THE GREAT PRO-CONSUL

Manawatu Times, Volume LXV, Issue 680, 1 April 1909, Page 3

THE GREAT PRO-CONSUL

REMINISCENCES OF SIR GEORGE GREY. MR WAKEFIELD'S MEMORIES. New Zealand Times Correspondent. London, January 29. I spent a most interesting evening at the Imperial Colonial Club on Wednesday last, listening to the reminiscences of Sir George Grey from the lips of Mr Edward Wakeiield, the Earl of Stanford, and Admiral Ereemantle. The occasion was an informal lecture by Mr Edward Wakefield, who is a nephew of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the great coloniser, and who, from his boyhood upwards, was an intimate friend of New Zealand's Grand Old Man, Sir George Grey. He gave us some vivid glimpses 01 that wonderful personality. "Sir George Grey was the most uncommon man I ever met," said Mr Wakefield. " Ninenty-nine men out of a hundred' that you meet you can refer to some type; but not Sir George Grey. He was unlike any man 1 ever knew. In all my reading there are only two men he constantly reminds me of. One was Napoleon; the other was General Gordon. Now I believe in all history there were no two men more widely apart than those two, yet in every phase of character Grey daily,'hourly, reminded me of one or the other. In all the great crisis of his life he reminded me of those two men."

Mr Wakeful explained why Grey gave up a military career in his youth. Ireland, to which his regimem was sent, was' in a state of' revolution tempered by starvation, and to the soldier fell the hateful duty of rpnt-collecting at the point of the bayonet. The work gave Grey such a hatred of the Army and of landlordism that he resigned his commission. He went to Australia, and accomplished some wonderful exploration journeys in the tracks and wastes of tlie north-western part of the island continent.

VERACITY VINDICATED' The report he drew up on his discoveries made his name, but it was fiercely criticised. The most striking thing in the report was a description of the great rock. paintings done by natives, representing amongst other things, the human eye, an animal like a seal, and men in armour, carrying firearms, and fully People laughed at the tale. Wild nat'.vs paint pictures of firearms and clothes when such things Were utterly unknown to •them? Impossible! It looked rather had for Grey, His friends said he had suffered from hallucinations; his enemies proclaimed him a lineal descendant ] of Ananias. But the accuracy of his account has since been proved. graphs of rock paintings were taken a' year or two ago by the Survey Department of the West Australian Government, and made it clear that the animal Grey described as like a seal was the dugong, or sea-cow, and the men with firearms were undoubtedly pictures of Portugese explorers who had visited Australia in the sixteenth century, Grey's veracity in thi;, matter has at last been amply vindicated. - "It was by a sort of effort of genius," said Mr Wakefield, that Grey absorbed the Maori language and dialects on his arrival in New Zealand in 1845. He was the finest Maori scholar that ever lived. He learned the language in a few months, in the midst of tlie press of • urgent and heavy duties of governing a colony in the throes of war. His in- ' fluence over the Maoris was amazing. He reduced blood-thirsty savages to a docility which made them like tame cats. Gradually lie got the whole colony , perfectly quiet, and the success of. his policy was most remarkable. In the long run, settlers, missionaries, aid Maoris all agreed on that point, conflicting though their respective interests were. Grey saved the country at a time when it was going to ruin. A DISCOURSE ON EELS. Mr Wakefield described how, as_ a child, he met Grey. .He was collecting drift wood with his brother on Sumner Beach, when his father appeared with Sir George Grey, and introduced the boys. Grey's first words to the boys , were, "What I mean to say is, you have too heavy a load." All through his life, said Mr Wakefield, Grey had two shibboleths,' two mannerisms of speech. One was, "What I mean to say is," and the other, 'Never in the whole course of my life." . Grey stayed to dinner with the Wakefields that'day at Sumner. The family were in dire poverty at the'time, and could offer him nothing better than eels and Maori cabbage, but the Governor ate heartily, and gave the boys a wonderful discourse on the natural history of eels and Maori cabbagel 'When we two boys got back to our cave bed-room that evening," said Mr Wakefield, "we

could not sleep for excitement. We talked and talked about this wonderful man who had' treated- us grubby little Bcaramouches as if we were gentlemen and equals of himself." ' Mr Wakefield went' on to speak of Grey's magnificent career in South Africa, where lie conciliated kaffirs and Dutch alike, and' brought peace and prosperity to the country. He told the 'famous story of how Grey, by sheer weight of personal authority, and'entirely on I his own responsibility, was able to divert the British troops which called at Cape Town on their,way to Singapore, and send them to Calcutta instead to help quell the Indian Mutiny. He described how Grey's efforts to secure the unification of South Africa >verc baplkcd by Lord Carnarvon, the Colonial Secretary of. the day. ".There■ would never have been a Kaffir war, nor any Boer war," declared Mr Wakefield, "if Grey had had his way." The renewal of Avar in New Zealand led to Grey being sent there again as Governor.' "He found things in a frightnil mess," observed the lecturer. "A most incompetent man was commanding the troops-General Cameron. A nice old fellow to preside at a tea-party, but a man who knew no more about native warfare than a child." A MAN WHO KNEW NOT FEAR.

Grey was absolutely without fear, and Mr Wakefield told a good story in illustration of this side of his character, "We were at New Plymouth," ho said, "Panic and misery prevailed. Half tli"' people had fled to Nelson, and the rest were frightened to death. Grey wished to inspire them with some sort of selfconfidence. The chief of the natives who Avcrc terrorising the town was a great savage, the terror of the inhabitants. Grey came to me one evening and said, 'Oh, Wakefield, what I mean to .say is I'm going for a walk in the morning, Will you come?" "I knew what that meant— either go with him or get; the sack. So I said I would Jike; to ; go. We started about four in the looming—the Governor and

his secretary, ohf Mr Thatcher, walking in front, Major Grey (a cousin of Sir George) and I britigii., up uo rear. The sentry at the outskirts of toe town grinned as we passed, as much as to say: 'Well, you are blamed fools. We sha'n't see you again.' "We walked along the coast road for about seven miles, to a place where the rocks jutted out, making a sharp corner in the road. At this corner we heard a rustling in the bush, and out jumped a dozen Maoris, brandishing tomahawks. They were a fearsome sight, and at their head was that bloodthirsty savage, the notorious chief. The chief rushed up to Grey, put his hand on his shoulder, and nourished his axe, shouting in Maori: 'Now I've got you, I will, sacrifice yon to my ancestors, whose land your people have stolen.' "Grey never moved. He just looked the savage straight in the face and then looked him up and down, with a contemptuous expression which seemed to say: 'Well, you are a bounder,' Now if there is one thing a Maori cannot stand it is contempt. The chief's hand slowly dropped. He looked uiverly crestfallen. Then he said, 'lt is the Governor!' and called to his men, who in the meantime had seized the rest of us. In an instant they left us and hounded away into the bush. "The sun was just rising, and the snow-clad slopes of Mount Egmont were crimson with the glory of the morning, Grey turned to me and calmly said: 'What I mean to say is, never in the whole course of my life have I seen a more lovely miming. I am so glad I came for a walk!' That was Grey. ,"We walked back to town, emulating the sailor's parrot in the story. Wc did not talk much, but we were beggars to think."

HOW GREY CAPTURED A PAH. "Just after that," continued Mr Wakefield, "when wc found ourselves outside a Maori pah called Whenarua, Grey got up one morning and walked right into tlie pah, alone and unarmed. He -went straight to the chief, who was standing in the marae, and said: ' Give me that thing you have got,' indicating a greenstone axe, the badge of chieftainship. The chief gave it up like a child. Grey had the English flag hoisted, and when General Chute's intelligence officers came round later, they found the pah in English hands. Chute never forgave Grey for that. Soon afterwards the troops were withdrawn from the colony, and wc were delighted to see their backs, Grey finished the war himself in no time. But the officers who went back to England never ceased their intrigues and misrepresentations against Grey until they got hiin withdrawn from the uovernorship. " I was with him when he rectived the | news of his withdrawal. It was just a sentence at the tail-end of a Colonial Office despatch, and read, ' I have the honour to inform you that you: succes-. sor will arrive on such and such a date.' After all his fine service he was' sacked ' like a junior clerk.

" Grey was absolutely furious. He was a proud man, and his temper got the better of him then. He took the great-

est hatred of Governor Bowen for no other reason except that the latter was his successor. Grey would not have anything to do with him; would not even speak to him. He retired to Kawau, that garden paradise of his, and would not recognise the new Governor at all. Bowen was a gentle-hearted, nice man, and in the most manly way he wrote to Grey and said he would give himself the great pleasure of going down to Kawau to see him. Grey replied through his secretary that he did not wish to see anyone except at his own invitation. And so the two men rtfvev mm,"

After Grey's unfortunate attempt to enter political life in England he went back to New Zealand and retired again to his beloved Kawau.: "At Kawau',"' said Mf Wakefield, "he lived the life of a patriarch. 1 I ' used to spend .many weeks with him, and feel sure that it was one of the happiest periods of his life. He had a magnificient library, and he used to have cultivated, nice people there—men like Judge Fenton and Sir James Hector, charming people. Yes, that interval of peace was probably the happiest part of his life. Then unfortunately—as I think—lie was advised to enter "the political life of the country." Mr Wakefield gave a rapid sketch of the ex-Governor's Parliamentary life. He described how in some extraordinary

way Grey came under the dominance of John Sjjeehan and James MacAndrcw, whose counsel he followed with disas-

trous results to his Ministry. Sir Robert Stout resigned from the Cabinet within two months. John Ballance remonstrated with Grey, and was turned out of the Ministry for his pains. Then the whole Ministry broke up. A vote of censure was moved by Sir William Fox, and seconded by Mr Wakefield. Grey replied in a speech of splendid eloquence, but failed to conviiv- the House, who carried the vote. Grey appealed to the country, but the Opposition were returned with a majority of four, and he re. signed office. "Our political warfare never made a particle of difference to our friendship,' said Mr Wakefield. "Wc were always the best of friends. .We used to go for long,'long walks together. Again and again I used to go down to Kawau, and we had many very happy times. Of Grey's career was already practically over, but in the meantime ho made for himself a splendid world-wide reputation by his -writings on Maori mythology and Polynesian history—a branch of learning in which he stands quite alone. His books are perfect marvels. How he acquired his knowledge I do not know. He was an extraordinary man. RULED BY. HIS HOUSEKEEPER. " Grey, with all his autocratic manner and his sternness of character, was always very much under the influence of certain people, and amongst them his housekeeper at the Kawau, Mrs Jones had an extraordinary power over him. They, used to have quarrels sometimes, and about once a month Mrs Jones would come down to the wharf at Kawau, with a Maori, boy wheeling her trunk. Asked if she was leaving she would reply, 'I ain't gone yet! I ain't 'gone yet!' As the steamer came round the point and headed for the wharf, Sir George would come down from his house. 'Oh, Mrs.Jones,' he would say, 'what I mean to say is you have been too hasty.' He never said he had been too lmst'y! 'Go hack'to the house, and let us forget all about this unpleasantness.' '"Very well, Sir George,' the lady would reply,' I'll go back to the house, and I'll see to the rooms and the dinner. I knowed how it would be 1 I know how it would be!'

" Eventually Sir George pensioned her off and set her up in a little shop in Auckland, and for all I she ain't gone yet 1' "There was something wonderfully human and charming in Sir George Gvcy, in spite of, certain qualities which, when

they got the better of him, made a great distance between his fellow creatures and himself. " In New Zealand Grey, had the reputation of being a very ',rich man, and I am sure he Was not a stingy one. The man who presented his niiujniltce.'ii library to Capetown and Auckland, could not be a stingy man, and I have known Grey to do all sorts of generous things. LAST SCENE OE ALL. Mr. Wakefield's voice shook with emotion as he described uow siutM by the coffin of his departed chief and saw it lowered into the grave at St. Paul's Cathedral, to rest there by the side of England's honoured dead, " There came Hooding back to me," he said, " with an insistence and strength that dimmed my senses, memories and incidents ot years gone by. Once more I stood side by side with the great pro-Consul, thousands and thousands of miles away—in sharp debate perhaps, or wandering arm-in-arm in pleasant loving converse beneath the green shade of the bush, or staring with eyes fixed on swart, horrific figures brandishing blood-stained knives. And with tlie.sad music of the 'Dead March in Saul' there seemed to come echoing through the dim colonades of the Cathedral a message of peace and rest: ' After Life's fitful fever he sleeps well." '

The Earl of Stamford and Admiral Freemantle added some interesting personal memories of Sir George Grey to those of Mr Wakefield, and both paid high tributes to the sterling and extraordinary abilities of the great Governor. Among those p/esent at the lecture were Major Fisher, a Maori war veteran, Mr Lubeski, and Mr Sheffield Grace, Mr, Mrs' and Miss Campbell, Miss A, W, Watson, Mr and Mrs C. L, J. Moore, Messrs Chas. Mosley, Angelo, Short, J. G. Lilly, and Colonel the Hon. J. Burns.