THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. FEIDAY, APRIL 22, 1892.

Inangahua Times, Volume XVI, Issue 302, 22 April 1892, Page 2

THE Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED DAILY. FEIDAY, APRIL 22, 1892.

It is but natural that Sir George Grey should be the recipient of congratulations from all parts of Australasia on the occasion of his 80th birthday. He has devoted a long life to the service of his fellow-men, and though he has repeatedly incurred the hatred that is sure to fall to men who are. in advance of their day, the effluxion of time has almost invariably served to turn enemies to friends. Sir George has many times been charged with Utopian ideas, and his oft-quoted reference to " the unborn millions " never fails to provoke the sneers of the cynic. Nevertheless the sentimental odour imparted to New Zealand politics by the presence of Sir George has a very beneficial effect. The goal he aims at is worth striving for even if it be impossible to reach. Often a young man begins life with a high opinion of human nature and full of confidence as to the possibility of increasing the sum of human happiness ; but as he grows old the sentiment dies. He becomes hardened by the battle, and he looks back at the sanguine dreams of youth with a shudder at his simplicity. Sir George Grey is altogether different. The haunting visions of higher possibilities are as fresh in the mind of the man in his eighties as when he was in his twenties. He is as hopeful of the future as ever, and he speaks in anticipation of the " good time coming " with the fond enthusiasm of early manhood. His ideas may be jeeied at as absurd, but his venerable age surrounds them with a halo of respect, and gives them in the popular mind an air of practicability. Even his enemies are compelled to admit the nobility of his ideal, and wo have little fear that the verdict of posterity on Sir George will very different from that of many of his contemporaries. Those who only know him as a philanthropist may

not expect to find in him the most indomitable physical courage and fertile resources "\vligu occasion needs. A' slight kuowlodgo of the life and labors of this great man will suffice' to show that he is something more than a mere sentimentalist. . In proof of this wo publish the following quotation, which is re-printed in the Evening Post : — " Before Sir George Grey entered on the Held of colonial politics he had distinguished himself as an explorer of no ordinary daring and perseverance. In 1837 Lieutenants Grey and Lushington, under the sanction of the Home authorities, arrived in Western Australia, and commenced that exploratory expedition which has been characterised as not having been exceeded in disaster and personal suffering by any of the Australian expeditions of discovery. I cannot even give a faint sketch of the thrilling events which arrest the attention of the reader as he peruses ! the narrative of the expedition. I can only introduce one or two instances of suffering and danger. At one time, after escaping from ' a labyrinth of wild recks, towering in burning nakedness, or peering above the thick forest,' Lieutenajat^Gjft^^^ s^Hrm^vnicn the tide, which rose and fell to the height of thirty-eight feet, was rushing out with fearful rapidity. Life and death hung in the balance. What was to be done ? Night was coming on; there was no wood on the beach to make' a fire of. The cliffs were tod precipitous to climb, and few of the party could swim the stream; and to pass the night, suffering from their extreme thirst, was dreadful to think of. Lieutenant Grey then stripped himself, re- ! taining only his shirt, boots, and cap ; and with his pistol in his left hand, in the hope of preserving it dry, so as to fire a call to the vessel, he plunged in and made for the opposite shore; 'but he was soon compelled to think no more of keeping his pistpl dry, but had to battle with the hurrying tide for his life.' Again, we find hinl and his party surrounded by armed natives ; and spears came whizzing in every direction on them. Lieutenant Grey was severely wounded in the hip. Wrenching the spear from the wound, he fired and broke one man's arm, and shot another who was driving at him with his club ; on which the savages fled carrying off with them the wounded man.' It was an act which caused Sir George the deepest regret ; but suffering himself from great loss of blood, it was an act of dire necessity and self-preservation. On a second expedition, in 1889, from the north-west corner of Western Australia to Perth, at Swan Eiver, the dangers and difficulties were still more severe and trying. I cannot detain the Council with even a slight sketch of this expedition, but can only state that Captain Grey was obliged to precede the party, in order to get aid from Perth, then 190 miles^4istaot. So fearfuUwas their, position that the party was obliged .to suck the dew from the grass and from the leaves of trees, and Captain Grey's share of the supplies amounted to one and a-half pounds of flour and half a pound of arrowroot. After almost unparalleled sufferings, the advanced party reached Perth, ' reeling and staggering ' after Lieutenant Grey, 'the silence being only broken by groans and exclamations.' On arrival at Government House, after twenty days' hunger, thirst, heat, and anxiety, not a soul knew him, but started back from so spectral an apparaition.' The country then traversed is now being taken up rapidly, as my friend Colonel Bruce, lately commanding the troops at Swan River informed me in a late letter received from him, in which he states that hundreds of thousands of acres are now yielding a revenue to the Treasury."