably proportioned to each other, and are so well com- bined as to ensure their greatest visefulness. And after all, proportion is the secret of success, because, in other words, proportion is the due adjustment of cause to effect. Sir Edward Stafford has a well-balanced mind, characterized by what is called the " golden mean," that rare and valuable statesmanlike quality. Cautious with- out timidity, bold without rashness, self-confident without jealousy of others, and not unwilling to take good advice, fond of personal power, but careful to use it legitimately, he has good judgment, a tenacious memory, a broad grasp of politics, and a fair knowledge of men. He showed discrimination of character in choosing colleagues, and in making public appointments, and he understood and rarely swerved from constitutional principles. He was a very capable administrator, and, in Parliament, he was the best leader of his party, when he was in power, that has been known in New Zealand. He was too voluble to be eloquent ; but his speeches, on great occa- sions, were often effective for their clearness, their argumentative power, and their breadth of scope ; Sir E. W. Stafford 89 although in general debate he was not careful enough to avoid irrelevant matter, sophism, verbiage, and mis- construction of his opponents. His political knowledge was not deep, but it was remarkable for its capability for practical use. He was clever in making a little informa- tion go a long way ; he could skim, better than most men, over thin ice ; and when, as it did sometimes, the ice broke vmder him, few could recover themselves with better assurance, and make the fall appear as a part of the performance. His politics, like himself, were characterized by moderation. He would have done excellent service, had there been a clear iield before him, in adjusting the mutual relations of colonial and pro- vincial institutions. Fully appreciating the respective advantages of general and local self-government, he would have been the last man to turn their forces against each other. His object would have been to secure the unity of the Colony, while he gave ample local power to its outlying parts. Unfortunately, when he came into power, the field was already occupied by contending parties, and he was forced to range himself on the side of the colonial party, whose cause on the whole he thought was best. The question at issue was whether the Colony should be divided into six (so to s:iy) small republics, or the six provinces should form one colony. But thai question had been forced into issue by the anomalous course taken by Sir George Grey in introducing the Constitution, and by the injudicious action of some of the provinces themselves. Sir Edward Stafford foresaw what would, sooner or later, take place ; and, in his time, tried to effect a compromise, but no compromise would then be accepted ; and when, in i'y!'5, the colonial party, not then led by him, determined on provincial abolition, he joined, as one in the ranks, in that summary proceeding. Had he been then Premier, it is probable that his better /^y6' 90 New Zealand Rulers and Statesifien judgment, acting on his official responsibility, might have made him pause at the eleventh hour, and induced him to propose modification instead of destruction. But it is doubtful whether even his influence, in that hour of ex- citement and exasperation, could have changed the result. Sir Edward Stafford, on the whole, held sensible views on the Native c]uestion ; but again, most unfortunately, during his temporary absence from New Zealand in l