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Life of Sir George Grey: Governor, High commissioner, and Premier. An Historical Biography.

Its Embarrassments

page 73

Its Embarrassments.

By 1848 the embroilment had reached its height, and in March of that year Earl Grey and the Company agreed to entrust Governor Grey with the uncontrolled power of deciding disputes between the Company and its settlers. Six months later the chief officer of the Company in New Zealand, Colonel William Wakefield, suddenly died, of a stroke of apoplexy. As if, when his functions had been taken from him and his mana was gone, his life naturally came to an end. He had lived for the Company, and loved it not wisely, but too well. Once more, Governor Grey had triumphed.

He assumed its chief function and acquired from the natives extensive tracts of land on easy terms. He succeeded where the Company had failed, in part because he gathered into his own hands all the powers of Government and some amount of treasure, but still more because he possessed the confidence of the natives. His manifest unbounded trust in them inspired a like trust on their part towards him.