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

The Cost of Civilising the People

The Cost of Civilising the People

Grand civilising projects cannot be carried out without money, and all of Grey's civilising schemes, in Western Australia, South Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and again in New Zealand, demanded a large expenditure, of which the greater portion fell on the Imperial Treasury. When he pensioned the chiefs in British Kafraria, he calculated the amount of the pensions on the amount of the fines previously levied, but it was found that a sum of £3,000 more would be annually required. The Secretary of State sanctioned the arrangement only on the understanding that the corresponding expenditure should be met out of colonial funds. By the end of 1854 Grey estimated that the total expenditure on his complete page 104schemes, now fully developed, would amount to £60,000, and he asked that the Imperial Government should contribute two-thirds of the amount, the remainder being provided from the revenues of British Kafraria. So powerful was the mana of Grey with both the English Ministry and the Parliament that that sum was cheerfully, indeed, enthusiastically voted, and Mr. Labouchere (Lord Taunton), then Secretary for the Colonies, congratulated him on the popularity of his administration and the credit it reflected on the ministry.

For three successive years a subsidy was voted, and for only three years had it been originally asked for. At the end of that period, Grey professed to believe it would no longer be wanted, because the necessity for employing Kafirs on public works would then cease, the education of young Kafirs would become self-supporting, their increasing civilisation would increase the demands for English commodities and thus enlarge the revenue, and progressive settlement by Europeans would augment the prosperity of the province. Grey's expectations were not realised. In drawing up his estimates for 1858 he made no allowance for a reduction, and Lord Stanley, the Secretary for the Colonies in the new Derby Ministry, advised that there should be no reduction. The Lords of the Treasury, vigilant guardians of the public purse, protested, and Lord Stanley was constrained to intimate to Grey that the vote for the dependency would be cut down by one-half.

Grey was thrown into a panic. What was he to do? Should he break up his administrative apparatus, dismiss his magistrates and unpension his chiefs, close his hospitals and his schools? He could not and he would not do it. He was pledged for another year to support the institutions he had called into existence. As Daniel Webster once threatened to pay the United States' national debt out of his own impecunious pocket, Sir George Grey more seriously resolved to Garry on the system at his own expense, and he laid out £6,000 on this benevolent object. Of course, he well knew that the British Government could not remain indebted to one page 105of its own servants, and the sum was ultimately repaid him.

Meanwhile, he fought hard for his cherished system. He was reminded that he was laying heavy burdens on the British taxpayer, and he might have remembered that the taxes on the prime necessaries of life, such as tea and sugar, were then burdensome. In vain did he plead that, by averting war, his civilising schemes made a vast saving to the country. None the less, he had not the smallest intention of accepting the retrenchment. Professing submission, as always, he practised rebellion, as always. He continued his expenditure as before, unreduced. The Treasury accounts for the following year showed that he had exceeded the annual vote by no less a sum than £46,000. Truly, here was a man who knew how to flout his superiors. And this was only one of several directions in which he outran the constable.