George Grey

In 1844, Grey enacted a series ordinances and amendments first entitled the Aborigines' Evidence Act and later known as the Aboriginal Witnesses Act. The act, which was created to "facilitate the admission of the unsworn testimony of Aboriginal inhabitants of South Australia and parts adjacent", stipulated that unsworn testimony given by Australian Aboriginals would be inadmissible in court. A major consequence of the act in the following decades in Australian history was the frequent dismissal of evidence given by Indigenous Australians in massacres perpetrated against them by European settlers.[33][34]

Following his term as Governor of South Australia, Grey was appointed the third Governor of New Zealand in 1845.[27] During the tenure of his predecessor, Robert FitzRoy, violence over land ownership had broken out in the Wairau Valley in the South Island in June 1843, in what became known as the Wairau Affray (FitzRoy was later dismissed from office by the Colonial Office for his handling of land issues).[36] It was only in 1846 that the war leader Te Rauparaha was arrested and imprisoned by Governor Grey on an unrelated charge, which remained controversial amongst the Ngāti Toa people.

Drawing of Hōne Heke, who opposed Grey's governorship

In March 1845, Māori chief Hōne Heke began the Flagstaff War, the causes of which can be attributed to the conflict between what the Ngāpuhi understood to be the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) and the actions of succeeding governors of asserting authority over the Māori. On 18 November 1845 George Grey arrived in New Zealand to take up his appointment as governor,[5] where he was greeted by outgoing Governor FitzRoy, who worked amicably with Grey before departing in January 1846.[36] At this time, Hōne Heke challenged the British authorities, beginning by cutting down the flagstaff on Flagstaff Hill at Kororareka. On this flagstaff the flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand had previously flown; now the Union Jack was hoisted; hence the flagstaff symbolised the grievances of Heke and his ally Te Ruki Kawiti, as to changes that had followed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

There were many causes of the Flagstaff War and Heke had a number of grievances in relation to the Treaty of Waitangi. While land acquisition by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) were politicised, the rebellion led by Heke was directed against the colonial forces with the CMS missionaries trying to persuade Heke to end the fighting.[37][38] Despite the fact that Tāmati Wāka Nene and most of Ngāpuhi sided with the government, the small and ineptly led British had been beaten at Battle of Ohaeawai. Backed by financial support, far more troops, armed with 32-pounder cannons that had been denied to FitzRoy, Grey ordered the attack on Kawiti's fortress at Ruapekapeka on 31 December 1845.[5] This forced Kawiti to retreat. Ngāpuhi were astonished that the British could keep an army of nearly 1,000 soldiers in the field continuously. Heke's confidence waned after he was wounded in battle with Tāmati Wāka Nene and his warriors, and by the realisation that the British had far more resources than he could muster; his enemies included some Pākehā Māori supporting colonial forces.[39]

After the Battle of Ruapekapeka, Heke and Kawiti were ready for peace.[40] It was Tāmati Wāka Nene they approached to act as intermediary in negotiations with Governor Grey, who accepted the advice of Nene that Heke and Kawiti should not be punished for their rebellion. The fighting in the north ended and there was no punitive confiscation of Ngāpuhi land.[41]

Colonists arrived at Port Nicholson, Wellington in November 1839 in ships charted by the New Zealand Company. Within months the New Zealand Company purported to purchase approximately 20 million acres (8 million hectares) in Nelson, Wellington, Whanganui and Taranaki. Disputes arose as to the validity of purchases of land, which remained unresolved when Grey became governor.

The company saw itself as a prospective government of New Zealand and in 1845 and 1846 proposed splitting the colony in two, along a line from Mokau in the west to Cape Kidnappers in the east – with the north reserved for Māori and missionaries. The south would become a self-governing province, known as "New Victoria" and managed by the company for that purpose. Britain's Colonial Secretary rejected the proposal.[35] The company was known for its vigorous attacks on those it perceived as its opponents – the British Colonial Office, successive governors of New Zealand, and the Church Missionary Society (CMS) that was led by the Reverend Henry Williams. Williams attempted to interfere with the land purchasing practices of the company,[42][43][44] which exacerbated the ill-will that was directed at the CMS by the Company in Wellington and the promoters of colonisation in Auckland who had access to the Governor and to the newspapers that had started publication.

Unresolved land disputes that had resulted from New Zealand Company operations erupted into fighting in the Hutt Valley in 1846. The Ngati Rangatahi were determined to retain possession of their land. They assembled a force of about 200 warriors led by Te Rangihaeata, Te Rauparaha's nephew (son of his sister Waitohi, died 1839), also the person who had killed unarmed captives in Wairau Affray. Governor Grey moved troops into the area and by February had assembled nearly a thousand men together with some Māori allies from the Te Āti Awa hapu to begin the Hutt Valley campaign.

Māori attacked Taita on 3 March 1846, but were repulsed by a company of the 96th Regiment. The same day Grey declared martial law in the Wellington area.[45]

Richard Taylor, a CMS missionary from Whanganui, attempted to persuade the Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Rangatahi to leave the disputed land. Eventually Grey paid compensation for the potato crop they had planted on the land. He also gave them 300 acres at Kaiwharawhara by the modern ferry terminal. Chief Taringakuri agreed to these terms. But when the settlers tried to move onto the land they were frightened off.[46] On 27 February the British and their Te Ati Awa allies burnt the Māori Pa at Maraenuku in the Hutt Valley, which had been built on land that the settlers claimed to own. The Ngati Rangatahi retaliated on 1 and 3 March by raiding settlers' farms, destroying furniture, smashing windows, killing pigs, and threatening the settlers with death if they gave the alarm. They murdered Andrew Gillespie and his son.[47] 13 families of settlers moved into Wellington for safety. Governor Grey proclaimed martial law on 3 March. Sporadic fighting continued, including a major attack on a defended position at Boulcott's Farm on 6 May.[46] On 6 August 1846, one of the last engagements was fought – the Battle of Battle Hill – after which Te Rangihaeata left the area. The Hutt Valley campaign was followed by the Wanganui campaign from April to July 1847.

In January 1846 fifteen chiefs of the area, including Te Rauparaha, had sent a combined letter to the newly arrived Governor Grey, pledging their loyalty to the British Crown. After intercepting letters from Te Rauparaha, Grey realised he was playing a double game. He was receiving and sending secret instructions to the local Māori who were attacking settlers. In a surprise attack on his pā at Taupo (now named Plimmerton) at dawn on 23 July, Te Rauparaha, who was now quite elderly, was captured and taken prisoner.[48][49] The justification given for his arrest was weapons supplied to Māori deemed to be in open rebellion against the Crown. However, charges were never laid against Te Rauparaha so his detention was declared unlawful.[49][50] While Grey's declaration of Martial law was within his authority, internment without trial would only be lawful if it had been authorised by statute. Te Rauparaha was held prisoner on HMS Driver, then he was taken to Auckland on HMS Calliope where he remained imprisoned until January 1848.[49]

His son Tāmihana was studying Christianity in Auckland and Te Rauparaha gave him a solemn message that their iwi should not take utu against the government. Tāmihana returned to his rohe to stop a planned uprising. Tāmihana sold the Wairau land to the government for 3,000 pounds.[23] Grey spoke to Te Rauaparaha and persuaded him to give up all outstanding claims to land in the Wairau valley. Then, realising he was old and sick he allowed Te Rauparaha to return to his people at Otaki in 1848.[51]

Government House in Auckland, as painted by Edward Ashworth in 1842 or 1843

Auckland was made the new capital in March 1841[52] and by the time Grey was appointed governor in 1845, it had become a commercial centre as well as including the administrative institutions such as the Supreme Court.[53] After the conclusion of the war in the north, government policy was to place a buffer zone of European settlement between the Ngāpuhi and the city of Auckland.[54] The background to the Invasion of Waikato in 1863 also, in part, reflected a belief that the Auckland was at risk from attack by the Waikato Māori.

Governor Grey had to contend with newspapers that were unequivocal to their support of the interests of the settlers: the Auckland Times, Auckland Chronicle, The Southern Cross, which started by William Brown as a weekly paper in 1843 and The New Zealander, which was started in 1845 by John Williamson. These newspapers were known for their partisan editorial policies – both William Brown and John Williamson were aspiring politicians. The Southern Cross supported the land claimants, such as the New Zealand Company, and vigorously attacked Governor Grey's administration, while The New Zealander, supported the ordinary settler and the Māori. The northern war adversely affected business in Auckland, such that The Southern Cross stopped publishing from April 1845 to July 1847.[55] Hugh Carleton, who also became a politician, was the editor of The New Zealander then later established the Anglo-Maori Warder, which followed an editorial policy in opposition to Governor Grey.[56]

At the time of the northern war The Southern Cross and The New Zealander blamed Henry Williams and the other CMS missionaries for the Flagstaff War.[38][57] The New Zealander newspaper in a thinly disguised reference to Henry Williams, with the reference to "their Rangatira pakeha [gentlemen] correspondents", went on to state:

We consider these English traitors far more guilty and deserving of severe punishment than the brave natives whom they have advised and misled. Cowards and knaves in the full sense of the terms, they have pursued their traitorous schemes, afraid to risk their own persons, yet artfully sacrificing others for their own aggrandizement, while, probably at the same time, they were most hypocritically professing most zealous loyalty.[38]

Official communications also blamed the CMS missionaries for the Flagstaff War. In a letter of 25 June 1846 to William Ewart Gladstone, the Colonial Secretary in Sir Robert Peel's government, Governor Grey referred to the land acquired by the CMS missionaries and commented that "Her Majesty's Government may also rest satisfied that these individuals cannot be put in possession of these tracts of land without a large expenditure of British blood and money".[27][38] By the end of his first term as governor Grey had changed his opinion as to the role of the CMS missionaries, which was limited to attempts to persuade Hōne Heke bring an end to the fighting with the British soldiers and the Ngāpuhi, led by Tāmati Wāka Nene, who remained loyal to the Crown.[58][59]

Grey was "shrewd and manipulative" and his main objective was to impose British sovereignty over New Zealand, which he did by force when he felt it necessary. But his first strategy to attain land was to attack the close relationship between missionaries and Māori, including Henry Williams who had relationships with chiefs.[60]

In 1847 William Williams published a pamphlet that defended the role of the CMS in the years leading up to the war in the north.[61] The first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, George Selwyn, took the side of Grey in relation to the purchase of the land.[62][63] Grey twice failed to recover the land in the Supreme Court, and when Williams refused to give up the land unless the charges were retracted, he was dismissed from the CMS in November 1849.[64][65][66] Governor Grey's first term of office ended in 1853. In 1854 Williams was reinstated to CMS after Bishop Selwyn later regretted the position and George Grey addressed the committee of the CMS and requested his reinstatement.[67][68]

When he returned to New Zealand in 1861 for his second term as governor, Sir George and Henry Williams meet at the Waimate Mission Station in November 1861.[69] Also in 1861 Henry Williams' son Edward Marsh Williams was appointed by Sir George to be the Resident Magistrate for the Bay of Islands and Northern Districts.

Following a campaign for self-government by settlers in 1846, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the New Zealand Constitution Act 1846, granting the colony self-government for the first time, requiring Māori to pass an English-language test to be able to participate in the new colonial government.[70] In his instructions to Grey, Colonial Secretary Earl Grey (no relation to George Grey) sent the 1846 Constitution Act with instructions to implement self-government.[5] George Grey responded to Earl Grey that the Act would lead to further hostilities and that the settlers were not ready for self-government.[5] In a dispatch to Earl Grey, Governor Grey stated that in implementing the Act, Her Majesty would not be giving the self-government that was intended, instead:

"...she will give to a small fraction of her subjects of one race the power of governing the large majority of her subjects of a different race... there is no reason to think that they would be satisfied with, and submit to, the rule of a minority"[71]

Earl Grey agreed and in December 1847 introduced an Act suspending most of the 1846 Constitution Act.[72] Grey wrote a draft of a new Constitution Act while camping on Mount Ruapehu in 1851, forwarding this draft to the Colonial Office later that year.[72] Grey's draft established both provincial and central representative assemblies, allowed for Māori districts and a Governor elected by the General Assembly.[73] Only the latter proposal was rejected by the Parliament of the United Kingdom when it adopted Grey's constitution,[72] the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852.

Grey was briefly appointed Governor-in-Chief on 1 January 1848,[74] while he oversaw the establishment of the first provinces of New Zealand, New Ulster and New Munster.

Treaty obligations

In 1846, Lord Stanley, the British Colonial Secretary, who was a devout Anglican, three times British Prime Minister and oversaw the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833,[75][76] was asked by Governor Grey how far he was expected to abide by the Treaty of Waitangi. The direct response in the Queen's name was:

You will honourably and scrupulously fulfil the conditions of the Treaty of Waitangi... [77]

Following the election of the first parliament in 1853, responsible government was instituted in 1856.[78] The direction of "native affairs" was kept at the sole discretion of the governor, meaning control of Māori affairs and land remained outside of the elected ministry.[79] This quickly became a point of contention between the Governor and the colonial parliament, who retained their own "Native Secretary" to advise them on "native affairs".[80] In 1861, Governor Grey agreed to consult the ministers in relation to native affairs,[80] but this position only lasted until his recall from office in 1867. Grey's successor as governor, George Bowen, took direct control of native affairs until his term ended in 1870.[81][82] From then on, the elected ministry, led by the Premier, controlled the colonial government's policy on Māori land.[81]

The short-term effect of the treaty was to prevent the sale of Māori land to anyone other than the Crown. This was intended to protect Māori from the kinds of shady land purchases which had alienated indigenous peoples in other parts of the world from their land with minimal compensation. Before the treaty had been finalised the New Zealand Company had made several hasty land deals and shipped settlers from Great Britain to New Zealand, hoping the British would be forced to accept its land claims as a fait accompli, in which it was largely successful.[83]

In part, the treaty was an attempt to establish a system of property rights for land with the Crown controlling and overseeing land sale to prevent abuse. Initially, this worked well with the Governor and his representatives having the sole right to buy and sell land from the Māori.[84] Māori were eager to sell land, and settlers eager to buy.[84]

Grey took pains to tell Māori that he had observed the terms of the Treaty of Waitangi, assuring them that their land rights would be fully recognised. In the Taranaki district, Māori were very reluctant to sell their land, but elsewhere Grey was much more successful, and nearly 33 million acres (130,000 km²) were purchased from Māori, with the result that British settlements expanded quickly. Grey was less successful in his efforts to assimilate Māori; he lacked the financial means to realise his plans. Although he subsidised mission schools, requiring them to teach in English, only a few hundred Māori children attended them at any one time.

During Grey's first tenure as Governor of New Zealand, he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (1848). When Grey was knighted he chose Tāmati Wāka Nene as one of his esquires.

Grey gave land for the establishment of Auckland Grammar School in Newmarket, Auckland in 1850. The school was officially recognised as an educational establishment in 1868 through the Auckland Grammar School Appropriation Act of the Provincial Government.[85] Chris Laidlaw concludes that Grey ran a "ramshackle" administration marked by "broken promises and outright betrayal" of Māori people.[86] Grey's collection of Māori artefacts, one of the earliest from New Zealand and assembled during his first Governorship, was donated to the British Museum in 1854.[87]

Painting of Sir George Grey by Daniel Louis Mundy 1860s

Grey was again appointed Governor in 1861, to replace Governor Thomas Gore Browne, serving until 1868.[27] His second term as Governor was greatly different from the first, as he had to deal with the demands of an elected parliament, which had been established in 1852.

Immediately prior to Grey's re-appointment as governor, there were rising tensions in Taranaki over land ownership and sovereignty that eventually led to the involvement of British military forces at Waitara, in what is called the First Taranaki War, from March 1860 until the fighting subsided in 1862.

The leaders of the King movement or Kīngitanga had written a letter to Governor Browne stating that the Waikato tribes had never signed the Treaty of Waitangi and that they were a separate nation. Browne regarded the stance of the Kīngitanga as an act of disloyalty; and prepared plans for the invasion of Waikato, in part to uphold "the Queen's supremacy" in the face of the Kīngitanga challenge.[88][89]

Grey launched the invasion of the Waikato in June 1863 amid mounting tension between Kingites and the colonial government and fears of a violent raid on Auckland by Kingite Māori. Grey used as the trigger for the invasion Kingite rejection of his ultimatum on 9 July 1863 that all Māori living between Auckland and the Waikato take an oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria or be expelled south of the Waikato River.[90]

The war brought thousands of Imperial British troops to New Zealand: 18,000 men served in the British forces at some point during the campaign, with a peak of about 14,000 troops in March 1864.[91]

The subsequent invasion included the Battle of Rangiriri (November 1863)—which cost both sides more men than any other engagement of the New Zealand Wars[92]—and the attack on Rangiaowhia (February 1864) a village largely occupied by women, children and older men. The 100 Māori deaths have been regarded as murder, rather than an act of war.[7][93]

The campaign ended with the retreat of the Kingitanga Māori into the rugged interior of the North Island and the colonial government confiscating about 12,000 km² of Māori land.[94] The defeat and confiscations left the King Movement tribes with a legacy of poverty and bitterness that was partly assuaged in 1995 when the government conceded that the 1863 invasion and confiscation was wrongful and apologised for its actions.[94]

In the later 1860s, the British government determined to withdraw Imperial troops from New Zealand. At the time the Māori chiefs Te Kooti and Titokowaru had the colonial government and settlers extremely alarmed with a series of military successes. With the support of the Premier Edward Stafford, Grey evaded instructions from the Colonial Office to finalise the return of the regiments, which had commenced in 1865 and 1866. In the end, the British government recalled (removed) Grey from the office of Governor in February 1868.[27] He was replaced by Sir George Bowen and during his term hostilities concluded with the abandoned pursuit of war leader Riwha Titokowaru – again in Taranaki – in 1869.

Grey was greatly respected by some Māori and often travelled with a company of chiefs. He induced leading chiefs to write down their accounts of Māori traditions, legends and customs. His principal informant, Te Rangikāheke, taught Grey to speak Te Reo Māori.[27] Historian Michael King noted:

He learned Māori and persuaded Māori authorities to commit their legends and traditions to writing, some of which were subsequently published ... His collected papers would turn out to be the largest single repository of Māori-language manuscripts.[95]

Grey bought Kawau Island in 1862, on his return to New Zealand for a second term as governor. For 25 years, he lavished large amounts of his personal wealth on developing the island. He enlarged and remodeled Mansion House, the former residence of the copper mine superintendent.[96] Here he planted a huge array of native and non-native trees and shrubs, and acclimatised many exotic birds and other animal species.[96] The invasive species he introduced included pine trees and Australian marsupials (possum and wallabies), which went on to become significant weeds and pests.[97] He also amassed a celebrated collection of rare books and manuscripts, many purchased from the Auckland bibliophile Henry Shaw, artworks and curiosities, plus artefacts from Māori.[98] In 1865, during Grey's second term as governor, the capital was transferred to Wellington, which was seen as a better choice for an administrative capital because of its proximity to the South Island. Grey had appointed the commissioners responsible for the recommendation.[99]

Although by philosophy Grey was a liberal, his extremist views on the questions of the British Empire, of emigration, of Home Rule for Ireland and the cause of the English poor were contrary to the interests of Gladstone's Liberal government. Grey was marked as a "dangerous man". In 1870, at a parliamentary by-election for the Borough of Newark that followed the death of the sitting Liberal MP, Grey stood as an independent liberal against Gladstone's Liberal candidate Sir Henry Storks. Determined that Grey should not be elected and seeing that splitting the liberal vote would result in both Grey and Storks losing to the Conservative candidate, the Liberal government engineered an arrangement where both would withdraw, leaving another Liberal candidate, Samuel Boteler Bristowe, to take the seat. Storks was rewarded with the post of Surveyor-General of the Ordnance and Grey returned to New Zealand later that year.[103]

• "A summary of 1863", New Zealand Herald, 31 December 1863
• "Letter to the editor", New Zealand Herald, 26 February 1864
• "Letter to the editor", New Zealand Herald, 19 May 1864
• "William Thompson criticised for treachery", New Zealand Herald, 11 October 1864
• "William Thompson obituary", New Zealand Herald, 5 February 1867
• "George Grey obituary", New Zealand Herald, 21 September 1898
• "Comment of George Grey", New Zealand Herald, 22 September 1898
• "The Kingitanga represents our history – and future", NZ Herald online
• "The year Auckland went mad", NZ Herald online, 25 August 2010
• The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 2 (1 June 1933), "Famous New Zealanders – No. 3 Sir George Grey – Some Impressions of a Great Administrator"