The Subjugation of the Maoris.
His Appointment.

It was a tribute to Grey's capacity that, in four successive instances, he was appealed to by the Colonial Office as the man the best fitted in the Empire to undertake the government of a colony that was critically situated. He was fond of relating, and the fact had struck his imagination as well as embedded itself in his memory, that one day when he was out riding in the neighbourhood of Adelaide in company with his step-brother, Sir Godfrey Thomas, he was overtaken by a messenger in a "tax-cart" (the archaic detail carries us back to the forties), who had been sent from the town with despatches from England. He opened and read them, and found that he had been appointed Governor of New Zealand. In terms of high compliment he was assured of his fitness for the position. He was, indeed, almost solicited to accept it as an act of patriotism and in the interests of the Empire. The nominal author of the appointment was Lord Stanley, soon to become Earl of Derby, then Secretary for the Colonies; the real author of it, we need not scruple to assert, and the writer of the despatch announcing the fact, was the all-powerful Permanent Under-Secretary, Sir James Stephen, whose keen eye and trained judgment had already discerned the energies and the capacities that were to make Grey the greatest colonial governor of his time.

The appointment did not pass unchallenged. In the House of Commons Lord Howick (next year to become Earl Grey) objected to the nomination of one "whose rank, age, and station were such that he could hardly carry weight or authority." The future Secretary for the Colonies was to redeem his natural scepticism by a page 31long series of public commendations, by practically surrendering to the new Governor the government of the Colony, and by publishing in his retirement the loftiest eulogy a colonial governor has ever received from his official superior.

Though his commission was enclosed, and it was therefore hardly open to Grey to refuse the dangerous office, where he might be hounded to death, as Captain Hobson, the first Governor, had been hounded, or wreck the reputation he had already acquired, as FitzRoy, the second Governor, had wrecked his, the appointment was understood to be temporary, to meet an emergency, and the governorship of South Australia was kept open for him. Eight years afterwards he left New Zealand on a similar understanding. He was to return to New Zealand, though after an interval, but he was to return to South Australia only forty-six years later, and then in an unofficial capacity.

Governor FitzRoy (so well known earlier as a navigator and later as a meteorologist) had brought New Zealand by a series of indiscretions to the verge of rebellion. Who so well fitted to educe order out of chaos as the young governor who had just achieved a similar feat in South Australia? We do not need his assurance of the fact to believe that the new Governor had conceived a high ideal of his mission. The arena was one well fitted to call forth all his powers. He was to conquer and rule over a barbarous race of a higher type than the one he had left—intelligent, warlike, and in the main hostile spread over a whole island, holding fortified places, and' equipped with arms of precision. He was to encounter a powerful Company, with the great colonising genius of the age at its head, a number of clever young men (afterwards distinguished statesmen) among its personnel and the command of the Colonial Office for its leverage. He was to meet with an energetic bishop, as uniquely fitted for his difficult duties as Grey was for his, and a Chief-Justice of rare integrity. And with them all this comparatively untried young man of thirty-three was easily to hold his own.

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As if anticipating his translation to New Zealand, Grey had taken a keen interest in the affairs of the island-colony while he was still Governor of South Australia. Hearing of the sack of Kororareka and the repulse of the troops by the Maoris at Okaihu and Ohaeawai, he had suggested to (he had not yet got the length of positively ordering) the commander of a British warship, which touched at Port Adelaide, that he should sail at once for the Bay of Islands, and he unconstitutionally sent along with it munitions of war from the military stores in South Australia. When the time of his departure came, he hastily seized the money in the treasury at Adelaide and carried it with him to New Zealand. It was a second unconstitutional act, and it excited the resentment of the South Australians, but was not expressly censured by the Colonial Office. The doings of the Cæsars are apt to be "unconstitutional," and evidently the Colonial Office was chary of censuring a public servant whose chief fault as yet was an excess of zeal.

Arriving in Auckland on November 14, 1845, he found confusion reigning. In general, as was everywhere his way, he reversed the policy of his predecessor. The financial imbroglio was the most pressing and had first to be faced. Using the treasure that he had, Cæsar-like, carried off from South Australia, he called in and partly paid the debentures issued by FitzRoy, amounting to £37,000, and thus restored financial equilibrium. His next task was to suppress the Native revolt. Within five weeks of his arrival Grey had gathered together a force of soldiers, sailors, and friendly natives, amounting to over 1500, in order to strike a deadly blow. An English general, Sir Everard Home, sent with the troops from Sydney by Sir George Gipps, was in command. With this force Grey advanced against the Northern Maoris. These had built a new and almost impregnable fortress— a typical pah, of which a model was exhibited in England —called Ruapekapeka, or "the Bat's Nest," near the Bay of Islands, and were there strongly entrenched. Of the ensuing siege the accounts are almost as various as page 33the narratives of the battle of "Waterloo. The most intelligible is given by Mr. Rees, and was presumably inspired by Grey, who was present throughout. A very detailed and graphic narrative was ostensibly taken down by F. E. Maning from the mouth of "an old chief of the Ngapuhi tribe," and is printed in Heke's War in the North. ^* And a third account, differing from the others in several particulars, is given by Prof. Henderson. It may not prove impossible to extract a harmony from the various narratives.

The Capture of Ruapekapeka.

Arriving at the Bay of Islands, the troops went up the Kawakawa River in boats and canoes. They spent the last fortnight of the year in making roads to the pah. Then they proceeded to bombard it, with ship guns, long brass guns, mortars, and rockets. Forgetting the disastrous gallantry of Col. Despard at Ohaeawai, Sir Everard Home (if Mailing's Maori chief may be trusted) was eager to storm the pah, but the chief, Moses, persuaded him against such an act of reckless folly, and the Maoris henceforth despised the English general as a "foolish and inexperienced" person. The bombardment continued, making two breaches by January 10th, and in time it must have broken down the wooden palisades that constituted the outworks of the pah. Then Heke arrived, with only seventy men, having succeeded in eluding Macquarie, who had been stationed to arrest him. The orthodox account has it that Heke was dealt with by the British troops and his force scattered. On the contrary, he himself entered the pah and tried to induce the Maoris to retreat into the forest by the door of escape they always left at the back of their pahs; the historians do not mention the fact, but Maning positively states, that the whole of the garrison save Kawiti and eleven men deserted the pah and joined Heke's force in the rear.^† This seems to be inconsistent with the statement, also made by Maning, that the bulk of the garrison was page 34temporarily out of the pah on the following day, attending prayers.

Next day was Sunday. A happy accident favoured the British, but the nature of the chance is differently told by different historians. Prof. Henderson says that, expecting a temporary cessation of hostilities, the Maoris "ventured outside to cook their food." The orthodox telling of the incident begins quite differently, and it is confirmed by Maning. The garrison, consisting of Native Christians, left the fort to attend Divine service, never dreaming that they would be attacked by a Christian Governor on such a day. It was a historic circumstance. Many times before had the superstition or the piety of a people been thus used to their disadvantage. It had been employed by King Ptolemy, King Antiochus, and the Romans against the Jews, by the Jews themselves against the Parthians, and by the Catholics against the Visigoths.

The ensuing action is also variously told. The accepted narrative has it that Wi Waka (William Walker Turau, Waka Nene's brother), observing the silence in the pah and hearing the psalmody, inferred that they had left the pah in order to hold Divine service in a valley to the rear of the fort. Wi Waka then waved his hand to Waka Nene, when both he and Tao Nui, with their people, silently advanced with a rush. On the back of the Maoris came the soldiers and sailors, who had also been at prayers, and they entered the pah with a shout. The shout waked up Kawiti, the commander of the garrison, who, with his remnant of eleven men, vainly strove to make head against the invading flood. They fired two volleys and then retired, fighting desperately. The English had gained possession of the pah.

It was a decisive action. The Governor at once declared the war at an end, and he offered the hostile Maoris a free pardon. Two months after he had arrived in New Zealand the face of things was completely changed. The back of the rebellion in the North was broken. The colonists felt a nightmare taken off their chests; the Colonial Office congratulated itself on its choice of a page 35Governor; the English press was enthusiastic; and yet the Maoris were submissive. Kawiti submitted, acknowledged his fault, and became a Christian. Heke refused to go and see the Governor, but (we owe the particular to Maning) the Governor went to see him. Two years later he died, bequeathing his lands to Grey, who of course did not accept the generous gift. As a parallel act, Sir Everard Home, dying long afterwards in Sydney, bequeathed his books to Grey. Heaven and earth showered their bounties on the fortunate Governor. Yet, as we have seen, he had little to do with the taking of Ruapekapeka. Doubtless his energy in getting together the small and mixed contingent and in pushing it onwards to its objective contributed to the result. But the victory was an accident of warfare, and, had there been no accident, it would have been the necessary consequence of the Governor's superiority in military strength. None the less, he reaped all the credit of the action. He was henceforth known as a man who could strike a decisive blow.

The Seizure of Rauparaha.

Grey's campaign against the Maoris in the South was marked by an incident that occupies a place in history that is at first sight out of all proportion with its real importance. At a time of general peace, though of local disturbance, without proved hostility on the one side or warning on the other, the Governor treacherously laid violent hands on the most dreaded chief in the southern parts of the Colony. Te Rauparaha is a striking figure in the history of New Zealand. Of high rank, blending the best blood of two powerful tribes, and the principal chief of one of them, he was a ruler whose mana, or prestige, extended along both shores of Cook's Straits and far inland. Unfriendly observers found him an impressive personality. With the aquiline features of the Cassarian caste, but a retreating forehead, sunken yet piercing eyes, the projecting upper lip so seldom seen together with fierceness, yet a look of tigerish ferocity, he was a chief of commanding presence. E. J. page 36Wakefield, a hostile judge, says that on one occasion he spoke "with the majesty of a monarch," and he was then acclaimed as "king of the Maori."

Rauparaha had led many a daring raid against neighbouring tribes, and he had been mixed up with one of the ugliest deeds of blood in Maori-English story. He was vindictive and blood-thirsty, crafty and unscrupulous. He was not wholly unsympathetic with the English settlers. So early as 1833 a converted slave-boy, who had been educated at a northern mission-station, taught some of Rauparaha's tribesmen their letters. The same missionary of civilisation indoctrinated both the son and nephew of the chief with the principles of the Christian religion, and so deeply impressed was Rauparaha that he despatched his son to ask that a missionary be sent to his tribe. He had signed the treaty of Waitangi, and thus, over the wide range of his influence, he surrendered the sovereignty of his tribe. It is probable that he had taken to heart the words of Waka Nene, spoken at a still earlier date, telling Mm that the British were good people, and that he would find his account in living at peace with them.

In 1839 Colonel Wakefield, the agent of the New Zealand Company in New Zealand, found him in general opposed to the alienation of Native lands, but extracted from his reluctance the purchase of some extensive tracts, and believed that he had extracted a great deal more. In 1843 Rauparaha was indirectly concerned in the "massacre" at Wairau, when he strenuously resisted the settlement of English immigrants on land they had never acquired, and a year later the representative of the British Government justified his refusal, if not his crime, while the action of the Company was condemned by the Secretary of State. The very next day, in an impassioned speech, Bauparaha revealed his mind and purpose.''Now is the time to strike," he cried. "You see now what the glozing pretences of the pakeha are worth; you know now what they mean in their hearts; you know now that you can expect nothing but tyranny and injustice at their hands. Come forward and sweep them from the land which they page 37have striven to bedew with our blood." Rauparaha, he said of himself, "will fight the Queen's soldiers with his own hand,—with his own name.'' It was the behaviour of the New Zealand Company that had changed the spirit of Rauparaha, Wholesale forcible conveyances of land to which they had but the shadow of a claim had turned him against the pakeha. Still, as far as has ever been known, he took no overt action.

In May, 1846, troubles broke out in the Wellington district. A body of armed Maoris swooped down on the 58th regiment, stationed near the Hutt River, drove in the picket, killing and wounding a number, and then slowly retired before a superior force. This was probably the act of Rangihaeata, who occupied a strongly fortified position in the neighbourhood, and Rangihaeata was the son-in-law of Rauparaha. Yet relatives and slaves of Rauparaha aided the British in making roads, an indispensable aid to the movements of the troops, and they were said to surpass the Europeans as road-makers. In June a skirmish took place in the valley of the Hutt, probably made by the same undaunted disturber as the author of the night-attack in May, and the commanding officer had his suspicions of Rauparaha, but Grey was still doubtful. It was perhaps little that Rauparaha visited Grey and gave him assurances of fidelity; a traitor might have done the same. He was on that occasion subjected to a rough-and-ready test. Grey showed him an intercepted letter, bearing his signature along with those of others, inviting disaffected natives to the coast. Grey, a keen observer and a good judge of men, was then convinced that he was unacquainted with the letter, and after his father's capture Rauparaha's son stated that he had not signed it (he was almost certainly unable to write). Yet on this flimsy evidence Grey relied in after years, when challenged on the subject by Mr. Eusden and (a few years later) by another interlocutor. But the real ground of Rauparaha's condemnation was that, knowingly or not, he gave his moral support to Rangihaeata, and if he was attacked, Rauparaha might fall on the rear of the attacking force. Grey decided to page 38strike a blow that would resound through Maoriland. On the night of July 23, he sent to Porirua 150 soldiers, who seized the unsuspecting warrior in his sleep, and had him conveyed to H.M.S. Calliope, where he kept the chief a State prisoner. Rauparaha's own prophecy had come true. Three years before, on the very day of the Wairau massacre, he had cried: "What could they gain by enslaving me? by fastening irons on these poor old hands? No; that is not what they seek. It is because through my person they hope to dishonour you. If they can enslave me, they think they degrade the whole Maori race.'' To dishonour or degrade the Maoris was no part of the Governor's plan. On the contrary, he was to do more to raise them in their own estimation and in that of all the world than any other man, but his policy was always to disarm and disable an enemy. Then he was prepared to treat with them.

The ethics of the case seem comparatively simple. As regarded Rauparaha, it was plainly an unjust act. Probably, Rauparaha had nothing to do with the incriminating letter. His own overt acts were not culpable. But a man cannot be always dissociated from the society to which he belongs, and especially a leading chief, in a primitive community, could not be separated from the acts of his tribesmen and near relatives. Rauparaha lent Rangihaeata his countenance. But for Rauparaha's approval or passive acquiescence, Rangihaeata would not have pursued a policy of active opposition to the colonists and hostility to the troops. That Rauparaha was involved in the consequences of Rangihaeata's policy is shown by his attempts to set Rauparaha free. As regarded Rangihaeata and his tribe, the act was justifiable. It was an act of war, and the tribe was at war with the British. No action could be more effective. It sent a thrill of dread through all Maoridom. It showed that the new Governor, who was already known as a "fighting Governor,'' was not a man to be trifled with. It probably averted much bloodshed. It resembled the sudden, unprovoked seizure of the innocent Due d'Enghien by Napoleon, which Napoleon defended to the last as being page 39necessary in order to strike terror into possible Bourbon conspirators. Had the duke been liberated after a brief imprisonment, the case would have run almost on all fours with Rauparaha's. But Rauparaha was released after a brief time on parole, and Grey thus escaped the condemnation that overtook Napoleon.

Had the act caused Grey to forfeit the confidence of the Maoris, it would have been impolitic, and Mr. Rusden affirms, what Grey at the time admitted, that it did have this result; Long afterwards, in 1879, when Grrey was Premier, he made overtures to King Tawhiao that were rejected on the ground that the captor of Rauparaha could not be trusted. Yet the Maoris considered all acts justifiable against a real or suspected enemy. Grey's wily character soon got to be known to the Maoris, was it Heke in the far north who, when Grey had sent him a present of money, examined the sovereigns closely to see if they "had any hooks on them," as everything that came from Grey was apt to have? As for the alleged distrust of Grey on the part of Tawhiao, it was transient. I may be permitted to offer some personal evidence on that head. I was a visitor at Kawau in the autumn of 1884, when the Maori King and his sons, with the great chieftain Rewi and his daughter, and other Maori chiefs came to procure Grey's countenance and support in their projected mission to England. Rewi was then guarded as always, but the attitude of Tawhiao was, on that occasion, one of almost childlike confidence. If ever he felt distrust of Grey, he had completely overcome it.

There is more convincing evidence. When, in the course of the conflict between Grey and the New Zealand Company, it was rumoured that the Governor was on the eve of being recalled from New Zealand a number of petitions against the recall were got up, and to one of these the first signature appended was that of the captured chief himself—the famous and dreaded Rauparaha. Some years later, when Grey was leaving New Zealand to return to England, the son of Rauparaha was the author of one of the many laments. Rauparaha himself bore no malice. He told his son to "love the Europeans." He page 40had long been a professing Christian, and from the time of his seizure onwards to his death at an advanced age, he '' was continually worshipping.'' But the devotedness of a whole race is proof that its faith in Grey remained intact. In the year of Rauparaha's death two Waikato chiefs wrote to the Queen, asking that Governor Grey should ''long remain here as Governor of this island." "We have a great affection for him," they added.

The war, even in the neighbourhood of Wellington, was not ended by the imprisonment of Rauparaha. A guerilla warfare was still maintained by Rangihaeata, whom Grey disdained to follow, but who was pursued to the hills— he and his little band of 200 heroes—by 1000 English and colonial troops. In course of time he lost heart, dissuaded by his relatives from continuing the strife. "Do not suppose, O Governor," he said to Grey, "that you conquered me. It was these, my own relatives and friends, who conquered me." He gave in, but as he proudly boasted, he was never defeated, nor was he ever captured. It was the way most Maori wars with the British ended. The natives were morally—they were seldom physically—beaten.

War' at Wanganui.

In 1847 hostilities broke out afresh in the neighbourhood of Wanganui, a nascent settlement 120 miles to the north of Wellington. The provocation, as was too often the case, was given by a heedless act on the part of the English, and the passions of the Maoris blazed out in deeds of vengeance. Whole tribes took up the cause of individual members, and the conflagration spread. Grey himself, always ready for a bit of fighting, by tongue or gun, took the field and arrived on the scene with troops. He was effectually aided by friendly Native chiefs, and these of the greatest—Waka Nene and Te Whero Whero, who came from the north and the centre of the North Island in order to aid the Governor. The war thus contributed to amalgamate the Maori race, all broken up into tribes, and give it a sense of unity. The alliance of friendly natives with an invader has been a feature of page 41almost all wars of conquest, from the time of the Romans onwards, and in none was it more helpful than in New Zealand. In the North, Waka Nene saved the Colony to the British in the dark days that followed the sack of Kororareka; Te Rangitake saved the more southern parts a year and two years later; and when Te Kooti's rising terrified the colonists and almost scared the English Government into sending out a dictator, it was Rangihiwinui who played the part of the avenger and at the same time kept the loyal tribes from revolting. The debt of the New Zealand colonists to the friendly Maoris is immeasurable. On this occasion Grey bore generous testimony to their "activity and gallantly." "We could not have dispensed with their services," he honourably acknowledged. Once more, towards the end of the year? the war gradually died out.

A Blunder.

Like an unskilled medical practitioner, he was able, for a time, to bury his mistakes, or the mistakes of others, which he sanctioned. A Maori known to the settlers as Martin Luther, and to his own race as Wareaitu, was captured by the troops at Wanganui in 1847, tried by court-martial, and hanged. The despatch in which Grey described the incident was never published, but Mr. Rusden was fortunate enough to find it in the Colonial Office. Grey there states that Wareaitu was executed for his connection with the murder of certain settlers. No such charge was made before the court-martial. He, was there tried as a rebel for attacking the troops. To stigmatize a Maori fighting in defence of his tribe a rebel was monstrous, and to execute him for it as a common criminal was a crime. The execution, said a military surgeon, Dr. Thomson, who has written one of the best books about New Zealand, was the disgrace of Grey's first governorship.