MODESTY AND GREATNESS.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 70, 11 September 1880, Page 2

MODESTY AND GREATNESS.

Thkru are but few colonists who have not m some Tray or other heard of the name of the notorious Jambs Gordon Stuart Grant, of Dunedin. Mr. Grant's special mission during the quarter of a century during wh ; ch he has cumbered colonial earth has been divided between disseminating lying slandtrs about New Zealand and its colonists, and ringing the praises of •James Gordon Stuart Grant. At the present time the latter is m the asceadant, and this is how h« publishes his own autobiography m a Dunedin paper : — " It is just twenty-five years to-day since I landed m Dunedin. I slept the first night m a wooden shanty called the 'Eoyal Hotel,' standing on the site whereon they aro how erecting the new Bank of New Zealand, rlad I looked after salf m place of fighting other people's battles, I should to-day have been possessed of the fairest half of Dunedin and nearly all her suburbs. I came to Dunedin under an agreement, and the Government doas actually owe me £25,000. What I have written and printed would engage the lifetime of an ordinary man to transcribe. However, Dunedin is not likely to see another man of my stamp, nor, perhaps, any other city. As Byron said, ' I have not loved the world, nor the world mt.' After all my labors and sacrifices I am far poorer now then I was when I set foot on these shores. Comment, at present, is out of place. If ' the lines have not fallen to me m pleasant places,' let me not arraign the goo ? providence of God ; for, assuredly ' the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.' " Whatever doubt there may be about Mr. Grant's greatness, his excessive modesty is beyond all question. From an intimate acquaintance with Mr. Grant's colonial career, we heartily endorse his assertion that " Dunedin or any other city is not likely to look upon his like agaik," at least vre sincerely hope not.