The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, FEBRUARY 15, 1868.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 811, 15 February 1868, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, FEBRUARY 15, 1868.

New Zealand is now commenting" on !)he final departure of the two greatest men woo have figured in her short but stormy history — 'Sir George Grey and Bishop Selwyn. In after times when that history shall be written by a competent band, justice will be done to the spirit, courage, and energy of the men vrho laboured so strenuously in their day and generation to found this Britain of the South. The reminiscences of party differences and of personal or local piques, are still so active in the minds of most men in this country as to make it difficult for them to consider fairly Iho career and characters of the late Governor and of the late Bishop. Notwithstanding tlia. ■delicacy of the task, we shall, however, make an attempt to-day shortly torsurvey and sketch in an impartial aud in an independent spirit, the life and actions of Sir George Grey. Sir George Grey, who was born in Portugal about the year 1812, is the son of a lieutenant-colonel in the British army, who was killed at the storming of Badajoz. Being intended for the military profession he was educated at Sandhurst, where Mr. Ligar, formerly Surveyor-General of the Colony, and the late lamented Colonel* Nixon and Austen were amongst his contemporaries. At Sandhurst.Sir George laid the foundation of that vast and accurate learning for which he is sp justly celebrated. Eventually George Grey entered the 83rd Regiment, and he was first brought prominently before the public in the year 1837, when, being then a captain, he commanded an expedition which was undertaken to gain information as to the real state of the interior of New Holland and its resources. In this expedition Captain Grey and his parfcy suffered extraordinary hardships, principally occasioned by want of water. The story of this undertaking is most interesting, and no one can read it without seeing that the success of the expedition and the preservation of the lives of %h& men composing it were the fruits of the energy, prudence, and foresight of* its leader. On the death of the Governor at Adelaide, Mr. Spencer — Captain Grey r as the officer commanding the troops, assumed the reins of government, and so> well did he administer the affairs "of that little Colony that the Home Government appointed him to bo the Governor of it.' In the year 1846 Captain Grey arrived in New Zealand. The mismanagement of Captain Fitzroy bad involved the Colony in troubles of every gort. The- Treasury was bankrupt, and war was being feebly waged by a weak and 'faint-hearted commander against the natives in the North, Practically assuming the command of the troops in the field, Captain Grey directed all the operations against the enemy, until the war in the North was "brought to atriumphant conclusion by the siege and storming of Ruapekapeka. Disturbances took place both at Wellington andJWanganui, but the natives being treated with a judicious mixture of rigour and management, peace was restored ta those districts. Moreover, a very potent lesson was given to that large and dangerous class pf aboriginals known as " friendly natives," by the capture, or rather kidnapping of Te . Raupera. On the details of Captain Grey's civil administration, or the much mooted question of the old land claimants and their grievances, our 6pace forbids us now to dwell. 'In December 1853, Sir George Grey's term of "office having „ expired, he returned to England, having been paid the" jcouapliment of »a public dinner on the occasion of his departure from 'Auckland. "The subsequent career of this remarkable man must necessarily ' be so fresh in the minds of our reader's, that there is no need for us to recapitulate the events of it.- But "what shall we say as to the manner in which the Governor bore himself in that other and that sterner strife between the Maoris 'and the "Colonists, which, marred the success of his second administration of the affairs of this Colony? Shall we .enter, into the merits t of •'the'- squabbles- between the Governor and his Minister's-, and between the Governor and the General ? -We have

neither space nor inclination for the dis* cussion of these raattera, Ho has closed his administration by a courageous and manlr vindication of the character of the Colonists against the -aspersions falsely, wilfully, and Recklessly cas"t upon it by Colonel Weare and bthers. For thus nobly acting, be has been insulted by the Imperial authorities} and finally deprived of his governInenfc at the very time of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit. Anything more gross than the conduct of the Colonial Office to a public servant of such long standing and eminent services as Sir George Grey can hardly be conceived. There is but one opinion/fn the Colony as to this matter. Thus rewarded for his long, and ardnous services, Sir George Grey returns to England. That he will be less thought of there because he happens to bo in disgrace with the present Conservative Government, we can hardly believe. Whether Ihe is to live for more glory, or to spend Ihe rest of his days iv a studious retirement is yet in the bosom of futurity. By Borne it is said that he intends to go into the English House of Commons, whilst . others suppose that he will return to his old government at the Cape on the removal of Sir Philip Wodehouse. It is not likely, we think, that so close and reserved a man as Sir George Grey has enlightened anybody as to his prospects and intentions. Whether his successor is competent to deal with the perplexing questions and conflicting interests which snrround him, remains to be seen. But notwithstanding the inauspicious commencement of his term of office in this country, Sir George Bowen may be assured of the loyal and cordial co-operation of the colonists. If he is true to them, they will be true to him. New Zealand has arrived at a critical period in her history. As the Romans taught our ancestors, we are teaching the arts of life to a race to whom we are the Romans of the modern world. There is an energy on the one side, and now happily a kindly feeling on the other that brightens the prospects of the future. Determined effort, continuous toil, will raise a state, where there would seem the least chance of it ; they built Venice in the waves, and raised Holland upon mud and marsh. Certainly, we hear nothing of Colonial Offices in those days, meddling and threatening with their tape-tied notions and pedantries. Freedom of action is more necessary to a young colony than an old community ; and the very best thing a Government can do for a body of Englishmen establishing a new settlement is — to leave them alone.