A REMARKABLE CAREER.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 223, 21 September 1898, Page 5

A REMARKABLE CAREER.

The majority of the men, however, fcoon showed themselves unable or un■wiUing to press forward with.-the rapidity which the leader saw to be absolutely necessary in order to save the lives" of the party; and after a ■weekjduring which only seventy miles had been accomplished,, Lieut. Grey determined to take the four strongest men of the party and the native, and to push on to Perth by forced marches for the purpose of sending back assistance to the others. After giving careful directions to Mr Walker, the surgeon, whom he left in command of the remainder of the expedition, he set out. The narrative of this journey is one of the most stirring records of Australian exploration, and ii is a pity that the two volumes in -which lieutenant Grey embodied the records of these expeditions hav.e not been reprinted. We cannot follow the explorers on their perilous march; suffice it to say that, after narrowly escaping a horrible death in the desert from thirst, Lieutenant Grey and his companions did reach Perth in safety on April the 20th, and the intrepid leader sent on effective assistance to his comrades in the wilderness, all oi whom were rescued except a yotith named Smith. Lieut. Grey's condition upon arrival was deplorable. The Governor" he says, "could scarcely credit his sight Avhen he beheld the miserable object that stood before him- but in this, as in all other instances in whirli I have knoAvn him, the goodness of his heart shone conspicuous. Not only was every kindness shown me, but immediate steps were taken to forward assistance tc those who were still in the bush Having thus far performed my duty, j retired to press a bed once more, hay ing for nearly three consecutive months slept in the open air, on th« ground, just at the spot where mj day's hardship had terminated, be changed was I that those of nrj friends, who had heard of my arnva and were coming to congratulate m< passed me in the street, whilst other; to whom I went up and held out mj hand drew back with horror, and said 'I beg your pardon, who are you? Theh expedition resulted in the dis covery of the Gascoyne, Murchison Hutt, Bowes, Buller, Chapman, ween houe-h, Irwin, Arrowsmith, and Smitl Eivers. which, together with the larg< district of Victoria, Western Australia, *lia, and the Victoria ranges, still beai the names assigned to them by ther. first discoverer. GOVERNORSHIP OF SOUTH AUS THALIA. The capacity displayed by Lieut Grey (who had now attained to th< rank of captain) in these expedition! was not overlooked by the Imperia Government, and after his return tc England the Governorship of Soutl Australia was offered to him ,that col ony being then in a desperate condi tion. He presented himself at Go vernment House, Adelaide, on the 12tl of May ,1841, and discharged the em barras'sing duty of informing Colone Gawler, the Governor .that he hac come to supersede him. The greatesi political excitement prevailed at the time, Governor Gawler's drafts having been dishonoured by the Secretary o: State. The new Governor took n hand the reformation of the colonia finances in a manner that Avas characteristic of his energy and resolution He reduced the colonial expenditure from £150,000 a year to £40,000. Th< liberated labour found its way upoj: the. land, and in November, 1841, tht young Governor was able to repori that the colony was in a prosperous condition, and agriculture rapidly progressing, a condition of affairs which continued up to the time wher Captain Grey was ordered by the Imperial Government in 1844 to proceec to New Zealand for the purpose oi settling the serious troubles which beset these islands, where the Colonial Government was engaged in a struggle for existence against the rebellious Northern natives under Hone Heke. While in South Australia, Captain Grey married the daughter. of Sir E. W. Spencer, Government Eesident at Albany, Western Australia, and their only child lies buried in 'Adelaide. After leaving- New Zealand in 1853, an unfortunate estrangement occurred between Sir George and Lady Grey, which resulted in then complete separation. A reconciliation took place about a year ago. HEKE'S WAE. Captain Grey, - charged with th« responsibility of taking over the Governorship of New Zealand fron Captain Mtzroy, landed at Aucklanc on the 14th November, 1845. -He i:a fused new vigour into the military operations against the rebel natives Within a week of his arrival he wai at the Bay of Islands directing opera tions against the strongly fortifiec pa at Euapekapeka, held by a numer ous force of rebel natives under tin old Maori warrior Kawiti, and by th< 11th of January, 1846, the pa hac fallen into the hands of the British Heke's power was broken, Kawiti wai . suing for peace, and the war wai virtually ended. The natives wen met in so generous a spirit that peac( in the populous native districts Nortl of Auckland has. never since beei disturbed. ' . The Governor had other pressing matters to attend to. The colony was virtually bankrupt. He re organised its finances, paid off the debentures issued by Captain Fitzroy stopped the sale of arms to natives and private trafficking ,in Maori lands and organised a Maori police undei European officers. He employed the natives upon public works, including the erection of a stone Avail arounc the military barracks (now turned into the Albert 'Park), as a place oi refuge for the inhabitants of the town in the event of any future di& turbance. The settlers in the outskirts oJ Wellington were living in constani peril through the depredations oi hostile, natives under the leadership of Eangihaetea, with whom the greal 1 fighting chief Eauparaha was ir ! alliance. The new Governor tool< prompt measures to stop outrages and restore order. Embarking or 1 H.M.s. Calliope, and accompanied by the Driver, he swooped doAvn on Eauparaha at Porirua and took him captive. This decisive act struct terror into the rebel camp ; Kangi- ! haetea was driven into the forest and his followers scattered. In April, 1847, a family named Gilfillari was ' murdered and the tOAvn. was threatened by hostile natives. The Governor proceeded there with a force of 500 men, and, having driven the rebels into the forest, he established strong outposts to guard the settlement. He then adopted measures for the promotion of a better disposition among the natives toAvards the settlers. 3Se established the pensioner settlements around Auckland for the defence of ifche town. Within two years after

liis arrival peace was completely restored throughout the colony, and remained unbroken thenceforward until after the Governor had taken his departure from New Zealand in 1853. The Governor turned his atteirrfon to the study of the Maori language and mythology, and his collection of tales and legends is 'still the most valuable work on the subject extant. Accompanied by Bishop SeVwyn, he travelled throughout the North Island- He set himself to win the confidence of the aborigines, and i succeeded so completely that on his i departure farewell addresses abounding in expressions : of. regret poured in upon hini from all parts of the country. GREY'S ACTION IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS. . With Bishop Selwyn, Captain Grej made a cruise through the Pacific Islands, and he strongly urged upor the Imperial Government the impor tance of annexing them. Tonga Tahiti, and New Caledonia might thei have been easily secured. The Nev Hebrides Group! was actually includec in Captain Grey's first commission ai j Governor. By chance, he landed ii New Caledonia three days after th< French had taken possession, anc remonstrated so Strongly with ths French commander. that the lattei deferred the erection of any building until the matter could be referred t( the Home authorities. The appeal however, was in vain, for Franci remained in possession. GPvEY'S CITIL ADMINISTRATION Sir George Grey early came intc conflict with the land-grabbers o those days. They had succeeded ii worrying Governor Hobson, to death but in the new ruler they had t< deal with a man of different mettle He found that large tracts of lane around Auckland had been acquire* ■ illegally. These lie contested in thi Supreme Court and the grants wen annulled. He. also challenged th< claims of a number of missionaries government officers, and others wh< had purchased land in excess of th limit of 2,560 acres prescribed by thi Act under which the first Land Com mission was set up, but the Supreme Court sustained these titles. Hi action in cutting down the lam claims of missionaries and specula tors, stopping private purchases am resisting the exorbitant demands o the New Zealand Company, brough him into conflict with the most important ■tant settlers in the colony, and hi administration, as may be supposed was strongly resisted not only ty those, whom it affected in New Zea land but by their powerful allies h England. He incurred the inveterate hostility of the Canterbury Associa tion by upsetting their scheme uncle which they proposed to endow th : Church of England in that distric 1 with £2,400,000 to be raised by th allotment of £1 per acre out of th proceeds of the sale of 2,400,000 acre of land which had been made a gif to them under the Imperial Aci and which they determined t< dispose of at an upset price o not less than £3 an acre. .Gre^ objected to this system, as shut ting the poor out from the possessioi of land, and compelling others t( contribute to the support of a churcl which they disliked. He had extin , guished the native title over the land; : of the South Island for a very smal sum of money, and he divided thesi • into hundi-eds, reducing the price o ' good land to 10s and poor land tool per acre. These regulations, whicl were intended to liberate the land were grossly abused after Sir Georgi Grey's departure from the colony The General 'Assembly passed i statute which handed over the Crowi lands to the administration of th( Provincial Councils, and large areas rapidly passed, by one device anc another, into the hands of influentia persons. This misappropriation o the lands of the colony was one o: the first abuses attacked by Sii "George Grey upon his return to pub lie life in 1374. In 1846 the Imperial Parliament acting under" the influence of the Nev Zealand Company,, passed a constitu tion for the colony, the provisions o: which involved a breach of faith wit] the natives by destroying their rights in the land g\iaranteed under tin Treaty of Waitangi. It also handec the colony over to a small ruling class, dominated by the Company anc its agents. The receipt of this measure and instructions placed tlj( Governor in a very trying position He had to choose between the alter natives of disobeying the Colonia [ I Office and thus imperilling his chanci s of promotion on the one hand, anc I breaking faith with the natives oi the other, besides handing over th< • colony and its people tp the tende] mercies of a set of land-grabbers ; He undertook the responsibility o: ! suspending the constitution, and ad I vanced such excellent reasons for hi: action that it ■ v>;as withdrawn, anc five years later gave place to th< ' broadly - based liberal institution! '. which the colony now enjoys. The New Zealand constitution, ai ; originally drafted by Sir George Gre? 3 and transmitted to the Imperia [ Government, was based . upon th< I constitution of . the United States J The most essential divergence fron 1 that model was, that instead of th< 1 States being paramount within cer , j tain limits, part of their power wai I i bestowed upon the central legislature In the New Zealand constitution the General Assembly was made supreme ! and had the right to limit the powers 1 of the provinces or to repeal then ! altogether, as ultimately happened • The safeguard of the Provjncia Councils, which was provided undei \ the constitution as drafted by Si] | George Grey, consisted in a provisioi by which the Legislative .Council was ! to be elected by the members of th( ' Provincial Councils. Sir John Paking ' ton destroyed the harmony of the ' constitution when he struck out thai . provision and substituted a nominated ; Upper House. The result is a mattei '. of historjr. ' While lying iil at Taranaki in 1850 1 Sir George Grey drafted the constitu' 1 tion under which the Church of Eng- \ land in New Zealand has worked sc ' successfully. 1 The final enactment of the New 1 Zealand constitution was the crowning work of Sir George's first eigh.l ' years' term as Governor of New 1 Zealand. He made arrangements foi ■ summoning the Provincial Councils ' and General Assembly and left New • Zealand for England at the end oi 1853.

SOLDIER, EXPLORER, STATESMAN

AND LITTERATEUR.

STORY OF HIS LIFE

The announcement of the death of the Rig-lit-Hem, Sir George Grey, ,P.C.,K.C.8. ? D.C.L.,ete., in London yesterday will produce a general feeling of regret, throughout New Zealand. His venerable figure was so long familiar in our streets, and his eloquent words have moved so many hearts, that thousands of young New Zgalanders will carry recollections of his striking personality far into the coming- century, while the impress of his mind has j become indelibly stamped upon the constitution and laws of New Zealand. Indeed every colony of Australasia has felt the influence of his genius. Perhaps no better evidence of this j could be afforded than the unchallenged acceptance by the recent Federal Convention of the principle of "'one man one vote" as the basis of the federal system of representation. Seven years ago Sir George Grey's reiterated addresses oh this subject were treated by the first Convention with a supercilious disregard. Pie appealled from the assembled legislators to their political masters, the electors, and stirred up the masses of the people in the great cities of Australia as they had never been moved before over this fundamental principle of manhood suffrage. The effect was magical. One Government afteranother placed 'one. man one vote' at the head of their projected constitutional reforms, and the system has been adopted in all the Australasian colonies.

To a lesser bi.it still considerable number of New Zealand colonists their recollections of Sir George Grey ■will be of a more or less intimate friendship. During his long residence in New Zealand he was at all times accessible to men and women in every station of life. Courteous with that graceful courtliness which.' savoured rather of the beginning of the present century than the breezy off-handed-ness of its close, he would lend a sympathetic ear to everyone who sought his advice and assistance. Always a student and collector of literary and art treasures, a chat with him on books was a pleasure not easily forgotten. His knowledge of rare 'editions, their value, the number of copies in existence, and their present locations, was really astonishing, considering the extent to which his thoughts had been occupied with momentous affairs of the State. In this versatility, as well as his eloquence, he resembled that other Grand Old Man, whose death a. few months ago evoked expressions of sorrow throughout the civilised world. • The munificent gifts of Sir George Grey to Auckland and to Cape Colony will be a perpetual memorial of his cultured literary tastes and liberality. _ To sketch even in bare outline a life that has extended over more than four score years and been so full of stirring incident is no easy task within the brief space at our disposal, lne reader who takes an intelligent interest in the great State questions and important events in which Sir George Grey played prominent parts should read, that interesting- work, '•Life and Times of Sir George Grey, by W. L. and Lily Bees...We can do no more here thari epitomise the cardinal features in the career of the deceased statesman. The story oi his life, as told in the book mentioned, will, however, well repay those who dip into its instructive pages. BIRTH AND EARLY CAREER.

Sir Georo-e Grey was born at Lisbon, tins sad event wan conveye ■ t°*g* Grey in a tragic way. While si""l^ oT the balcoV of a house m the

Portuguese capital with several other officers' wives, she overheard one of a group of officers who were riding by tell another how Colonel Grey had been mortally wounded in the attack on Badajoz. ■ The poor lady fainted. Under such circumstances it is perhaps remarkable that the bereaved young- wife subsequently dedicated' her son to the military profession. This seems, however, to have accorded with the desires of the ardent lad when he was able to express an opinion on the subject, and after an education, in the course of which ho profited a good deal from a fortunate association with Dr. Whately, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, George Grey was entered as a cadet at the military college, Sandhurst. Here he distinguished himself, especially in mathematics, military engineering, and languages, and after winning the highest certificates conferred by Sandhurst College he was appointed subaltern of the 83rd Regiment. As ensign of the 83rd George Grey was quartered at Glasgow, and later on in Ireland. The four years spent in the latter country made a great impression Tipon his mind and permanently influenced his life. The abject poverty witnessed on every side appealed to his sympathetic natureand his thoughts were turned towards the agrarian problem, which then,as now, baffled the wisom of English statesmen. EXPLORATIONS IX AUSTRALIA Sir George Grey in later years used to say that his desire to' travel in foreign parts was first excited by the tropical fruits he purchased as a child from a stall kept by an old woman in 'Change Alley, London. However this may have been, there is no doubt that the tedium of barrack life was -unbearable to a man of his ardent temperament. In 183G, having obtained the rank of lieutenant, the young soldier, in conjunction with a comrade, Lieutenant Lushington, submitted proposals to the Geographical Societj- for an expedition to explore the country north of Swan River, Western Australia. The matter was brought under the notice of Lord Glenelg, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and was accepted b} r the Imperial Government. The plan, however, was afterwards altered by malting the starting point somewhere in the vicinity of Prince Regent's River on the north-west' coast, and to be directed towards the Swan.

It may be mentioned as a fact which possesses special interest at the present moment that' while Lieutenant Grey and his comrade were busy at Plymouth preparing for their departure in H.M. Beagle, King William IV. died, and they heard the Mayor of Plymouth publicly read the proclamation announcing the accession of Princess Victoria as Queen of England. It has been permitted to the aged eyes of this great Englishman to witness' the celebration of the 60th year of the reign of the Queen in whose service he held so distinguished a position through a long lifetime. He has also lived to see the policy which he resolutely advocated in South Africa, in defiance of the opinions of the Little Englanders who held supreme authority in the Queen's counsels for the moment, fully vindicated. Seeing these things he has not been without his reward.

The expedition for the exploration of Western Australia embarked in H.M. Beagle for the Cape of Good Hope in July. 1837, Lieutenant Grey having chief command. At the Cape he hired the schooner Lynher, of 140 tons, and after his party had been landed at the spot selected, he despatched the vessel to Timor for ponies, occupying the interval during her absence in minor explorations and in preparation for pushing on into the interior. While so engaged,' Lieut. Grey sustained a severe spear wound from the weapon of one of a large body of natives who had been emboldened to attack the strange visitors in consequence of the cowardice exhibited by one of the two men who were accompanying Lieut. Grey in.a forward survey of the country. The man, coming- suddenly upon a native with a spear, had turned tail and run, when the whole howling pack came pell mell after him. For some time the life of the leader hung in the balance, and the further advance of the expedition was suspended. After resting- until his injuries were partially healed, Lieut. Grey pressed forward and penetrated a considerable distance inland, discovering the Glenelg River in the course of his advance, but weakness compelled him to return and go to the Mauritius to recruit.

Lieutenant Grey re-embarked from the Mauritius for the Swan River on the 18th September, 1838, intending to consult Sir .James Stirling, Governor, with regard to prosecuting further explorations on the north-west coast. Being delayed for five months in the expectation of getting the use of the Colonial Government schooner, he occupied his time with exepditions into the little known country north and south of Perth, and cultivated friendly relations with the aborigines, to such good effect that he was able to compile a vocabulary of the different dialects spoken in those parts. Finally, disappointed with regard to the Government schooner.he arranged with a whaler to take himself and party, together with three whaleboats, to Shark Bay, about GOO miles north of Perth, where he proposed to establish a provision depot on one of the islands," and from that point explore the bay and make expeditions along the coast and into the interior.

Misfortune dogged this expedition also. After the whaler had landed the party on Bernier Island, and the stores were buried in what was believed to be a secure position, Lieut. Grey set ou.t with the intention oi: searching for water on the mainland and upon another island. A phenomenal storm arose, in which one of the whaleboats was wrecked and all the stores in it lost, the crew barely escaping with their lives. Proceeding to the mainland* the party discovered a good supply of water in a fine river which Lieutenant Grey named the Gascoyne. sAfter a detention of eight days by a storm, which made it impossible to again launch the boats through the surf ,the party returned to their provision depot, where they discovered, to their dismay, that a tidal wave had completely altered the configuration of the island and washed away their stores. After carefully weighing the pros and cons of the situation created by this disaster, Lieutenant Grey decided to attempt the journey in his two whaleboats, but adverse weather prevailed, and more than once the frail craft were all but swamped. Finally they were wrecked in crossing the heavy surf at Gautheaume Bay. There was "no alternative now but to attempt the journey overland,and under date April 2nd we find the leader writingl in his journal: "We were now all ready to commence our toilsome journey; the provisions had been shared out,' twenty pounds of flour and one pound of salt provisions per man was all that was left. What J have here

designated by the name of flou v r was quite unworthy of being1 so called; it was of a dark yellowish brown colour, and had such a sour fermented taste

that nothing but absolute necessity could induce anybody to: eat it. The party, however, were in high spirits; they talked of a walk of three hundred miles in a direct line throilg'h the country (without taking hills, valleys, and necessary deviations into account) as a trifie.and in imagination were already feasting at home ,and taking their ease after the toils they had undergone."