Sir George Grey’s Work

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 208, 30 May 1936, Page 21

Sir George Grey’s Work

When Sir George Grey was appointed Governor of New Zealand in 1545, lie found the Maoris in conflict with Hie Queen’s troops, and lie immediately realised that he could neither successfully govern, nor hope to conciliate this numerous and turbulent lieople with whose language, manners, customs, religion and inodes of thought lie was totally unacquainted, unless lie learned to understand them. Although furnished with able interpreters, he found lie could only imperfectly perform his duties. With astonishing perseverance (for there was no Maori dictionary published at that time) he set himself to learn the , language. Soon, however. a new difficulty presented itself. The older, least civilised chiefs frequently quoted fragments of ancient poems or proverbs, or made allusions which rested on an ancient system of mythology, and it was clear that the most important facts of tbeir communications were embodied iu these figurative poems. Again Sir George Grey tackled an almost superhuman task, collecting these old poems and legends. For more than eight years he worked at the task, and had collected a vast mass of information when the whole fruits of his labour were destroyed in tlie lire at Government House. Again he started and the result has been priceless volumes of Maori lore. In pursuit of this task, Sir George Grey collected, by 185 S, 301 volumes in the Maori language aud 223 manuscripts. Many of the manuscripts were written at the dictation of celebrated old chiefs. Probably no. such collection of materials for illustrating tlie history of a barbarous race lias ever before been made. — I’.W.C. (Wanganui).