THEIR INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS

Evening Star, Issue 20316, 26 October 1929, Page 25

THEIR INDIVIDUAL CHARACTERISTICS

The remarks here presented are-pur-posely scaled in diminuendo, for the reason that the recollections of the early Governors call for tiie greater strengthening if all are to be treated with equal justice There were capable Governors from the very first. SENSITIVE AMD OVER-WORRIED Some readers who havo not read enough may be disposed to question the capability of Governor Hobson, to argue from the records that he was of irritable temper, unduly swayed by Lieutenant Shortland, his Colonial Secretary, and anything but a strong ruler There is no doubt that he died an unpopular man. The Aucklanders grumbled because he did not sanction large public expenditure; at Wellington he was blamed for not fixing the seat of government at Port Nicholson. Time has, however, done Hobson justiee. It is remembered that he was made Governor' of a country that had to 'be acquired, and that he quickTy established friendly relations with the Maoris.’ Also,- that'ho called “Halt” to the land sharks who claimed to have bought forty-six million acres. Tljeso arid ■ other- for the cure of which he, had no precedent to follow and but very meagre instructions to consult, weighed heavily on-'his mind,

land, being, physically delicate, they I made him a sick man. pauuysis threatening and partially attacking him. He was worried by all sorts ui things, and in very bad health at the time ho convened a meeting in Auckland to adopt a cougiatuiatory address to the Queen upon the birth of a princess, he to oe in me cnair. His opponents prepared an address ol their own, and it was moved as an amendment at ins meeting. Hobson not unnaturally regarded this as a gross personal insult. Ho took it to heart, and thus was induced the culmination of the disease that caused his death on September ID 1842, aged forty-nine years. An Auckland paper stated that the inadvertent administering of a wrong medicine caused the final shock. It is significant that Hobson was highly esteemed by the Maoris . who knew him. Gisborne records the- fact that in a petition from chiefs to the Queen for another Governor appeared the sentence: “Let, him be a good man, as this Governor ivho has' just died.” The words mean much when written of the man who had to enforce dominance over a previously-untamod people—a man, moreover, who by his Navy training was not accustomed to a “ beg pardon ” form ol approach. Opponents and Friends agreed that Hobson was personally a kind man. The portrait of him , in Brett’s * Early New Zealand ’ bears that out, his facial expression betokening benignity almost to the feminine degree. A BULL AT A GATE Captain Fitzroy was' also a Navy man, but of a different type. He bon peed in upon the scene, prepared apparently to lord it s at once, and is pictured as hasty and arrogant, resentful of opposition. The first news ot his appointment was when the ship Ursula arrived in September of 1843. Mr • Francis Dillon Bell, one ol her passengers, gave it out. Mr Bell had been in the New Zealand Company’s employ at Home. Another passenger on the Ursula was Mr H. S. Chapman, afterwards a judge of the Supieme Court. Captain Fitzroy had previously served in New Zealand waters. He was at the Bay ot Islands in 1835 as captain of the brig Beagle, when she was making her surveying voyage with Charles Darwin as naturalist. At the time of Pitzroy’s appointment he resided in England, and held a seat ,in the House of Commons. He came, out in the barque Bengalee, arriving at Auckland on December 2(5, 1843. The inhabitants gave him a painful picture of the state of affairs in and about Anckland--the bankruptcy of the local government, the suspension of land sales, the stoppage of immigration, and so forth. Proceeding to Wellington, he got another cold douche. The residents there were frankly unfriendly to him. because his evidence before a Parliamentary Cora- i mittee in 1833 had given rise to the | belief that he would side with the i Maoris against the New Zealand Companv in regard to land disputes. Fitzroy retaliated sharply. _ ■At < a meeting he administered this withering reprimand to Edivard Gibbon Wakefield: “I strongly disapprove and.very much regret everything you have written and done regarding the missionaries and the Natives—your conduct has been most indiscreet.” He also told the magistrate who signed the warrant for the arrest' of ’ Raupnraha and Rangintea (the deed which led to the Wairau maa'-ncreV that the warrant wa* informal He presided-at a conference Wwoop Maoris and Europeans to hear both sides of the dispute that preceded the massacre He offlciallv declared that the English were wrong in the first place hy building upon land to which they had not established their claim. The settlers became verv ungrv at what they considered the condoning

I of murder, and this with other causes ( of discontent culminated in a monster j petition (twenty Seven pages of 100 - I scap) by the settlers ol Wcllingtoiij i Nelson,'New Plymouth, and Wanganui to the House of Commons asking for Fitzroy’a removal. A public meeting at Wellington also demanded his recall. The recall was. however, decided on two months earlier than the meeting. In June of 1845 a debate about New Zealand took place in the Imperial Parliament, during which the • Government 1 announced that a despatch had been ' already se’nt recalling Fitzroy for waiving the Crown’s right of pre-emption over Maori land and creating a new currency by issuing a variety of debentures from 5s upwards and declaring them legal tender. The recall hurt Fitzroy very much, particularly ns it came just when he hoped to strike a decisive blow and end the war that began by Honi Heke cutting down the flagstaff at Kororareka. Ho was just and honourable, but not suited to the position. A SELF-DETERMINING RULER Governor Grey, formerly a captain in the Army, was transferred from the governorship of South Australia to that of New Zealand—chosen, presumably, because of tlfo success of his explorations in South Australia and his sagacious methods, of dealing with tho Australian aboriginals. Ho reached Auckland on November 14, 1845, In

3 the East India Company’s war steame Elphinstone, and at once made his ability known. During the first mont] he called in the State debentures, re stored the Crown’s pre-emption of Na tive lands, stopped the sale of arms founded a contingent of friendl; Maoris, and reduced the belligeren' chiefs Heke and Kawiti to submission thus permanently ending strife to tin north of Auckland; and lator on when Native disturbances broke on round about the Wellington district li3 rose to each emergency, showinj great ability in military affairs and ii securing the peace of the country am the progress of settlement. Ho lab cured unceasingly for the good of tin Maoris, conciliating them by gooc faith and awing them by swift punish incut for insurrections. Some settlers thought he leaned to< much to the Maori side. _ They mad( tho most of that as a grievance, anc thus augmented the outcry againsj Grey because he had to impose addi tional taxation and curtail public ex penditure. He was also blamed foi the delay in granting a representative Constitution to New Zealand, it beinj urged that his love of despotic' powei caused him to prefer that it shoulc remain a Crown colony. Be it romeim bered. however, as stome answer tc Grey’s opponents, that the Constitution eventually granted to New Zealand was framed mainly on a plan thal ho proposed. And further evidence as to his holding tho confidence of the Colonial Office is found in the faef that he was recalled from New Zealand to take what was deemed to be a higher position, that of Governor at the Cape, it being thought by tho Imperial authorities that his sagacious dealings with the Maoris proved him to be the man to allay asperities and irritation that were the outcome ol the Kaffir war. Grey’s actions at the Capo justified that belief, but in the Colonial Office interfered with his administration, and he resigned, going back to England. • , I “ WAIT-A-BIT " I His successor. Colonel Thomas Gore Browne, commanded the -list Regiment during the Afghan campaign of 1842. Prior to coming here he was Governor of St Helena, where his duties wore not difficult.. The New Zealand apjvointment landed him in a sea of troubles, and it is commonly '■.supposed that they preyed upon - his nervous and sensitive temperament; hut his conscientiousness and high sense of honour enabled him to conceal his own feelings and play his part manfully under difficult if not impossible conditions, arising chiefly from tho lack of proper provision for the management of Native affairs in the time when the Constitution was first established. His administration was not wholly based on tho responsible system. The Maoris were not then represented in the Legislature. Matters affecting them wore declared the business of the Crown through the Governor—a twoheaded arrangement- that could not succeed, for the Governor had nominal control, whilst the Ministers hold the purse strings. The outcome was that Browne was forced to give way in some things to his Ministers and thus drift to some extent to the status of a party man, eve* looking for compromises. His usefulness as a constitutional Governor was thus destroyed. His political adversaries nicknamed him “Wait-a-bit.” He must have folt relieved when his term expired, for from all that 1 saw of him when 1 was a boy, and from what the people at largo said about him. he was courteous, imt, and of the shy typo, ever seeking in vain for peaceable solutions of impossible situations. GREY’S TIRELESS LABOURS Sir George Grey—knighted during his first Governorship—returned in 1861 and administered the stabilised Constitution for seven years. He found plenty to do. The wars alone would have kept any ordinary Governor busy, and as he was not an ordinary Governor, hut on the contrary, one who wanted to govern in everything, he suffered war worries partly of his own making, springing from disagreement with General Duncan Cameron. At the same time he was incessantly involved in complicated questions as to the Maoris’ rights and wrongs, and to understand the workings of the Native mind ho studied them as no other Governor ever did, before or since. Be fashioned and got adopted land regulations of a comprehensive character, and he added to his labours by doing all he could to consolidate the Provincial Councils. He was an indefatigable worker, and thus made himself known throughout the colony . He had the qualities of a groat statesman. He was in advance of his age, and in consequence aroused bitter dislike in men wh'» did not see so far ahead. But to the majority of those who knew him he was a fascination. His courtly manner, his profound knowledge, his gift of oratory, his personality—these were the things that set him on a pinnacle. He captured me quite early in my lif-i I was at the time (about 1863) on of tho runner-boys of the ‘ New Zealander,’ the morning paper owned by Williamson and Wilson._ One dark and wet morning, when going through the park grounds of the Government House to deliver the regular parcel of five papers, 1 saw a man sauntering about between the trees. Fearing a theft, for newsboys in those days were occasionally stuck up, 1 ran to the box near the housekeeper’s door, and was thrusting in the papers when the Inrker came up and bade me give him one I refused, and pushed in the parcel, whereupon he unlocked the box and helped himself. I rang the hell violently, and upon the housekeeper opening the door 1 told her to bear witness to the robbery. She burst into laughter and explained that the “thief” was Sir George. He joined in the laughter, patted me on the back for defending mv rights, explained that it was his habit to rise at. daybreak and'saunter about, and thereupon kept talking to me in such a. charming man- i

ner that I was half an hour late on the rest of my run. Every day after that he used to meet me at the gate and delay mo so much- that I had to resort to devices to dodge him, since 1 was always in a hurry. The annulling of his appointment was a peculiar bit of business. In a despatch on some current subject he was notified, as it were incidentally, that his successor was appointed, and would arrive in a month’s time. No reason was given, and as there was no legal limit to his term of his office Grey could not have been prepared for the dismissal. William Gisborne, in his ‘ Rulers and Statesmen,’ declares it to have been a discreditable manoeuvre on the part of the Horae Government. Sir George retired to his home at Kawau until 1875. when the provincial institutions were threatened, and he came forth as their champion. Ho was elected Superintendent of Auckland. and also as a member of the House of Representatives. In 1877 ho became Premier, and in that capacity also displayed ability in support ,ol democratic and advanced principles. But it was as Governor that he showed himself great. One of his later appearances in Dunedin was to unveil the Burns Statue in the Octagon. In some respects Grey might be likened to Wellington- there wore mi each the same self-soreness, decisiveness, and inscrutability. In Grey’s case the terra “ inscrutability ’’ is not to be interpreted in its malicious sense. If lie was incapable of being searched into it was because he walked alone, well nut in front, and needed not to consult his followers as to the right road. Like Wellington, too. Grey was born in Ireland. but so far as I know the honour of being an Irishman was never claimed for him. (To be continued.)