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The Apotheosis of Hori Kerei

THE great Pro-Consul Sir George Grey thought nothing of the people’s pay, but for their welfare he imagined he could never do enough. His chief works are matters of history, but posthumous record raises him to a height which, among the ancients, would have installed him with the gods. I speak of the record which said that on his death his entire personal estate was sworn at £900. Having inherited a large property, having served his country for years past the term of an ordinary life, in appointments giving large emoluments and innumerable opportunities, he died with property less than that of many small tradesmen. But it is not this bare fact which would lead to his investiture in Olympus, but the manner of his daily expenditure and his large disbursements in the interests of mankind. A man of the simplest tastes as to his own manner of living, he was ever striving to obtain a richer life for his fellow-men. A public library to Auckland was one of his munificent gifts to that city; a library not only of modern works but containing valuable old and unique editions, and invaluable blackletter and other MSS. Down to the very days when the shadows of the infinite hereafter were enclosing him, and the beaconlights of his sure reward present to his eyes, he was ever seeking, in places known to the bibliophile, the choicest works for the enrichment of his Auckland donation.

What he gave away to individuals can never be known, for in that he was very stealthy. He himself spoke of such givings but once, and that was when it would be utterly useless as a caution to applicants. It was shortly before his departure, when there was no more to give, that he said to a friend in Auckland: “Every one who has aided in the least the Liberal cause thinks he has a claim on my private purse, and they have emptied it.” But the friend divulged not the circumstances, and when on his death the news arrived that the erstwhile owner of magnificent Kawau, the donor of two libraries to the nation, the rich man by inheritance and salary, the wealthy man by pension, left behind but the pitiful sum mentioned it came upon New Zealand with a burst of surprise.

He was a lavish distributor of the Queen’s image in his walks abroad when eyes were not upon him, and his favourite coin was half a sovereign. I have seen him give the golden mite to little children and aged Maoris, and I doubt if he ever bestowed a smaller sum.

Years ago it was thought he had too great a love for the Maori people in the interests of British settlement, but the real fact was that settlement with him was the paramount idea, and his conciliatory attitude towards the natives a means to promote the same. He loved the Maoris as he loved all mankind and the unborn millions. But he placed his own race page 201 far above all in his regard; that race must be elevated but if possible without the slightest injury to others. As an instance, Grey, to whose governorship we are indebted for the Act of 1852 granting a constitution to New Zealand, caused to be inserted a clause which provided that the Queen might set apart certain districts wherein the Maoris could live under their own laws and customs, notwithstanding such might be repugnant to the laws of England. In 1852 the natives were in a position by numbers and warlike proclivities to become dangerous to a young colony of ten years old, and doubtless the clause duly interpreted to the chiefs did good in showing that their peculiar interests were being protected. However, the provision remained inoperative for forty years, till the Arawa tribe petitioned the Queen to put it in operation. Whether Grey had ever supposed that the scheme would work, forty years’ experience had taught him that it would not; but it was necessary to do something in that direction to prove his old sincerity. He therefore brought a Bill into Parliament called “The Maori Municipal Bill 1891.” This Bill would “keep the word of promise to the ear and break it to the hope.” But it fell far short of what the Maoris expected from the Act of 1852.

Grey did not overburden his emissaries with instructions; he left much to their own judgment and intelligence, but if those failed they were never employed again. When the natives of Taranaki were challenging the justice of the confiscation at the command of Te Whiti by expelling surveyors from the Waimate Plains, Grey sent a native interpreter from Wellington to Parihaka with a letter. As usual, he was playing a lone hand, and the Opposition, and possibly some colleagues, were watchful. At Opunake the messenger received a telegram from Sir George saying: “You will understand, Sir, that you have no communication between myself and Te Whiti.” Then the interpreter knew that spies had been about, and was able to reply truthfully in such terms as would save Grey from any blame should he be censured for communicating with the rebellious, and he was so charged tentatively. The letter was not to Te Whiti, but to a known loyal chief, and it contained an offer to provide the natives a lawyer to test their grievances in the Courts. At that time there had been no ploughing, no aggressive fencing, no enrolment of large bodies of troops. Surely had the offer been accepted, much money would have been saved New Zealand. But Te Whiti and Tohu urged the refusal.

Grey never forgot a face, but sometimes a name, and to discover that if he were accosted by an elderly person, he would shake hands as if he recollected him intimately. Then he would say, “I’m glad to see you; and how is the old complaint?” This drew all information. It also prevented the old folks from thinking themselves forgotten.