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Chapter xiii.
The Weld Ministry.

Mr. Weld's propositions being committed to paper, Sir George Grey wrote: “If a majority of the General Assembly concurs in them, it will be the Governor's duty to aid to the best of his ability in carrying them out.” Mr. Sewell, Mr. Fitzherbert, Mr. Richardson (in the Council), Major Atkinson, and (in December) Mr. Mantell, accepted office on the terms thus arranged. The Houses, summoned to meet for despatch of business on the 21st November, had by successive proclamation on the 19th and 22nd been prorogued to the 23rd and 24th while the Governor sought for advisers. When on the last-mentioned date they assumed office he thanked the members for responding at an unusual season to a summons rendered imperative by the state of the colony and the resignation of his advisers. Acting on his individual responsibility he had offered terms of pardon to natives in arms against the Queen. It was his intention to take prompt steps to restore order in the Taranaki and Ngatiruanui districts. The speech dwelt upon the principles embodied in Mr. Weld's memorandum on acceptance of office. After an attempt, (defeated by 29 votes against 17, amongst the Representatives,) to postpone the removal of the seat of government “until provision has been first made for constituting the province of Auckland a separate colony, to be ruled by a Governor appointed by Her Majesty and a Legislature to be chosen by the inhabitants thereof,” addresses were carried in both Houses which were cordial in character, but reserved for consideration the question of self-reliance in internal defence and the assumption of colonial responsibility as proposed by Mr. Weld. It is grateful to record the fact, that in

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office Mr. Weld condemned the Suppression of Rebellion Act as vigorously as when he was a private member. “It was unnecessary and unconstitutional, taken from a bad type of barbarous ages. All that can be said in favour of this disgrace to our statute-book is that it has been a dead letter.” Mr. Sewell as Attorney-General resumed the lead in the Legislative Council, and moved resolutions accepting the propositions of Mr. Weld. Mr. Whitaker moved an amendment to the effect that temporarily New Zealand ought to be divided into two colonies—the southern administered on the principle of ministerial responsibility; the northern on a system enabling “the Imperial Government to exercise such control over the management of native affairs as will enable Her Majesty's Government to take such measures as it may deem necessary to suppress the present rebellion, and provide safeguards against rebellion for the future.” By 10 votes against 9 Mr. Whitaker's motion, so strangely opposed to his acrimonious contentions with Sir George Grey, was rejected; and the Address accepting Mr. Weld's principles was adopted by 16 votes against 2, on the 6th December.

In the House of Representatives Mr. Weld moved, on the 30th November, resolutions condemnatory of joint responsibility of the Governor and his advisers in native affairs. Divided Councils, vacillating policy, and needless expense were imputed to it. “Recognizing the right of the Home Government to insist upon the maintenance of this system of double government so long as the colony is receiving the aid of British troops,” the House was invited to accept the alternative, to request unconditionally the withdrawal of the whole of the land force, and ask that the Governor should be guided entirely by his “advisers in native as well as ordinary affairs, excepting upon such matters as may directly concern Imperial interests and the prerogatives of the Crown.” It was thought that a precipitate withdrawal of the troops was rash and dangerous. After adjourned debates, and a failure by Mr. Graham to provide for separation of New Zealand in the manner aimed at by Mr. Whitaker in the Council, friendly resolutions were carried by the Minister of Defence, Major Atkinson, without a division. They expressed loyalty to the Crown, gratitude to the mother country, and thanks to Her Majesty's forces. They trusted

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that Mr. Card well's instructions had been issued to meet a temporary emergency, and would lapse when a normal state of things could be restored. “Without disputing the claim of the Imperial Government to exercise a reasonable control over policy upon which the restoration of peace must necessarily depend whilst the colony is receiving the aid of British troops,” they averred that divided councils had produced great evils and expense: “That nevertheless the colony is resolved to make every further possible effort to place itself in a position of self-defence against internal aggression, with a view to accept the alternative indicated by the Home Government, namely, the withdrawal of Her Majesty's land forces at the earliest possible period consistent with the maintenance of Imperial interests and the safety of the colony; thereby enabling the Imperial Government to issue such instructions to his Excellency the Governor as may permit him to be guided entirely by his constitutional advisers in native as well as in ordinary affairs, excepting upon such matters as may directly concern Imperial interests and the prerogatives of the Crown.” Substantially Major Atkinson's resolutions were the same as those adopted on Mr. Sewell's motion in the Council. Both Houses had therefore agreed upon a new starting-point, which was to furnish endless disputes in after years. Almost all men of political note had supported it, however, and from danger of internal interference it seemed free. Mr. Dillon Bell, Mr. Domett, Dr. Featherston, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Fox, Mr. Mantell, Mr. Stafford, Mr. Fitzherbert, Mr. Weld, Mr. Cracroft Wilson, Mr. Crosbie Ward, Mr. Swainson, Mr. Sewell, Major Whitmore, and (after rejection of his attempt to bisect the colony) Mr. Whitaker, were sponsors of the new scheme. The electoral roll of the colony at the time was less than 30,000; or less than that of any suburban constituency around London. The fate of the Maori race was to depend on about the number of voters which sends two members to Parliament from Edinburgh.

The session was short. An Act was passed enabling the Governor in Council to raise the interest on the loan for £3,000,000 (1863) from 5 to 6 per cent. A Debenture Act authorized the issue of short-dated debentures (three years) at 8 per cent, interest in anticipation of the loan for £3,000,000.

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A Customs Act, with the hope of increasing the revenue to the extent of £190,000, raised the rate of duties on imports. A Public Works Land Act authorized the taking of native lands as well as those of Europeans on the giving of compensation. A New Zealand Settlements Amendment Act, intended to comply with Mr. Cardwell's requirements, was adopted. Minor Acts and Private Acts need not be enumerated, although there were several, dealing amongst other matters with railways at Canterbury. An Act to provide for a mail service by Panama was passed. On the 13th December, the Assembly was prorogued with the assurance that, before the expiry of the current financial year, it should be convened at Wellington. On Mr. Fitzherbert's motion the House had resolved that it was not expedient to accept the offer of the Imperial Government to guarantee £1,000,000 of the loan for £3,000,000. The objections stated were that priority of charge was required for the guaranteed portion, and the territorial revenue was to be included in the security. It was resolved that the accounts should be adjusted, and “the true and just balance found due from the colony” should be paid. But resolutions provide no funds. A loan implies a lender, and confidence of capitalists is not engendered by mere words. Confronted by the financial difficulty in their studies the Ministers found it looming large. On the 3rd January, they pathetically appealed for relaxation of the rule as to contribution towards army expenses. “If from any cause the withdrawal of Her Majesty's land forces should be delayed for any lengthened period, and the terms now imposed by the Imperial Government should be insisted on, the colony will be wholly unable to bear the burthen, and financial ruin will be the result.” Because the House had thought it rash to withdraw the troops suddenly Mr. Weld had slightly changed his front, and looked for delay. He found the weight of delay intolerable. Look where he would there was trouble. But the tender mercies of Britain could be appealed to. New Zealand was a very young colony, founded by “the Imperial Government, and may not unreasonably look to it for help in time of need like the present.” It was true that peace existed, but measures then being taken between Taranaki and Wanganui “would involve the colony in heavy cost.” Subject to their present appeal ad misericordiam,

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the Ministry would give effect to the resolutions of the House, and enter upon the question of accounts with the Imperial Government. If the war expenditure of the colony had not been brought about by the original sin of the Taranaki settlers, of Mr. Stafford, Mr.C. W. Richmond, and others, it would indeed have been entitled to commiseration. Mr. Fitzherbert, the Treasurer, in his financial statement (December, 1864) had shown that of the one million sterling sold or hypothecated the colony would only receive £810,000. He was not sanguine enough to expect more than £1,620,000 for the remaining £2,000,000 authorized by the Loan Act. Anticipation and discount, the one ever more exorbitant, the other ever more difficult, were the keys to the windy treasury of the colony. It is not wonderful that the lands of the Maoris were still eyed eagerly as the talisman of redemption. The claims of the British Treasury could not be dismissed, but might be discussed. Discussion would put off the day of reckoning, and meantime the spirit of their countrymen would shrink from abandonment of the colonists. The vitality of the new Government depended on discussions in the parlour of the Bank of New Zealand. An agreement was arrived at on the 29th December. The Bank was empowered to issue debentures for £750,000, £50,000 of which were to be offered in New Zealand, £200,000 in Australia, and half a million was to be offered in London. The interest was to be 8 per cent. The Bank was to receive 7 instead of 5 per cent, on its overdrawn account, and to have power to hypothecate the debentures in case of failure of sale, the Government bearing the expense of hypothecation. The Bank was to have a commission of ½ per cent. on negotiation. These terms appear more like the bargain of a young spendthrift than the state paper of a nascent nation; but, such as they were, they form the warp of its life. The Inspector of the Bank went to Australia, but capitalists were obdurate. “The chief causes of failure were,” he reported, “the general ignorance which prevails as to New Zealand affairs, and the impression that the colony is involving itself in debts, the redemption of which will be problematical.” One capitalist in Melbourne offered to take £10,000 of the debentures at 10 per cent. discount, but to such an indignity the Inspector would not submit. To receive £9000, pay £800 a year for three years,

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and then to pay £10,000, was more than needy New Zealand could undertake. Some trifling sums were obtained at about par, and a friendly bank in Melbourne lent for six months £40,000, at 10 per cent, per annum interest. Out of the abundance of capital in London a small portion was attracted by the hope of 8 per cent. Yet less than £200,000 were obtained within a month of the submission of the debentures. The cost of colonial defence was at the time nearly £450,000 a year. Military settlers at Waikato and Tauranga cost, in pay and rations, more than £156,000 a year; and with Taranaki, White Cliffs, Opotiki, Waiapu, and contingent hospital expenses, military settlers required nearly £300,000 a year. Notwithstanding a favourable turn in the London money market New Zealand stock was practically unsaleable in May, 1865. In March the Ministers drew up a memorial, entreating assistance. They admitted that good faith required payment of the debt of the colony to England. They had transferred £400,000 (4 per cent, debentures) to the Imperial Government, and they left it to that Government to hold them as securities, or to cover them with a guarantee. They appealed to Sir George Grey to testify that they had never proposed “to recoup war expenditure by hasty and indiscriminate sale of confiscated land,” and that they had “co-operated with him in a just and temperate policy” towards Maoris. They hoped that the English Government would recognize the claims of the colony, “either by covering the remainder of the three million loan by the Imperial guarantee, or by making to the colony an annual grant in aid of extraordinary expenditure for the next four or five years.” Sir George Grey supported their appeal for the guarantee, which would cost the mother country nothing, aid the struggling colony in its manful efforts, and might enable both races to live in peace in future. Mr. Cardwell in July unequivocally declined. Were he to ask Parliament to consent he would be reminded that already the Imperial Treasury had disbursed two millions for New Zealand, and that the resources of the colony, as represented by Mr. Reader Wood in applying for the former guarantee, were such as to refute the supposition that it could require a vote in aid.

The effect of these negotiations was to harden the resolution

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of Mr. Weld and his friends to dispense with British troops and rely upon a small force trained for bush-fighting, and aided by the pugnacious Maoris, who, ever prone to tribal wars, were reckoned upon as available for a native militia. Mr. Weld, however, alleged that he desired to avoid, if possible, the “setting of tribe against tribe,” and hoped that the union of the Pakeha and the Maori in the battle-field would “strengthen the good feeling between the races, besides being a great assistance to the colony.”¹ Within a week of the end of the session the Governor issued a proclamation (17th December, 1864) to confiscate Maori lands. He had staunchly contended against the schemes of Whitaker and Fox, but he did not, when Mr. Weld was in office, insist upon procuring land by cession rather than by seizure. The land to be taken was “all the land in Waikato taken by the Queen's forces,” within specified lines from “Pokorokoro in the Gulf of the Thames,” by Maungakawa in the Waikato district, Pukekura, Orakau, the Puniu river, the Pirongia mountain, Whaingaroa harbour, the coast to the Waikato Heads, thence by the river Waikato to the Maungatawhiri river, and northwards circuitously to the point of commencement. In addition “all lands northward of the above boundaries belonging to rebel natives or tribes up to and as far as the waters of the Manukau and the Waitamata” were declared confiscated. It was added: “The land of those natives who have adhered to the Queen shall be secured to them.… To those who have rebelled but who shall at once submit… portions of the land taken will be given back for themselves and their families. The Governor will make no further attack on those who remain quiet. Those guilty of further violence he will punish as he has punished the Waikato tribes.” Between Wanganui and New Plymouth he would “take such land belonging to rebels as he may think fit;” would make roads where he chose; would assure to the peaceful the “full benefit and enjoyment of their lands,” but would except from the amnesty those who had committed murders. Mr. Weld's Ministry had stretched the Governor's conscience from Ngaruawahia to Orakau. The great Waikato plain between the waters of the Horotiu and the Waipa was accorded to the demands of Weld, though refused to Whitaker.

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Kawhia was left, but from the Puniu river to the waters of Waitemata the natives were exiled; and in Taranaki the will of the Pakeha was to declare whether any footing on a rock should be left for the sole of the foot of a Maori. Mr. Cardwell's wisdom was discarded in the new-born concord of the Governor with his fresh advisers. Some qualms were felt even in the Cabinet about the proclamation, for we find that before the General went (January, 1864) to Wanganui, a new proclamation disclaiming any “desire to take lands of the rebel natives as a source of profit” was “unanimously approved” in the Executive Council. It limited the area to be confiscated on the west coast, and was to be entrusted to the Native Minister, who was to accompany General Cameron on an expedition to Wanganui. It was cancelled lest it should “embarrass his military operations.”¹ It would have been strange if a Ministry containing H. A. Atkinson, one of the Taranaki Maori-haters, had abstained from war. The session had barely, come to an end when a Ministerial memorandum declared it necessary to act at Taranaki and Wanganui; to form military settlements and roads between the two places, and as soon “as circumstances may permit to occupy as a military settlement a block north of the mouth of the Waitara river.”²

The General quickly showed that he had little confidence in the moderation of the Governor's advisers. “If the extensive scheme of confiscation, road-making, &c., contemplated by Ministers (in which I do not know whether you concur or not) is to be carried out, I think we ought to apply at once for re-enforcements.” The carrion-birds which, under the name of contractors, batten upon the miseries of war, growing to redundance like weeds upon a dunghill, had not failed to find a home in New Zealand. It was natural that the regular army should recoil from a service in which a quarrel had no sooner died out in one quarter than it was revived in another. When the Waikato chiefs withdrew from Taranaki, Governor Browne proposed to make war on Waikato. When Waikato was desolate Tauranga was pounced upon. When Tauranga was at rest

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war was to be transferred to the west coast at Waitotara. The General went to Wanganui on the 20th January, and wrote on the 21st: “The more I think about it the more I am convinced that we have done wrong in bringing war into this hitherto quiet settlement.” A Major in the service had written to him before he left Auckland: “One thing is very certain, and that is that the men who sold the (Waitotara) block had no right to do so, and it is the old Waitara dodge for getting up a war, and the consequent military expenditure at Wanganui.” On the 28th January, the General (in a private letter subsequently laid before the Assembly) wrote: “I have made inquiries about the purchase of the Waitotara block, and have reason to believe that it was a more iniquitous job than that of the Waitara block. I am not surprised that the natives have opposed our road-making. The Government at home ought to be made acquainted with the true history of the business.” When the General was requested to furnish the grounds of his objections he declined to do so. In surveying the field of operations he found that the Maoris were entrenched in a stronghold—the Weraroa pah— within 20 miles of Wanganui. As early as the 28th January he wrote: “I consider my force insufficient to attack so formidable a work as the Weraroa pah.” Posts, escorts, and protection of Wanganui would diminish his strength, and “instead of 1100 men, my present available force, I should require 6000.” A short distance beyond Weraroa was the Waitotara river. The General proposed to cross it, and proceeding northwards to establish a post at the Patea river; but his plans seemed vague, for he declared that if he should succeed he would “have but a small force left for anything else.” No advantage to the north of the Waitotara river would compensate for losses near Wanganui by irruption of rebels. In the bitterness of disgust he exclaimed: “All the well-to-do settlers are, I believe, aware of the folly of this cruise and deprecate the war, but the shopkeepers and settlers greedy of land of course delight in its continuance.” He was early compelled to fight. Near Nukumaru, close to the Weraroa, the Maoris, under Hone Pihama, attacked his “picquets so suddenly that they were forced back some distance before re-enforcements could arrive.” On the right they penetrated to within 100 yards of the camp. The English loss was considerable,

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but it was thought that the Maoris had suffered more, although only 11 killed and 2 wounded were found. The friendly natives on the river, under Hori Kingi, Mete Kingi, and others, who had fought at Moutoa, were attacked by the rebels, but beat them off with loss of 25 killed and 4 captive chiefs. The victors had to deplore the death of the chief, John Williams, the principal actor in the capture of the murderers of the Gilfillans in 1847. The country was difficult, the enemy numerous and daring. “I would, therefore, recommend that your Excellency should apply by the first opportunity for a re-enforcement of at least 2000 men, and for a still larger re-enforcement if, in addition to the occupation of the country between Wanganui and the Patea, the road between Taranaki and Wanganui is to be opened; and more land is to be confiscated and occupied north of the Waitara, which I understand is to be the plan of the Colonial Government approved by your Excellency.” It is disheartening to reflect that at this very period there was in the British army, left (as far as official neglect could cause such a catastrophe) to rust from misuse, one of those rare geniuses for war and for rule of mankind which fitfully appear upon the earth. Charles George Gordon, after performing in China feats unsurpassed by Greek or Roman,— after winning battles and taking cities with troops a tithe in number of his enemy and composed of the same material,—when his work was done modestly retired, unenriched by spoil, leaving behind him a moral lesson which the Chinese ruler could admire though not comprehend.¹ Soochow had fallen in 1863, and till the Chinese Government apologized for the slaughter of surrendered enemies, and had guaranteed that where Gordon was present at a capitulation nothing should be done without his consent, his troops were idle for a time, during which he might

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have been withdrawn for the direct service of his country. When a guarantee had been given that no wrong should be done to prisoners submitting to his arms, Gordon resumed operations; but he left China in 1864, and might have been entrusted with the command in New Zealand, where his gallantry, wisdom, humanity, and piety would have made their mark and honoured his country. He received brevet distinctions, and was in process of time remitted to a paltry staff appointment—at Gravesend.

General Cameron strengthened his force by withdrawing troops from Wellington, and from Taranaki, and crossed the Waitotara on the 5th February. The Maoris retorted by killing a settler and a militia soldier who was “out contrary to orders, plundering a Maori settlement.” There was panic among the settlers. The General sent 150 men to Wanganui, and asked the Governor to repair thither to consult with him. The savage Hau Hau fanaticism was not only rife at the west coast. The prophets, finding the General bent upon war. made a diversion at the east. Two of them, with Hori Tupaea of the Ngaiterangi, and Tiu Tamihana of the Ngatihaua, undertook to stir up the tribes. Colonel Greer, still commanding in the district which he had quelled at the battle of Te Ranga, was informed of the invasion, and wrote to the Arawa chiefs. “This is my word to you; when they go into your country, catch them and fetch them up to me.” The invaders were on the Maketu river expecting others to rally round their flag. The Arawa chiefs pursued and captured the whole party of 50 on the 8th February. The prisoners were, after a march of 38 miles, delivered to the English. Hori Tupaea, who had been captured separately when unarmed, expressed his regret to Colonel Greer, and offered to take the oath of allegiance. He had been deceived. The Colonel allowed him to remain on parole in the camp. The Governor accepted the penitent's promise to assist in quelling disturbance, to reside where the Governor might direct, and to observe the terms accorded to the Tauranga natives in the previous year. The blow given to the Pai Marire faith was severe, but the hostile natives were enraged against the Arawa chiefs, and tribal wars were anticipated. It was unhappily clear that the Hau Hau tenets had been accepted in many tribes and

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it was impossible to guess where or when some new atrocity might be perpetrated to sicken the English of the land, and drive them away in loathing.

Early in March the Governor was at Wanganui, having on the 4th requested his advisers to furnish him with a full and explicit statement of their objects, as he feared there was an impression abroad that the war was prosecuted for the profit and gratification of the colonists; an imputation which the Ministry denied in a formal document on the 20th March. At Wanganui, the Governor found that the existence of the Weraroa stronghold was damaging the reputation of the English. The Hau Haus had made a triumphant song about it. They said their prophet had waved his arms, and the General and his men were fain to skim along the coast like seagulls. The native allies asked permission to attack the pah. The General was amused at their presumption in thinking the task easy. On the 8th, he wrote to the Governor; “I would strongly advise your applying for a re-enforcement of at least 2000 men from England.” Without them the coast-line between the camp (at Patea) and Taranaki could not be occupied. The Ministry would not concur with this proposal, and the Governor agreed with them. He believed that before long the natives would “submit in nearly all parts of the island,” and that the war might be terminated before re-enforcements could arrive. And now another horror cast its lurid glare upon the times. When Captain Lloyd's head was carried away, in 1864, it was at Pipiriki, about 80 miles up the Wanganui river, that it had been placed on a pole, and there the frantic fanatics danced round it in furious orgies, rushing up, biting it, and treating it with brutish indignities. Again, in 1865, the baked head of an English soldier was taken thither by fanatics led by Patara and Kereopa. They were to stir up the tribes in the Bay of Plenty. At the same time the prophet Te Ua did not counsel assaults upon colonists. His written instructions were: “While on your journey do not interfere with those whom you may meet. Do not quarrel with the Pakeha.… At Turanganui give Hirini te Kani the flag and the man's head.” On the way, 200 of the Uriwera tribe were indoctrinated. The head was used as a mystic symbol. Terror caused by it took possession of each as

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it was shown to the file of Maoris; and each sprang out of the row in turn. Kereopa, the officiating priest, then said: “You are now possessed of the Deity. Let the widows of those who fell at Orakau approach and vent their anger on this head and on the Pakeha prisoners.” The maddest of them obeyed him.

On the 1st March, the Rev. Carl S. Volklner and the Rev. T. Grace, missionaries, arrived in the Opotiki harbour. In February, a lady living at Whakatane wrote to warn Mr. Volkner to stay in Auckland, for mischief was on foot. It was not till the bar was crossed and regress was impossible that the voyagers saw assembled by the river-side a band of the Pai Marire. Patara and Kereopa, after turning the hearts of disciples to ferocity at Taupo, Uriwera, and Whakatane, had arrived at Opotiki. The vessel was in their power as soon as she was anchored. The missionaries were ordered on shore in the afternoon. The vessel was rifled and her contents were placed in a store of which the Maoris kept the key. A violent Hau Hau meeting was held at the Roman Catholic Chapel. It was strange that as in China the Tae-ping (Great Peace) rebels professed to link with direct revelations through their chiefs, some Christian tenets, so the Pai Marire (Good Tranquillity) desperadoes, when throwing off their allegiance to the Queen and disavowing the religion of England, assumed a portion of the Roman Catholic cult. The Scriptures were to be burnt, but the Virgin Mary was ever to be present with the Hau Haus, who were to slay and devour their foes. The Christian Sabbath was no longer to be respected as in England. There was to be no marrying or giving in marriage, for by promiscuous intercourse, under the rule of priests gifted with supernatural powers, the Pai Marire would be as the sand of the sea-shore for multitude. The first profession of these tenets had disgusted the manly Wi Tako. The king-maker was about to condemn them. On the 1st March, the Hau Haus kept up their orgies in the Roman Catholic Chapel beyond the mid hour of night. The captive missionaries and sailors heard the horrid din. A Taranaki native guided them to an enclosure in which to rest. The sailors joined heartily in reading the evening psalm. In the morning the very air seemed full of omen that some dreadful deed was to be done. Mr. Volkner paid to a Maori widow a small legacy which it was his custom

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to disburse to her. She said nothing to warn him, but in half-an-hour twenty armed men appeared, performed some cabalistic rites, and called on Mr. Volkner to go with them. Mr. Grace wished to join him, but was forced back, and locked up under guard. His turn, he was told, would come next. Two hours he was in agony about his friend. Heremita, who had led away Mr. Volkner, returned and conversed with the guard. Mr. Grace heard the words (in Maori) “hung on the willow tree.” They went to his heart. He told the sailors, who said: “All is over.” They were called out and marched between files of Maoris past the open space near the church. They were robbed and shut up in a house with their hands tied behind their backs. Mr. Grace inquired about Mr. Volkner, but no word was vouch-safed. The murderers shrunk from telling what they had done. Yet they had taken possession and slain in open day. Before Mr. Volkner's arrival his house had been broken open, his goods sold, and war-dances were held in his church. When they seized their victim they dragged him with a rope round his neck, and hanged him on a willow tree. But the ruffian Kereopa would not wait for gradual death. The body was lowered, and Kereopa fired upon it. Again it was raised with violent jerks. The Maori wife of a European told her husband what she saw. The Roman Catholic chief Hiki remained in his pah during the murder. The body was carried to the Protestant chapel. Kereopa told Hiki to come and see. Hiki saw. Kereopa said: “I have killed him, now you cut off his head.” Hiki did so. Kereopa then called on all the hapus, men, women, and children, to come and taste Volkner's blood. They did so. Kereopa then scooped out and swallowed the eyes. Patara was absent making converts, and it was not supposed that he would have joined in the atrocities, for although he had assisted in plundering Volkner's house, he left a letter warning Volkner not to return to Opotiki; and after Volkner's murder he disclaimed any participation in it, and called Kereopa to account. Mr. Grace and his companions were led to the house of a Mr. Hooper, who was ill. Six or seven natives, four sailors, the sick man, and Mr. Grace were shut up in one room. After an hour and a half they were unbound. Previously a Maori had lifted a panikin to the mouth of each to let them

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drink water. Mr. Grace asked why they were unbound. The answer was: “A time to bind and a time to loose, a time to kill and a time to make alive.” Shut up in the suffocating atmosphere of the small room, the prisoners passed the day and night. “As I lay awake,” Mr. Grace wrote, “I could distinctly hear the confusion, dancing and shouting going on in the Romish chapel, and also in the church.” He commended himself and his companions to “the watchful care of our Heavenly Father.” In the morning (3rd March) he found a Prayer-book. The wonderful Psalms of David touched him, as they have touched the spirits of so many myriads of mankind, with a graciousness not of this world. “Some of the Psalms for the day” (he wrote) “appeared written for the occasion.” In the comfort of the resurrection and the hope of awaking in the Divine likeness, the soul of the prisoner found strength. Patara had been sent for to decide upon Mr. Grace's fate, at a meeting. Throughout the 3rd and 4th of March there was suspense. On the night of the 4th, Patara returned. Mr. Grace sent a message to him in the morning. He passed the prison, shook hands with Mr. Grace, and spoke a few words. An hour afterwards the prisoners were summoned to a meeting in Mr. Volkner's church. Three hundred natives were assembled. The Taranaki fanatics seated themselves within the communion-rails. Europeans were present also. Patara denounced soldiers, Ministers, and Englishmen. For all Jews, Frenchmen, Scotchmen, Austrians, and Germans, he had love. Natives brought charges against the murdered Volkner. He had gone to Auckland as a spy, a cross had been found in his house, therefore he must have been a Romanist and deceiver, and he had returned to Opotiki after being told to stay away. Mr. Grace defended his dead friend; and though Patara replied, he said nothing in justification of the murder. Mr. Grace was attacked for going to Taupo recently, and for sundry supposed faults. The land question was the subject of a long harangue, to which he replied that neither Volkner nor himself had any land. Ransom was proposed by Mr. Grace, or exchange of prisoners. The Maoris agreed to take Hori Tupaea in exchange, and the captain undertook to carry the proposal to Tauranga. Mr. Levy, brother of the captain, was to remain at Opotiki, and the

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captain was to continue to trade. On the 6th, Patara started inland, ordering that Mr. Grace was to be kindly treated, and permitting him to write to his wife. Mr. Grace assured him that Hori Tupaea (who was released by Sir George Grey) was already at liberty. On the 7th, Patara sent his letter as to the exchange, but the captain (although as Jews he and his brother were supposed to be favoured by the Hau Haus) was anxious to break the stipulations of the trial and carry away his brother. He cursed and swore at Mr. Grace, who argued against such a course. Mr. Agassiz, a resident, recommended Mr. Grace to pacify the captain by giving him a statement that the loss to the ship was occasioned by the presence of the missionaries. On the 9th, he gave it, but the captain refused to promise to carry Patara's letter to Tauranga. The natives still detained the captain's vessel. On the 13th, Eparaima, a native of Turanga, who knew Mr. Grace when he resided there in 1853, arrived with a message from a Pai Marire prophet, desiring Mr. Grace's release. Eparaima wept much, and went inland to a meeting to plead for his old acquaintance. On the 15th, Eparaima started to obtain further help; but it was ominous that on that day the Pai Marire raised a new pole for their worship, and a feast was to be held. Captain Levy's vessel was detained by want of a breeze. But help was at hand where least expected. The murder of Mr. Volkner, far from rousing the natives generally to like atrocity, had shocked them.

An insolent letter was written by the fanatics from “Opotiki, Place of Canaan,” to “the office of the Government, Auckland.” It purported to be from the committee of the Ngatiawa, Whakatohea, Uriwera, and Taranaki. “You crucify the Maoris, and I also crucify the Pakehas. But now release unto us Hori Tupaea and his companions, and we will then let go Mr. Grace.” The date of the letter was the 6th March. From Whakatane, however, chiefs of the Ngatiawa, from Turanga, from Maketu, from Rotorua, from Huria, letters were sent to denounce the shedding of the innocent blood of the missionary. The Arawa at Maketu denounced the Ngatiawa because they had not actively prevented it, and threatened them with war.

H.M.S. ‘Eclipse,’ under Commander Fremantle, reached Turanga

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on the 13th. The sailor and Bishop Selwyn found Bishop W. Williams amidst 300 Maoris, most of them armed. They had assembled to decide what they should do about the Pai Marire, some of whom were within a mile and a half of Bishop Williams' station. Bishop Selwyn addressed the assembly with fervour, but they could not be induced to take arms against the murderers. They alleged that their doing so would endanger Mr. Grace. They wrote to Hori Tupaea, urging him to go forward to assist Mr. Grace. The Bishop and his friends strove in vain to persuade the natives to dissociate the liberation of Mr. Grace from a demand for the release of Tupaea. Two Turanga natives went with the man-of-war to aid the object of the letter. On the morning of the 16th the ‘Eclipse’ was off Opotiki. The Turanga natives were landed in a boat. Captain Fremantle gallantly desired to go on shore to rescue the captive; but the Bishop urged that such a course “might endanger Mr. Grace's life, as horsemen were seen scampering to and fro along the beach, and it seemed impossible that Mr. Grace could now escape unobserved.”¹ Meantime the three masts of the ‘Eclipse’ had been spied by a Maori from Mr. Grace's place of detention. Captain Levy and his brother got into a canoe and paddled down the river, refusing to let Mr. Grace accompany them. The landing of the Turanga natives had made a commotion. Shouting, ringing of the bell of the Roman Catholic Chapel, galloping of messengers to summon a meeting, distracted the settlement. Mr. Grace begged some to stay with him, but they said they would be killed if they did so. He was left alone for an hour and a half, and “felt forsaken on every hand,” but found consolation in committing himself to the care of God. Then the boat returned. The captain had been sent back from the man-of-war to procure a friendly native, who, however, had gone to the Maori meeting two miles away. The captain busied himself with getting goods into the boat. A young man named Montague told Mr. Grace he would be taken into the boat if he would go quietly to the river-bank. He did so. None but an old woman saw his escape. He lay in the bottom of the boat till he was taken on board of the ‘Eclipse,’ after fifteen days' companionship with horrors. But the two Turanga natives

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were detained because of his escape. Commander Fremantle had towed Captain Levy's schooner out with boats, and no European but the trader, Agassiz, ventured to remain at Opotiki. It was fortunate that the bloodthirsty Kereopa was not the ruling spirit. Patara, after fourteen hours' of anxious negotiation, principally conducted by Bishop Selwyn, permitted the Turanga natives to return to the man-of-war.

It was afterwards officially testified that the labours of Bishops Selwyn and Williams had a salutary effect in repelling Maori sympathy from the Hau Haus. Some who had previously sympathized were roused to a sense of shame. Friends of the English were kindled to activity. The Arawa were eager for vengeance, and to prove their loyalty to the Queen. Bishop Selwyn himself, fresh from the scene, thus addressed the third Synod of his Church at Christchurch in 1865: “The war, which seemed to have come to an end, was renewed by the perversity of a few misguided men. Mixed with the new element of the confiscation of land it acquired a bitterness unknown before. The missionary clergy were believed to be the agents of the Government in a deep-laid plot for the subjugation of the native people. Our congregations melted away; our advice was disregarded. Exasperated by continued defeat, and loss of friends and relations, many became reckless. The feeling grew among them that they would abandon the religion of their enemies and set up one of their own. An impostor from Taranaki placed himself at the head of the movement. Pretended miracles, unknown tongues, inspiration from heaven, messages of angels, were alleged as usual in support of the imposture. The delusion spread and reached the east coast. New tribes were to be startled and overawed. A leader of inferior rank demanded of the people of Opotiki the sacrifice of their own missionary. No other life was touched of the many white men who fell into their hands. It was a murder of fanaticism.… Our first martyr died at peace with his enemies, and prayers for his murderers.”

Whether Te Ua was fanatical at the first, or merely in wild despair like many of his accomplices he sought to strike terror, and was prepared if need be to die a bloody death, must be matter for conjecture. The Maori was ever superstitious. It was on the mysterious influence of “tapu” that his primitive

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polity was based. Though that polity had been well-nigh over-thrown by Christianity, it had reasserted itself with hideous additions when the belief was accepted that the missionaries were leagued with the Government to rob and to subjugate the Maoris. In 1847, Sir William Martin had predicted such a result. Mr. Maning had declared that the rise of strange delusions, and belief in supernatural powers displayed in the person of priest or chief, were incidents often repeated in Maori life. The imputed unholy alliance between the missionaries and the Government had engendered the new Maori chimæra.¹

Pouring out his sorrows to a friend in England the Bishop said: “Oh! how things have changed!—how much of the buoyancy of hope has been sobered down by experience!-when instead of a nation of believers welcoming me as their father, I find here and there a few scattered sheep, the remnant of a flock which has forsaken the shepherd. Think of my hanging on to a grapnel off Mr. Volkner's mission-station, not daring to land as Coley (Bishop Patteson) and I are accustomed to do at some heathen island visited for the first time. At this place I do not know how far it is right to go among my people, though in former times peace or war made no difference in their willingness to receive me. At present we are the special objects of their suspicion and ill-will. The part which I took in the Waikato campaign has destroyed my influence with many. You will ask, Did I not foresee this?—and if so, Why did I go? I answer, that though 10,000 men were sent from England no military chaplain arrived at head-quarters till the advance had reached its furthest point in Waikato. Then there were many wounded Maoris brought in from time to time to whom it was my duty to minister. Add to this that two of our mission-stations, (those of Mr. Ashwell and Mr. Morgan) had been occupied by a native clergyman² and catechist, whom no threats could induce to leave their posts after the English missionaries were advised to retire. It was my duty to see they were not injured when our troops advanced, and this made it necessary for me to be in

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the front, and thereby to expose myself to the imputation of having led the troops. This has thrown me back in native estimation more, I fear, than my remaining years will enable me to recover.… But what are my sorrows compared to those of the Bishop of Waiapu (W. Williams), who had completed his quarter of a century at Poverty Bay, and after constant effort and anxiety had just begun to rest upon a settled system, with a thriving college, seven native clergymen, a Diocesan Synod meeting annually, in which the proceedings were conducted entirely in the native language… ? In the midst of these sorrows we have solid comfort in the sight of the stability of our native clergymen, who have never swerved from their duty.… The real cause of war in New Zealand has been the new Constitution, and the cause of the greater bitterness of the strife has been the new element of confiscation introduced by the colonists against the will and express orders of the Home Government.” (The argument that a Maori would feel more than anything else the punishment by confiscation might have) “some force if the Maori had committed some real crime of which he was conscious, but when he believes that the Englishman has only been waiting his time to do what he has now done, and that the land was doomed as much if the owners were innocent as if they were guilty, then confiscation becomes in their eyes simple spoliation and has none of the effect of punishment. Certainly nothing could look more like a determination to provoke a quarrel than the Waitara business.… The Hau Hau superstition is simply an expression of an utter loss of faith in everything that is English, clergy and all alike.… This is the result of seeking first ‘the other things’ except the ‘one.’… O earth! earth! earth! such has been our cry. The Queen, law, religion, have been thrust aside in the one thought of the acquisition of land.”¹

It has been seen that the liturgy of the Hau Haus was compounded partly of elements supposed to be Roman Catholic, and that Kereopa and his comrades enacted many of their orgies in a Roman Catholic chapel at Opotiki before they murdered

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Volkner. They were ruffians and fanatics, but they could see what, even if he saw it, did not repel the first Marquis of Ripon from subjugation to a foreign yoke. They knew that a recognition of the Pope of Rome was treachery not only to the Queen, but to the very essence of English freedom. Obscured, betrayed, at times wounded almost to death, yet ever again bursting from its bonds, that English freedom of Church and State which preceded and survived the House of Normandy, and was in important particulars maintained by the greatest of English monarchs (Edward I.), was repellent at all times of foreign authority. For that reason the Hau Hau Maories courted the religion of Rome as a means of breaking down the loyalty of their countrymen to the Queen. There were some Roman Catholic Maoris in the district where the Rev. O. Hadfield had laboured from 1839 until 1865. When he was supposed to be in personal danger of attack from the Hau Haus (after the murder of Volkner), the Roman Catholic Maoris offered to protect him if he would flee to them. Their “mana” would be his defence. He answered that he was ready to lay his bones at Otaki, whether after violent or natural death, but nothing would induce him to move from his post; and his gallant bearing endeared him to all his neighbours so much that with the aid of the son of Rauparaha the efforts of the Hau Haus utterly failed at Otaki.¹

The murder of Volkner revealed the savagery of which the new superstition was capable. If the fanatics could not meet European arms in the field, they could murder in the east and in the west. By singling out a pastor like Mr. Volkner in the midst of his flock, which dared not raise a voice in his favour, they had shown not only that no compunction was amongst them, but that the more eminent the victim the more grateful was his slaughter to the wild faith under cover of which they had sprung back at a bound to the savage and sickening cannibalism which had been a religion amongst them in the days of heathendom.

Where then was the centre of the new faith? Where best

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could it be sought and strangled? Its cradle was in the west, where the rape of the Waitara had led to desolation of Maori homes, but it found aliment wherever the policy of the Taranaki settlers was known. The gallant Wi Tako Ngatata went to the east coast to prevent its spreading. The settlers at Poverty Bay expressed in April, to him and his companion chiefs, their grateful sense of services conferred during his stay. “Notwithstanding that your own lives have been threatened, you have done your utmost to strengthen the hands of those who have been exerting themselves to save this district from those troubles which seemed to be coming like a flood upon it, and under the Divine blessing your efforts have been so far successful, that the influence of the Hau Hau party has very considerably diminished since the time of your arrival; and Patara and Kereopa have both left the district with their followers, having been unable to stand their ground against the opposition which has been brought to bear against them and their pernicious doctrines. May God preserve your own district from those troubles which you have shown yourselves so solicitous to avert from this.”

Ihaka Whanga at Nuhaka, and Kopu at Wairoa, local chieftains on the east coast, boldly met three hundred Hau Haus, and at great discussions in April stemmed the tide of fanaticism. At about the same time (June) Tamihana te Rauparaha foiled the Hau Hau emissaries who visited Otaki to spread their doctrines. At Sir George Grey's request Captain Luce of H.M.S. ‘Esk’ visited the chiefs on the east coast in April and May, encouraging them to remain faithful to their religion and to law and order. With Mr. Fulloon as interpreter, he attended meetings which were apparently successful in instilling confidence; but he thought the Maoris were everywhere in a state of unhealthy excitement. The Bishop of Waiapu had left in displeasure, and his departure had shamed many Hau Hau converts. The ineffable capacity of depravity in man came before Captain Luce in a strange shape. A deserter from the 57th Regiment had been a companion of the Pai Marire.

Captain Fremantle having returned in May with the ‘Esk,’ had a skirmish at Opotiki before daylight, while unsuccessfully attempting to surprise a party of natives believed to be implicated in the murder of Volkner. At Awanui, Tiwai, a friend of

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Volkner, pointed out one of the murderers, a half-caste, to two sailors disguised as Maoris, one of whom succeeded in grasping him by the hand before suspicion was aroused. He shook off his assailants and escaped amid shots from revolvers. Kereopa was in the interior. Patara with armed men held colloquy with Captain Fremantle on the 24th May. The chief “appeared quite prepared against a coup-de-main, and confident in his strength held a hunting-whip under his arm, but had evidently a pistol in each pocket.” He denied complicity in the murder, and acquiesced in a proposal that he should return to Opotiki. It was satisfactory to know that at Kawhia Rewi repelled the idea that he or his tribe had sanctioned the murder.

Mr. George Graham being about to visit Waikato, in May, volunteered to meet the king-maker and other chiefs, and persuade them to take the oath of allegiance. Sir George Grey empowered him (9th May) to assure them of his friendliness, and desire to treat them with generosity, to bring prominently before them his letter of the 16th December, 1863, promising them kind treatment after the fall of Rangiriri, and to explain the proclamation of December, 1864, proffering pardon while confiscating land. In May also the Native Land Purchase Department was abolished, and it was notified that cessions of land would be negotiated for under the Native Lands Act of 1862 (to which the Royal assent had been given on the recommendation of the Duke of Newcastle in 1863), the operation of that law “rendering the continuance of the Land Purchase Department unnecessary.” A proclamation issued in April denounced murder, cannibalism, and other revolting acts of the Hau Haus as repugnant to humanity, and called on all well-disposed natives and Europeans to aid in repressing them.

Mr. Graham saw the king-maker face to face, and weary of his country's woes the patriot, who had been baffled rather by the crimes of others than by his own mistakes, agreed to take the oath of allegiance at Tamahure before Brigadier-General Carey. The latter rode thither from his camp at Te Awamutu on the 27th May. Mr. Graham preceded the chiefs, bearing a paper written by the king-maker in these terms, which he was willing to sign under the British flag: “We consent that the laws of the Queen be the laws for the king (Maori), to be a

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protection for us all, for ever and ever. This is the sign of my making peace, my coming into the presence of my fighting friend General Carey.” When Waharoa arrived with his friends, he dismounted and walked uncovered towards Carey, who shook hands with him. The covenant was signed by the chiefs, and by Carey and by Graham. Te Waharoa said little, but he requested that the Governor would appoint a Commission to inquire into his character, which had been maligned, and would allow him to see again the face of his friend Tui Tamihana. The Governor telegraphed the submission to the Secretary of State, and wrote to Te Waharoa, who answered him from Matamata.… “All I think of is that peace is made. There is rest,— a breathing—from the weariness and fatigue of working this evil work of war. The weapons of war have been cast away.” Important no doubt was his submission, and the Hau Hau brutalities had unwittingly tended to bring it about: but as Te Waharoa had failed to restrain Rewi in 1863, so it was certain that he could do nothing to check those whom Wi Tako had called madmen when he spurned any further connection with them. It seems fitting to couple the king-maker's submission with the atrocities which conduced to it.

Sir George Grey was at Wanganui when Mr. Volkner's death was reported. Friendly chiefs there had just guaranteed to the principal chiefs at Pipiriki, full pardon from the Government on submission. One of them, Topia Turoa, had come to Wanganui on the 14th March, to consult about the guarantee. That night the murder of Volkner was made known, with the horrible addition of the orgies round the soldier's head at Pipiriki, where Topia had been an accomplice in sanctioning the expedition to Opotiki, although from his youth he had been brought up in familiarity with Englishmen. The Governor saw Topia, who said (15th March) he had no desire to be there, but had come because he was sent for. He would not take the oath of allegiance. The Governor declared that Topia was responsible for the murder by having acted as a Hau Hau priest at Pipiriki, but as he had come to Wanganui under arrangement with Hori Kingi, Mete Kingi, and others he might depart. If even now he would take the oath of allegiance the promises made by the chiefs should be respected. “To-day he may

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return up the river. To-morrow a large reward will be offered for his seizure; and if caught, he shall be tried for murder.” Topia replied: “You say that I am implicated in the murders of Mr. Hewitt and Mr. Volkner. It is correct.¹ I am implicated in them, and also in the work of the Hau Hau.” The Governor asked Mete Kingi if the chiefs knew that Hewitt's head had been at Pipiriki when they made peace there. Mete Kingi, Hori Kingi, and others said No; and Topia coolly said: “The head had passed on when Hewitt was killed; it was another head.” He added that he had made peace with Hori Kingi, but not with the Europeans. “If you choose to arrest me now, you can. I am willing to be arrested without offering resistance. Do not think to frighten me into taking the oath of allegiance by threats. I will not take it.… I quite agree with what you say about offering a reward for me to-morrow.’ The Governor said: “He had better go at once. I will have no further intercourse with him. Topia left, and the friendly chiefs endeavoured to procure his submission; but he would do nothing more till he had consulted his friends. In after years he was to render signal service to the English. By the Governor's direction a body of friendly Maoris with 200 military settlers under Major Atkinson, the Minister of Colonial Defence, took possession of Pipiriki on the Wanganui river on the 3rd April, but did not capture Topia.

The relations of the Governor with the General were about to be galling to both, and injurious to the service. In apprising the General of Mr. Volkner's death, the Governor told him that it was an ancient custom with Maoris to endeavour to draw off an enemy's forces by committing some horrible murder far away. The murder of Mr. Volkner was marked with all characteristics of that custom. The General on the 14th March attacked a body of Maoris near Patea, and drove them off with some slaughter. One European killed and three wounded, formed the English loss, while eighteen Maoris were found dead, and many more were wounded. The Governor having remarked that the submission of the natives generally might he looked for at

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an early date, the General in a friendly letter replied: “Their submission never appeared so far off as at present.” On the 17th March, he asked whether in face of probable serious loss in the attempt the immediate possession of the Waitotara block was of such consequence that he was to attack the Weraroa pah, or continue his advance to Taranaki. Sir George Grey said that the question of possession of the Waitotara block had never entered into his calculations. However important the capture of Weraroa was to prevent wrong impressions on the Maori mind, and dominate the adjacent country, in the face of the General's opinion that he had not sufficient force for the task, he could not request him to take it. There was some trouble about obtaining advances from the commissariat chest to the Wanganui militia, but the General gave the requisite orders, grumbling at the same time at the occupation of Pipiriki. If it was to be taken because Captain Lloyd's head had been exhibited there, almost every rebel settlement would have to be occupied in the island. “We have too many irons in the fire.”

In April the Governor sailed for Wellington and the east coast to make inquiries about the murderers of Mr. Volkner. On his way the Ministry advised with him not only on that subject but about rumours, that war was being carried on for the profit and gratification of the colonists, which they warmly resented. On the 7th April, Sir George Grey in a memorandum communicated to his advisers, sympathized with them, and suggested that military aid accompanied by such remarks as those of General Cameron was so undesirable, that it would be better for the colony to see the military force reduced and rely on its own resources. On the 8th, the Ministry concurred; declaring that it could not be hoped that the zeal and energy required for success in the field would be displayed by any officer, however distinguished, in support of a course branded by him with such severe reprobation. The Governor on this occasion wrote his despatch suggesting the withdrawal of troops and an Imperial guarantee for three millions, or a Parliamentary grant for four or five years, which, as has been seen, Mr. Cardwell declined to sanction. On the 4th March, without mentioning the General's comments upon the Waitotara block, the Governor

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had recommended that inquiry should be instituted with regard to the purchase, as disparaging rumours had reached him. The Ministry were willing that Sir William Martin should be appointed a Commissioner for the purpose, but they wished to know the name of the Governor's informant. When asked at a later date for his reasons for believing that the purchase was an iniquitous job, the General, whose relations with the Governor were then unfriendly, replied that it was no part of his duty to collect information on such a subject, and he declined to enter into any correspondence with the Governor about it; but he would acquaint Her Majesty's Government with the information on which he had formed his opinions. It was true that the old lust for the Waitara raged in the minds of many. The Defence Minister, Major Atkinson, was one of the Taranaki conspirators who forced upon the Government the robbery of Te Rangitake. But specific proofs were not available for the General. It was difficult for him to show how the passions of men prompted their acts. When he furnished his reasons, they were resolved into a conversation with a stranger.

Facts about the Waitotara block were laid before the New Zealand Assembly in 1863. Dr. Featherston and others indignantly repudiated the General's inferences. General Cameron should have applied his intelligence to the quarrel between the Maori and the colonist at an earlier date. If he could have averted the crossing of the Maungatawhiri he might have had no need to protest against the purchase at Waitotara. There was open rupture between the Governor and General about a private letter of the latter (30th March) concerning the Weraroa pah. To have assailed the natives in a position so advantageous to them would not have punished them. “I have no doubt they would have been delighted if we had attacked their pah, and that they have been as much disappointed at our not attacking them as you and Mr. Mantell (Native Minister) have been. What is it to Mr. Mantell¹ or to any other Colonial Minister how

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many British officers and soldiers we lose in any operation they recommend, so long as the policy they advocate is carried out. And I confess that this is a point which it appears to me has never sufficiently entered into your calculations.… I have a grave responsibility in the matter, and having already lost a great many valuable officers and men in attacking pahs I think I may be excused if I am somewhat cautious in undertaking operations of that description without the most absolute necessity.”

This imputation of carelessness of soldiers' lives had roused Sir George Grey's wrath, when, on the 7th April, he recommended his advisers to dispense with troops; and when, on the 9th, General Cameron informed him that he had sent copies of the correspondence to the Secretary for War, the Governor cast the button from his foil, regretted that such imputations should have been made against himself and the Ministry, still more that they should have been sent to England unaccompanied by any reply, and added: “You will, I am sure, feel that I cannot after this continue a private correspondence which subjects me to difficulties of this nature” (17th April). The familiar style of friendly address between the Governor and General ceased with this letter, which the latter merely acknowledged. The General was in ill humour with his campaign. He followed the Governor to Auckland to obtain definite instructions. On the 3rd May, he grumbled at the publication by the Ministry of the Governor's memorandum about rumours that the Waitotara purchase was iniquitous. Though the Governor had not pointed out the General as the author or abettor, the Ministers' personal attack on the General showed that they “were fully aware of the person to whom the memorandum was intended to refer.” He would forward copies to England to show how, while engaged in the field, he was attacked behind his back. The Governor immediately furnished the incensed soldier with copies of his despatches to Mr. Cardwell, a courtesy which, at a later date, the General declined to reciprocate, illogically averring that it was unadvisable to comply with the Governor's request at the time, and that there was nothing in the despatches of which the Governor was

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ignorant. The Governor had already said that he wished to see them, because Mr. Cardwell wrote that there was a discrepancy between the General's despatches to the War Office and those of the Governor to the Colonial Office. He informed the General that Her Majesty's Government must determine whether the General was justified in creating secretly wrong impressions, “and in now shrinking from giving me an opportunity of giving explanations regarding my proceedings (which I have been called on to furnish), by refusing to acquaint me with the statements you did not hesitate to make, but dare not produce” (10th June). The General replied that he cared not what construction his Excellency might be pleased to put upon his actions. Each blamed the other for unduly communicating, to third persons, confidences which should have been kept sacred.

At this time a very crippling blow was aimed at the position of the Colonial Government; for although Mr. Weld professed a self-reliant policy, he, like others, used Imperial troops. The Commissary-General, Jones, suggested that the presence of the Governor and two Ministers at Auckland made it convenient to settle the long open question of supplies to the Colonial Government as advances from the Imperial chest, which Mr. Jones thought might fairly come to an end in a few weeks, except in such special cases as might be, on precise application, approved by the General. The power of the colony to repay the advances seemed to Mr. Jones “very problematical.” The General concurrred with Mr. Jones, and (5th June) forwarded his letter to the Governor, proposing to cancel all existing authorities (for issues of pay and rations) on the 1st August. On the 9th June, Sir George Grey seriously presented the aspect of affairs to the General's consideration. “If you choose to cancel all the existing authorities… I cannot prevent you from taking such a course, and the colonial officers shall be instructed to afford you any information; but I think it my duty to state why I think it would be disadvantageous to the colony as well as to the Imperial Government that you should at the present time follow” such a course. Negotiations in progress should be speedily closed; the regiments to be ordered to England, and the occupation and maintenance of posts should be decided upon; and the extent to which the commissariat should assist in that maintenance

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should be determined. On the 21st June, the General intimated that he would refer the commissariat question to the Secretary for War. As to Weraroa, he had frequently explained his opinions, and the commanding Royal Engineer “fully concurred with me, that a siege of the position is not advisable at this season of the year.” The Governor told the Secretary of State that he believed no other commander in New Zealand had ever gone into winter quarters, and that it was pernicious to leave rebels undisturbed for months close to Wanganui.

General Cameron remained at Auckland, writing despatches to countervail the effect of those which Sir George Grey had sent to England. The reputation of a Governor who had earned distinction, might, he feared, overpower his representations, and on one occasion he specially sent a steamer to Australia to expedite the reading of a despatch in England. The cause of so costly an experiment was the publication, for the use of the Assembly, of the protest of the Ministry against the General's imputation that they were careless of the lives of British soldiers.¹ Despatches from Mr. Cardwell and from the War Office contemplated the sending away of five regiments from New Zealand at an early date. Mr. Cardwell wrote (26th April, 1865): “The Secretary of State for War will send no re-enforcements to General Cameron, but will repeat the instructions already given for the withdrawal of five regiments with as little delay as possible, consistently with the safe execution of my instructions to you. On your part you will confine your requirements for the assistance of General Cameron within the limits which I have prescribed.” The Governor's position was oppressive. He was

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supposed to be responsible for the intention of campaigns, and the rebel stronghold stood, idly scanned by British troops, far outnumbering the garrison. Those troops, moreover, must soon depart. The General Assembly was to meet in July. How could the Governor meet it without shame? The General would shake the dust off his feet. He had tendered his resignation in February, and in June he received permission to return to England. He had power to delay his departure, but, looking at the relations between himself and the Governor, saw no advantage in remaining. This was, he said, the fault of the Governor and his advisers. The native garrison was weakened, and in the end of June there were divided counsels in Weraroa. Rangihiwinui wrote to the Governor that a dispute between the military and the militia had impeded the surrender of the pah. The military authorities would settle no terms without consent of the General, who was in Auckland. Several chiefs carried the letter and gave explanations. Sir George Grey wrote to the General. He withdrew himself from the question of removing troops, in which the General left him no power, and begged the latter to act on his own discretion. He enclosed a ministerial minute urging the withdrawal of the troops, and complaining that the General's inaction had marred the campaign. But he did not content himself with writing. He determined to give the General a lesson in the art of war before he quitted the colony. The fiery Von Tempsky had, on the 24th June, tendered his resignation, because the army was not permitted to help him at Weraroa, in consequence of the interpretation put upon the General's orders. The Wanganui Maori contingent was indignant because restrained from attacking the pah.

At Wellington, on the 12th July, the Ministry formally announced that, on the meeting of the Assembly, they would resign. They had on the 11th, with equal formality, declared that they could not recommend an appropriation of £40 per head for Imperial forces in the colony. General Cameron's unfounded charges, and his inactivity, which marred the success of even Colonel Warre's proceedings at Taranaki, prompted the Ministry to abstain from recommending the appropriation for the troops. They based their resignation on the General's conduct. He influenced, if he did not guide, the Imperial

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Government. He conveyed hostile criticisms and imputations, and when called on for explanation or information refused to give either. They gratefully acknowledged the constitutional support and efforts of the Governor; they did not doubt the approval of the Assembly; but such an irresponsible authority as that arrogated by the General made their resignations imperative. The Governor enclosed their minute to the Secretary of State, and feared that great political embarrassments would arise. Within a week Sir George Grey was in the field before the Weraroa pah. Already it was suspected, if not known, to be weakly garrisoned. The friendly chiefs had nearly procured a capitulation. Three hundred and eighty Maori allies were camped 2000 yards from it; 130 cavalry (called Bush Rangers), with Major Von Tempsky, were encamped 800 yards from it, and Major Rookes of the militia, under whom Von Tempsky served, was in the Perikamo pah, about 400 yards from Weraroa. Brigadier-General Waddy was with the Governor. Pehimana and Aperahama, chiefs from the pah, awaited his arrival on the 17th July. They admitted that Weraroa pah was built on English property, and were willing to put it in the hands of Hori Kingi, the Wanganui chief friendly to the English. They wished for time to remove the women and children. The Governor granted it. He asked if Hori Kingi would take possession. Hori Kingi had no confidence in Pai Marire fanatics, and declined. The Governor said he would do so, and the chief must accompany him. The rebel chiefs returned to Weraroa to make preparations to receive the Governor. A white flag was flying. The Governor, General Waddy, Major Gray, Captain Bulkeley, Colonel Trevor, and Mr. Parris the interpreter, rode towards it. They were met by Maoris, one of whom inquired whether time to remove women and children would be given. “Yes, that had been arranged.” Were they to be punished for their rebellion? The Governor said all would be pardoned except murderers; and those who returned to their allegiance would be treated in all respects like the Queen's European subjects. The natives said all was satisfactory. Aperahama came out of the pah and requested the Governor and Hori Kingi to enter it. Hori Kingi rode to Sir George Grey's side, saying: “Oh Governor, do not let us go in. Ride up and touch

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the fence with your hand, and let that satisfy you. Do not let us go in.” Other natives begged him not to go in, saying that the people in Weraroa were “fanatics, given up to old customs.” Nevertheless, the Governor, Hori Kingi, Hori Kerei, and Mr. Parris, rode on. At 30 yards' distance from the pah, the Hau Hau priest came out and told the natives not to allow the cavalcade to approach nearer. Hori Kingi's keen eyes detected that the guns were prepared in the pah. Chiefs of Weraroa, friendly to the Governor, stood between him and the pah, and begged him to desist. After a time he rode away. Pehimana and Aperahama had not been treacherous, however. Failing to prevail on the garrison to surrender the pah, the former immediately gave himself up. The latter surrendered on the following morning. On the 18th, the garrison made further pretences of surrender, vainly asking the Governor by letter to send away the soldiers.

The Hau Haus did not rely only on diplomacy. Topia Turoa, who bearded Sir George Grey in March, was on the war-track. Captain Brassey, commanding at Pipiriki, was assailed. Friendly natives warned the Governor, and no time was to be lost. On the 19th July, Grey asked General Waddy if his instructions from the General permitted him to invest Weraroa. That officer replied that he could not do so without orders from General Cameron. On the same day the Governor asked if General Waddy would under the circumstances without delay establish a post of 400 men near the camp of Major Von Tempsky, and thus furnish a moral support to the local forces and friendly natives; sending also a detachment of artillery to keep down the fire of the besieged while the local forces and natives worked their way up to the assault. The brave Brigadier consented, alleging as his excuse the time that might elapse if he were to wait for the General's orders from Auckland. The available force consisted of 473 men, viz. 25 Wanganui cavalry, 139 Forest and Bush Rangers, 109 native contingent, and 200 friendly Maoris. In round numbers, therefore, two-thirds of the force were Maoris. Though perched on a high point from which precipices or steep banks descended about 300 feet to the Waitotara river and the Koie where they joined their streams, Weraroa could be commanded by still higher ground on the

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opposite or right bank of the Koie, where there was good cover for riflemen. The pah was placed rearwards to the Koie and Waitotara. Its front was strongly fortified, and palisaded rifle-pits seemed to guarantee the darling object of Maori warriors,— the certainty of inflicting loss on their enemy before quitting, if needful, their stronghold. The valleys of the Waitotara and Koie were exposed to fire from the pah, and no danger was apprehended in the rear. A pathway led across the Koie stream, and on the Karaka ridge on the other side was a redoubt built by the Maoris to cover retreat from Weraroa, and facilitate supplies and re-enforcements across the Koie valley, about 500 yards wide. Hori Kerei, to whose father the Karaka range had belonged, explained on the ground the peculiarities of the surrounding forest. At two o'clock in the morning on the 20th July the plan of attack was fixed upon. The Maori allies and native contingent officers unanimously agreed that it was sound. The Karaka height was to be occupied by surprise, a circuitous route to it being taken through dense forest; and thus Weraroa was to be rendered untenable. Early on the 20th, Colonel Trevor arrived with 100 men of the 14th, and encamped on the left front of the pah. At ten o'clock Captain Noblett brought 100 of the 18th, and pitched his tents near those of the 14th. At half-past twelve the colonial and native forces were paraded; and then, by a road unseen from the pah, moved off for the Karaka heights. The weather was cold and rainy. Major Von Tempsky was ill, and Major Rookes took command of the expedition to Karaka. The brave and intelligent Rangihiwinui accompanied him. In front of the pah was Sir George Grey with a few friendly natives, and the moral support of 200 British soldiers, aided by the empty tents which the defenders of the pah believed to be occupied. Till daybreak on the 21st the success of the Karaka expedition was unknown in front of Weraroa. Then some dropping shots announced that Major Rookes and Rangihiwinui had done their work. Cheers were heard from the height, and confusion was in Weraroa. After a march of six hours Major Rookes had gained his position. At half-past four he surprised a native village and outpost, capturing 50 prisoners with their arms, and two kegs of ammunition. They comprised a re-enforcement on the way to join the rebels

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in Weraroa. They incommoded him, and he was busy entrenching his position; he could not send them away without dangerously weakening his force. Captain Ross arrived with a letter from him at ten o'clock on the 21st. Colonel Trevor allowed some of the 14th Regiment to guard the prisoners in conjunction with 50 Maoris whom Sir George Grey told Major Rookes to send as escort. To increase the force in front of the pah, the Governor earnestly requested the Colonel in command at Patea to send 200 men immediately to place themselves under command of General Waddy, who was expected on the ground. Captain Brassey was in danger at Pipiriki, and the Maori allies were to help him after the capture of Weraroa. Sir George Grey congratulated Major Rookes.… “We shall make a sham attack on Weraroa from this side to-morrow morning at day-light, and seize a position ourselves.… P.S.—I rely on your having picked shots to give them no peace by day, and ambuscades well planted every night, so that nothing can get in or out in safety.”

To Mr. Cardwell the Governor wrote that his strategic arrangements were defective in one point of view. The force in front was too small; but “the critical position of Captain Brassey and his small force at Pipiriki made it necessary to risk a great deal, and I think that no risk greater than what ought under such circumstances to have been run was incurred.” Major Nixon reported from Wanganui that trustworthy information had arrived that 400 Hau Haus were preparing to attack Captain Brassey. Maori allies wrote to the chiefs before Weraroa: “Friends, the enemy have closed the way to Pipiriki by occupying Te Puha. They have drawn near to the Pakeha; be quick hither.” Before Weraroa the friendly chiefs viewed with alarm the smallness of the force. Blood was thicker than water, and it was felt, though not expressed, that on an emergency Colonel Trevor would convert a moral into a physical force. But the number of the garrison was unknown. Rumours described them variously, from 200 to 600 in number. To remove the just apprehensions of the chiefs, Colonel Trevor ordered up 50 men from Nukumaru, and a like number from Waitotara. Though the 200 men expected from Wanganui had not arrived, and the 200 men at Patea had only just been asked for, the

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siege was to be carried on. Colonel Trevor was ready to make his sham attack in the morning. Before sunset the best marks-men in Major Rookes' force dropped rifle-shots into the pah, using sights for a range of 600 yards. The rebels were seen to be in confusion. The Karaka heights commanded their position. They knew not how few were those permitted to fight against them; and their opponents knew not how few formed the garrison. They fled down cliffs and precipices. The Maori allies with Major Rookes perceived that Weraroa was evacuated. At daylight it was entered and handed over to Colonel Trevor by the few Maoris left within it. Far less time was spent in taking than General Cameron had consumed in writing about it, and not a man had been lost. The English knight to whom an Irish garrison surrendered when they saw him bring from the forest a charred log on wheels, which in the Plantagenet days they mistook for a cannon, had been successfully imitated by Sir George Grey, though if the garrison had been as numerous as when General Cameron declined to attack the pah, the result might have been different. The heavy guns ordered from Waitotara were countermanded. The officer at Patea was requested to keep back the 200 troops asked for on the day before. At half-past two in the morning of the 22nd the Governor wrote to Captain Brassey: “I have been in the greatest concern at your position, but have felt the utmost reliance on your courage and prudence, and on the bravery of your men. In the mean time I have risked everything here, to be able at the earliest moment to help you.… We go into the pah at daylight, and at the same hour a large force starts to rescue you. A messenger will take this to you who will manage to get through the enemy. Hold out bravely; within a few hours after you get this you will have help.”

The ‘Gundagai’ steamer and canoes carried the relieving forces. Amongst them were the chiefs Hori Kingi and Te Kepa Rangihiwinui. After the expedition had started a letter was received from Captain Brassey. It was dated 21st July, and announced that he had been attacked on the 19th, but had beaten off the enemy. Ensign Cleary and Sergeant Gourd only were wounded. There were 20 or more casualties amongst the enemy. The Hau Haus were guarding the way to Wanganui. Captain Brassey had

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promised the Maori letter-carrier £15 for taking his letter safety to Major Rookes. As some of the rebels could read English the gallant captain added this postcript: “Sumus sine rebus belli satis.” “My cry, if I could make it heard, would be—the M ! M !!” On the 1st August relief reached him. Mete Kingi, Hori Kingi, and others congratulated Captain Brassey in speeches which were published, as was also Mete Kingi's narrative addressed to the Governor. The thanks of the Governor for the conduct of all officers and men engaged in the operations were given in the warmest language. He was not doomed to win applause from his own superiors. The War Office after long incubation hatched new Orders framed to prevent a Governor from interfering, successfully or otherwise, with conduct of a campaign.¹

The Ministry on reading Mr. Cardwell's despatch of 26th April, gathering from it that “the discretionary powers recently vested in the General had reverted to the Governor,” and being informed that the General's resignation had been accepted, withdrew their own. The Governor told the Assembly that their resolutions in favour of a withdrawal of the troops had been forwarded, and that recent despatches led to an inference that such a policy would be adopted. Pending the decision of the Home Government he had determined to avail himself of the services of the troops in establishing order between Taranaki and Wanganui. “Contrary to my anticipation, however, considerable delay took place, which involved consequences fraught with disaster, and which led to fresh outbreaks in other parts of

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the colony. I therefore ordered the colonial forces to advance against the Weraroa pah—a movement which has resulted in its capture. The thanks of the colony are due to Major Rookes commanding, and to the officers and men of Her Majesty's European and native colonial forces engaged in this important operation. I also recognize the readiness with which Brigadier-General Waddy, C.B., Colonel Trevor, and the officers and men under their command, afforded me all the assistance that was in their power, though precluded by their orders from taking any active part in the operation against the enemy's stronghold.”¹ To the zeal, energy, and ability of Colonel Warre commanding the Imperial and colonial forces at Taranaki, and to the devoted courage of the loyal natives, the Governor paid high tribute. Confident in the capacity of the loyal residents he would issue orders for the return of five regiments to England. He was about to invite certain chiefs to Wellington, and to lay before the Assembly a Bill enabling him to appoint a commission of chiefs to advise upon the best means of obtaining parliamentary representation of the Maoris. (It will be remembered that Mr. Fitzgerald's proposition on the subject was only rejected by a majority of three votes by the Assembly in 1862.) The manner in which the credit of the colony was impaired by the provincial loans in the English market, with some minor matters, was submitted to the serious consideration of the Assembly. Ten new members, nearly all from the Middle Island, had been called to the Council. A Representative having made light of the capture of the Weraroa, attributing it in some degree to General Cameron's previous engagements in the neighbourhood, Mr. J. C. Richmond, the Colonial Secretary, retorted that the General had gone to Weraroa and had seen no way to take it. “Sir George Grey had at once found its weak point, acted on the discovery, and taken Weraroa without bloodshed. General Cameron had come as one of England's promising Generals. He would go back reduced to the reputation of being good enough to lead a regiment which would go anywhere without

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leading, whilst Sir George Grey would retrieve a reputation that seemed waning at home, and add to his former character that of a prompt and able General.” Cordial addresses in reply to the speech were carried in both Houses; by the representatives without a division on the 1st,—in the Council, by 20 votes against 2, on the 3rd of August. Mr. Stafford assailed the Government for making roads at the point of the bayonet. Mr. Weld retorted that the House in agreeing to the Roads Bill was pledged to enforce the making of them even at the bayonet's point. He qualified the imperiousness of his tone by urging that the representation of Maoris in Parliament should be accorded.

The General was not tardy in the new campaign allotted to him. His occupation in New Zealand was gone. He hastened to England to stir the War Office against the audacity of a civil officer in taking command in the field; a dangerous innovation, which required to be nipped in the bud. Sir George Grey reported that Colonel Warre marching southwards from Taranaki had met Colonel Weare marching northwards from Waingongoro, and trusted that these events would convince the Secretary of State that he had rightly declined to ask for more troops when importuned by the General, and that if Colonel Warre had been permitted, as requested by Sir G. Grey, to advance from Taranaki when the General marched from Wanganui, the war would have been ended, and vast colonial and Imperial expenditure saved. General Cameron in his last letter about the campaign (26th July), warned the Governor that he would address the Secretary for War on the subversion of discipline, and consequent confusion and disorder, countenanced if not encouraged by the Governor. In unhappy ignorance that Weraroa had already fallen, he defended his indolence about its capture. “All that was to be done was to make the necessary preparations, so that no time might be lost as soon as the weather admitted of the operation being undertaken. In a despatch of the 7th instant, I informed the Secretary for War that I intended to undertake the attack as soon as the weather allowed.” More than common chagrin must have possessed the writer of such a despatch when in a few days he learned that the task which he looked upon as more than could “be done”

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had been achieved without loss. If there was in the War Office a spark spretœ injuriœ auctoritatis, he would set a torch to it without delay. In his fury he would include the successful soldier, Colonel Warre. “Privately or semi-officially” he asked certain questions which Colonel Warre answered frankly. The General rejoined (26th August): “It was not without good reason that I asked you the questions, and I fully expected to find what you admit—that you have been in the constant habit of giving your opinions to the Governor and Colonial Minister freely on military subjects of every kind without my knowledge. I can hardly believe that your conduct will be approved by the authorities at home.” He left without giving Colonel Warre opportunity to explain. That officer, in self-defence, informed the Governor that he had exceeded his object when writing to the General, who had arrived at a conclusion contrary to the one intended to be conveyed. “The admissions in my letter to Sir Duncan Cameron were confined to the expression of my opinion privately on all subjects connected with the native insurrection, and in replying to questions verbally on subjects that your Excellency or Ministers, while resident at Taranaki, may have put to me. I appeal to your Excellency whether I ever presumed to offer such opinions as ‘advice,’ or whether I ever originated or suggested any military operations opposed to the known wishes or views of the late Lieutenant-General Commanding.” Sir George Grey sent the appeal to England, with his own assurance that as far as he was concerned the statement of Sir Duncan Cameron was wholly untrue, and he trusted inquiry would be made. It was “but a perilous shot out of an elder-gun that a poor and private displeasure could do” against a General still highly commended and recently knighted in England, and who as he chewed the cud of indignation on the way to Australia, so far lost temper as to write an angry letter to Sir George Grey and insert it in a Melbourne newspaper before it could reach him to whom it was addressed. He charged Sir George Grey with having told General Waddy at Wanganui that had the latter arrived before Weraroa, the Governor would have left the command in his hands. Sir George Grey admitted the charge. “I knew him to be a good and gallant soldier, anxious to do his duty; and I believed if I

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only got him into the fray, he would have fought his way well through it, whatever his orders were. The moment therefore I saw him thoroughly engaged in the affair, I should either have left the place, or have served on his staff, if he would have allowed me to do so.” The retort, by comparing Waddy to Cameron, might be effective; but risk to Imperial interests if Governors should in other places involve the Queen's troops in war without the sanction of their commanding officer was too obvious to allow it to be hoped that in this instance success would be honoured. Sir George Grey had done much, but— he had not conformed to military etiquette.

The judgment of the War Office under Earl de Grey in such a case could hardly be doubted, even by those who could not foretell the remarkable treaty of Washington in 1871, by which, under the presidency of the same nobleman, it was determined to scatter international rights and duties to the winds, and coin new terms under which England should admit having done wrong where no wrong was done, and pay a penalty so large that its receivers were unable to apply it in terms of the bond. The decision, or rather indecision, of the War Office, may be told in few words. Lord de Grey thought that Sir Duncan Cameron “had not assumed to himself any latitude inconsistent with the high position he filled” in corresponding with the War Office about the affairs of New Zealand. He admitted that Sir Duncan Cameron ought to have furnished the Governor with copies of despatches “other than those relating to discipline and military routine.” Instead of reprimanding the General for breach of propriety, of a distinct rule of the colonial service, and of a Horse Guards' circular letter (dated February, 1859), he said he would draw the General's attention to the Horse Guards' letter with a view to its being conformed to in future. Sir Duncan Cameron was, it appeared, “not acquainted with the contents of the Horse Guards' letter.” Never was there a grosser instance of a man being less wise than he seemed. Sir Duncan Cameron had left, and was known to have left, New Zealand nearly two months before this injunction was issued. For the General to disobey orders was venial. But Lord de Grey thought Sir George Grey inexcusable for showing to his Ministers the private letters in which they were traduced.

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Lord de Grey did not consider the fact that the calumniatory letters had been transmitted to himself justified their being shown to the Ministers, or published by them with their defence, and yet he himself had laid some of them before Parliament without giving Sir George Grey an opportunity of explanation. Mr. Cardwell (25th September), in forwarding Lord de Grey's inane despatch, partially modified its offansiveness to the Governor by saying that it was to be regretted that General Cameron had not observed the regulations. “One of the mischievous consequences of this departure from the rules of the service on his part, probably has been that you, not unnaturally, have suspected that reports had been made unfavourable to yourself and your Ministers to a greater extent than you will find to have been the case.” Mr. Cardwell, assuming that General Cameron's version was correct, pointed out that when the confiscation measures were objected to by the General, the Governor ought to have referred the matter to England, with the General's comments, so that the Secretary or Secretaries of State might decide the matter. It was perhaps impossible to do otherwise than assume the truth of General Cameron's statement that the proclamation of 17th September, 1864, confiscated so much land as to render necessary an augmentation of troops in New Zealand, and was therefore unwise. But by the return mail Sir George Grey forwarded a minute written by the General on the 16th December, 1864, upon a map showing the confiscated lands. The minute declared to the New Zealand Ministry what in the General's opinion “might fairly be considered as conquered territory.” Of two lines, denoted by him, the one selected in the proclamation of the 17th December was that which included least land. How then, asked Sir George Grey, could he suppose that the General objected to the proclamation, and why was he left in ignorance that on the 7th January, 1865, the General had written to the Secretary for War to complain of the terms of the proclamation, which were as much his own measures as the Governor's? The reader need not be wearied by further beating out of the question. The Governor wrote despatch after despatch, which Mr. Cardwell curtly acknowledged and referred to the War Office. Lord de Grey received an explanation from General Cameron, but “did

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not think it necessary to send a copy” to Mr. Cardwell, considering “that the time had arrived for putting an end to the painful dispute.” In vain did Sir George Grey appeal for vindication of his character. Lord de Grey's stolidity was more impregnable than the Weraroa pah. When the irate Governor so far officially forgot himself as to stat