Taranaki Herald FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1909. AN ABIDING INFLUENCE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14018, 24 September 1909, Page 2

Taranaki Herald FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1909. AN ABIDING INFLUENCE.

It was a frequent saying with Sir George Grey that nothing is wasted in the working of the universe; that an idea, an act, once it has taken life has become an iibiiliug influence. This might not be msuiifest for a long while, or it might be in such a changed I'orm as hardly to be recognisable : si ill the influence is there all the time. It is interesting to apply this thought to the union of South Africa and to recall the statement made by the Natal delegates on leturning from the South African (^inference in London a day oi iwo ago. They stated the Transvaal delegates were determined that the Boer organisations, Het Yolk (in the Transvaal) and Orangia Fnie in the Orange Kree State, should disband in order to demonstrate that there was no longer any racial feeling. The whole of the British Empire is to-day rejoicing at the bright page of history opened up by the federation of the South African States; yet when we look back at the history of the country we see that Sir George Grey wap actually recalled from the governorship of Cape Colony some 50 years ago, hi effect because he had launched this very scheme. Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, Colonial Secretary, writing in the name of the British Government to Sir George Grey, said: "They could not safely continue to entrust with your present functions one committed, as you have committed yourself, to a policy of which they -disapprove, on a subject of first importance ; nor could they expect from you the necessary assistance, when steps, which you have taken withotit thnt authority, have of necessity to be retraced." In 1859, the Duke of Newcastle, w^om n change of Government had now made Colonial Secretary, sent Sir George back to South Africa — the people there had clamoured for H — only he disapproved as strongly ns Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton had done of Sir George Grey'*ideas, and these had to be dropped. Officially the stigma of disgrace was removed from Sir George Grey, and he was allowed to return and work out his term at the Cape. He remained at Cape Town until 1861, bound bard and fast by the Imperial Government in a venture which to his dying day he felt he could have achieved, <uid which now has been achieved. Sir George Grey's policy was the " personal equation," the guiding of a community so that characteristics, customs and sympathies were merged, not held sharply •i part. He believed that the mixing of strengths was the way to make a stalwart new race for a new nation. Such thoughts bore, in particular, upon South Africa with its two ruling peoples. Hr quickly realised that the Dutch Africander could be led — led al most anywhere — but could not V driven. In 1853, England, fol lowing the cut-the-painter policy abandoned the Orange Free Statand threw it on its own resources It was thought the Mother Country derived no real benefit fron the possession of South Africa except in holding the seaport o-' Simon's Bay. It was also fell that peace was ruin to Cap« Colony; that the expenditure o' British money during the war made the fortunes of its inhabitants. The European inhabitants beyond the Orange River were believed to be really rebels. I< was said, even in Cape Town that it might at any moment be riecessary to employ a military force to punish the inhabitants, and to prevent the commission of "disgraceful scenes." So strongly was this felt that, even when the countries beyond the Orange Free State were thrown off, and the question of the federation among themselves arose, it would be desirable to encourage such a measure because when it was necessary to punish or reconquer them it would be only requisite to deliver one blow at one point. Before the close of 1858 the Volksraad of the Orange Free State passed a resolution to the purport "That a union or alliance with the Cape Colony, either on the plan of federation or otherwise, is desirable." But Little Downing Street would neither hej" of thp Orange Free State nor t'i • Transvaal, which all alon^ Tvns also in Sir George Grey's calculations, "to be touched with tongs." When the young Duke of Edinburgh went among the Boers with Sir George Grey they actually called him "our Prince." In spite of all these encouraging prospects the British Government pursued its "settled policy"; nothing else, according to its way of thinking, was needed, and Sir George Grey's encouragement of the Orange Free State and the Cape Parliament was heinous, almost traitorous work. We have now reached in the solution of the South African problem the high water mark of Sir George Grey's policy. It has been a roundabout journey and an awful struggle. In our rejoicings over the union we must not forget the work of the great statesman who could have led South Africa to federation fifty years ago and avoided the fearful clash of arms occasioned by the recent Boer War. "An act once it has taken life has become an abiding influence." How true this philosophy of Sir George Grey has proved.