SIR GEORGE GREY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1960, 17 November 1874, Page 2

SIR GEORGE GREY.

[OTAGO DAILY TIMES.] Oar Auckland correspondent sends us the following interesting information about Sir George Grey : — It may not be uninteresting to your readers to hear something about Sir George Grey, as he is to most of the Otago people a perfect stranger. I need not say anything of his long connection with the Colony, of his wide experience as a Governor, and of his acquaintance with the inner circle of English official life, and with the leading politicians of the Liberal school. When in England, he stood for Parliament, "but his views being of an advanced character— of the same tone, in fact, as those of his friend Mr Edward Jenkins | he retired in favor of a second Liberal, who was put by local influence in the field against him. He took this step rather than split the votes of the constituency against his party. The whole of the proceedings are chronicled in Jenkins ! Lord Bantam ! the election scenes in which book aw those of Sir George Grey's candidature, pourtrayed by Mr Jenkins, who was with him at the time. I have had an opportunity of meeting a friend who knows much of Sir Georgs Grey and of Ma parsuits at Kawau, and who has only recently returned from a visit to that island. He tells me that he never saw Sir George more in earnest, or more aroused, than by the prospect of the constitutiodal changes before us. For several years he has been leading the life of a hermit so far as general society is concerned. His chief occupation has been the improvement of his beautiful, but by no means fertile, island, on which he has expended large sums of money, Kawau is about 30 miles from Auckland, and 10,000 acres . in extent. Ie was formerly was known as the site of the operations of an English Company, who erected smelting works and mined for copper on the island in the old New Zealand days. The smelting "works are still there, and the copper ore abounds, but is too pnor to pay so far as yet discovered. Sir George Grey has paid no attention to it, but expends his ample income in importing rare trees and plants, and in nutting the laud into English grasses. ' The island is dotted over with laborers' cottages, and is a. favorite resort for picnic parties on great occasions. In a beautiful quiet little bay the owner has built his house, and ha 3 therein collected what will form a very valuable addition to the Museum lucky enough hereafter to obtain them. Black letter books of the most rare character, and beautifully illuminated — an original Caxt<m of which the counterpart sold for L 320 in London latelv — fine specimens of block printing in valuable old books, and a rare collection of manuscripts, form part of the library which Sir George Grey has gathered about him. Among the manuscripts are some considered very precious, and of areat historical value. There is a Secret Treaty between Cromwell and the Hanseatic League and other Protestant powers,, to uphold Protestantism in Europe in case of attack. This treaty has not, I believe, been ever published, and I is doubly valuable because in the handwriting of John Milton. Among the signatures and seals are the name aad seal of P. Lisle, the husband of the Lady Alice Lisle, beheaded in James the First's reign for befriending rebels. There are also draft despatches prepared for Cromwell's perusal, with the corrections to be made in them in his own handwriting. In one instance complaining of the treatment from a foreign power as being " barely civil," old Oliver has dashed his pen through the milk and water phrase of his Secretary, and substitutfd for it " hardly borne." In others he has, with a bold dash, erased whole paragraphs of cqmpliment or useless verbiage. Then we have a valuable collection of despatches to Thurloe, Cromwell's Secretary of State, from Sir Philip Meadows. In one of these Meadows writes in the most artful strain to Thurloe, He tells the Secretary that he has just had a long interview .with, I think, the King of Sweden ; that the King is grieved to hear of the attempts made on his Highness's life, and of the troubles by which conspirators are surrounding him. Having gradually worked to the point, he quietly goes on to say that the "King expressed his surprise that his Highness did not avail himself of the right to which he had so clear a claim, and shield himself from these base attacks by assuming the Crown of England, and the sacredness with which that Grown would surround him. Never was temptation more skilfully, more cunningly, put before any man than in the few fell lines of this secret despatch. The collection has been for many years Sir • George's hobby, and no chance has been lost of making it more complete. On one occasion he heard of a sale of records and documents about to be made in Cologne, and sent an agent to that city, who succeeded in obtaining a fine collection of old seals attached to the documents with which G firman students and mechanics had their visits to various cities formally attested during their Wandetjahr. Add to all this, a rare collection of books, of paintings, and of engravings of various epochs and various matters, and you may form a fair idea of the mode in which Sir George Grey occupies the leisure hours after actively superintending the wopk on his plantation and farm. It is no slight or passing impulse that induces such a man, so placed, to break away from the quietude and the habits he has formed, and again occupy himself with public affairs. Perhaps the only thing that could have wrought the change was this question, affecting the Constitution which he had taken so Jarse a part in framing, and the Colony to which the best years of his life had been devoted. With the Constitution itself he has never, my friend tells me, been thoroughly satisfied. Ohanges were made in ie by Sir John Pakingtoa and by others in its passage through Parliament, which were distasteful at the time to Sir George. This was especially the cas« with reference to the constitution of the Upper House, which was elective in the original draft which Sir George sent to England. In connection with that Constitution, I may also mention, as a part of the Kawau collection, the seals of the Provinces of New Ulster and New Munster, which preceded the present system. Altogether, Sir George Grey's has been an eventful career. At the Cape, during the crisis that broke for ever the Kaffir power, and in New Zealand, during crises not less severe, he was ever the warm friend and staunch supporter of the cause he deemed right. Very often he upheld the Maoris against the Colonists, and inourred odium and un-

sparing abuse from the latter. More often he upheld the cause of the Colonists against the Colonial Office, and in one memorable instance refused point blank to obey orders which he considered injnrious to the Colony. In doing this his sacrifice was great, for it involved being put on the black books at Home, and would have been a serious barrier to future promotion had Sir George sought . it. Happily he was independent in position as well as in mind, and people in this Province, where he was once so well abused, feel an absolute sense of relief [ when they see him again coming to the front. If he go into Parliament, as he most likely will, Sir George Grey would at once be a power, and have at his back v a following intelligent and united to a a degree beyond that which any man without a loan expenditure at his back could hope to acquire.