Grey, SIR GEORGE, K.C.B.

Grey, SIR GEORGE, K.C.B., governor and commander-in-chief of New Zealand, was born at Lisbon, in Portugal, in 1812. He was educated at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and on attaining his captaincy undertook in 1837 the exploration of the interior of Australia. In September 1838 he organised another expedition to explore the Swan River district. He returned to England in 1840, and published his Journals of Two Expeditions in North-western and Western Australia. His enterprise and ability obtained for him, unasked, in 1841, from Lord J. Russell, then Colonial Secretary, the post of governor of South Australia. In 1846 he was made governor of New Zealand. Both here and in Australia his first task was to acquire the language of the natives, with whom he became more popular than any preceding governor. His government appeared to the authorities at home to be so wise and conciliatory that in 1848 he was made K.C.B. (civil), and in 1854 was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the Cape of Good Hope. The task of allaying the asperities and irritation left by the Kaffir war demanded high powers of statesmanship; Grey was, however, equal to the occasion. Industry revived, and brighter days began to dawn upon the colony. In 1858, however, the Colonial Office interfered with measures which he considered necessary, and he threw up his post and came to England. Public opinion at the Cape was so strongly manifested in his favour that he was requested by the government to resume his governorship. On the breaking out of the Indian mutiny Grey sent every soldier he could spare to the assistance of the Indian government, and received the acknowledgments of the British government and parliament for his promptitude and energy. In 1861 he was again appointed governor of New Zealand, in the hope that he would bring the war then raging in the colony to a satisfactory conclusion. The natives received him with joy and veneration, and he succeeded in bringing about pacific relations with the Maoris. He resigned his office and came to England in 1867, but afterwards returned to the colonies. Grey accepted the office of Superintendent of Auckland in 1875, with a seat in the Legislature, and he strongly but fruitlessly opposed the Abolition of the Provinces Act. After its passing his office of superintendent ceased; but in 1877 he became premier of New Zealand, and carried various acts of great practical utility. Grey had almost unbounded influence with the Maori chiefs, which he used in cultivating friendly relations between the natives and the white population. He resigned in 1884, but lived till 19th September 1898. He published Journals of Discovery in Australia (1841), Polynesian Mythology (1855), and Proverbial Sayings of the Ancestors of the New Zealand Race (1858). See Lives by Rees (3d ed. 1893) and Milne (1899).