HIS SEVENTY-SEVENTH BIRTHDAY. AN EVENTFUL CAREER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 360, 17 April 1889, Page 4

HIS SEVENTY-SEVENTH BIRTHDAY. AN EVENTFUL CAREER.

Auckland, April 13. Sir George Grey will complete his seventyseventh year to-morrow, and our readers will be pleased to learn that one who has so endeared himself to all classes in the c olony continues in good health, and in possession of all his faculties. The career of Sir George Grey has been an eventful one, and as the greater part of it was associated with colonial affairs, the following particulars supplied by himself at> the lequest of a Star reporter cannot but prove of very general inteiest. "I was born/ said Sir George, "at Lisbon on the 14th April, 1812. That was three days before the death of my lather, who was killed in an engagement at 13adajoz ou the borders of Spam. I was sent to Sandhurst military college, when fourteen years old, and entered the Army in January, 1838. "In 1837 1 was sent to Western Australia in command of an exploring expedition, and that was my introduction to the colonies. In 1838 I was wounded during an engagement with the natives of West Australia, and at the end of that year I went to Mauritius in consequence of illhealth. "I returned to Australia about the middle of 1839, and while there underwent great hardships and had to encounter great difficulties. My party were caught by a hurricane, something like the hurricane they had at Samo.i, and all our boats were wrecked at Shark Bay. I returned to Peith with three men, the rest of the party having broken down, to obtain assistance ior the others. One of them, Mr Frederick Smith, had perished before assistance readied him. He was a young man of extraordinary promise. "From Perth I went to King George's Sound as governor resident, and returned to England in 1839. "In May, 1840, 1 was appointed Governor of South Australia, ana at that time the colony was plunged in extraordinary difficulties of a financial kind. 1 remained thero till 1845, when 1 was sent tj New Zealand, which was a'so in very great difficulties. •'The Home Government were alarmed at the state of this colony in consequence of the native trouble? which had aiisen, and* they sent Colonel Robe via Sue/, where one ot the East India Company's vesseln met him, to carry despatches. He came on direct to South Australia to relieve me, and the same vessel took me on to New Zealand. "Vessels under Commander Graham had also been ordered from China, and additional military reinforcements were to arrive in a short period of time. "I arrived here in November or December, 1845, at the lime of Hekes war, and reinaiuedheretill December, 1854, when I proceeded to England on leave of absence, word having been sent to me of the severe illness of njy mother. "In 1855 I wjs appointed Governor at the Cape. The Kaffir war was then raging, but the whole of the difficulty had been overcome when I was recalled in 1858." '■The reason foi my recall was this. I had proposed the federation of the South Afiicun States, republic and all, on a system somewhat similar to that of New Zealand, the superintendents being called Lieutenant Governois, and the people of the different provinces being entitled to elect their LieutenantGovernors. This gave great offence to the party in power in England, and for that and other reason*, but chiefly because of my federation ptoposals, a few days after 1 had been recalled there was a considerable disturbance about these and a number of other matters, and the Ministry retired iroin office. Tv. j've days afterwards I was reinstated, but in the meantime I had left for Home " When I arrived Home I found that I had besn rei>. stated, so I returned to the Cape and remained there until I was sent lor the second time to New Zealand, war having broken out at Taranaki. I remained in New Zealand until the termination of the native distiubarices, in fact for six years, and at the termination oi my period of office I was succeeded by Nil (ieorgc Bowen. "At this time I was clo<e upon sixty yeaio ot age, and the Impetial Go\ eminent gave mo a pension. lieturned Home, but taking an immense inteiesl m New Zealand, I made arrangements pie\iously to pass, if possible, the decline ot my life in this colon}', as I consideied it to be a country suitable to me in every way. I returned to New Zealand as Governor once more in October, 1861. I felt satisfied, from what I paw in I ngland, that really the best way for bringing about leforms there was to initiate them in the colonies. I had come to the conclusion that in the colonies it was easy to induce j eople after a time to adopt \ eitectly new measmes if they saw that these were for the public good, and that you had none of the rooted pi ejudices and class interest to oveicome betoro these laws wera enacted which you had to meet in England, wheie the difficulty was to destroy ancient abuses and to .set up better institutions in their place. Here there were no ancient abuses, and people willingly took up a new thing which they thought was likely to promote their welfare. It appeared certain that if such measures did succeed in the colonies, their success would be heard of in England, and that, the experiment having succeeded here, the Buffering population in England would insist upon equal benefits being bestowed upon them with what their fellow subjects in the colonies enjoyed ; and that, therefore, it was really quite possible for a man to be more useful to Great Britain herself in the colonies than a single indhidual could be in Gieafc Britain. Obser. ation has .satisfied me that that is right, and that the hopes of the complete amelioi ation of things at Home rest upon the people in the new countries leadinw the onward march of progie3s in the right direction. Consequently I have never lamented the step that I took in trying to work upon England from an exterior point instead of from an interior one. I am firmly satisfied that colonists will prove the greatest benefactors to their country in this respect. " I shall always be proud, and rejoice in the fact that I have been one of those who have worked in raising New Zealand to the ■wonderful pitch of comfort of every kind which her inhabitants now enjoy, they having, I think, fully shown that there is no other country upon the face of the earth which yields the same variety of products, and which can produce them at so cheap a rate, so that our country population live in a greater degree of domestic comfort, and are surrounded by a greater number of all the solid advantages which render life enjoyable, than the inhabitants of any other country, j I believe, upon the face of the earth. | "I also believe this, that the qi eater number of improvements which have blessed the world, and which have so completely altered it from what ii> wa&

in my youth that one can hardly recognise ifc, have had fchoir origin in the colonies. The wonderful improvements that have taken place in the means of communication between one part of the earth and the other, and the extraordinary inventions made tor economising labour, undoubtedly arose principally from the colonies and the United States, for this reason that they literally had founded from several nations as it were, distinct iv language and customs of every kind, a general nation speaking one language, although made up of people from all civilised nations of the world ; that they all, becoming friends, and forgetting their international hereditary hatred?, i had inter-married, and, as it was the most enterprising from each country that generally came out, the intermixture of the races produced a raco as I believe superior in both mental and physical endowments and that naturally as they met in their common and difficult work of establishing a new country, each of these races learned something from their new comrades, that each to each iropaitcd knowledge and new methods for economising labour knoivn in their country, and bho best of these in each branch of industry were naturally adopted, while the most cumbrous and uselo?s were rejected ; that from these i combinations, new inventions sprang, and a fresh impetus was really given to the human intellect, which spread not only in the new countries but also in the "old countries. The new products, produced in such abundance in British owned territories created a commerce of extraordinary magnitude, and that again gave rhe to the great increase in cities in England, which were the maiks of industry to the world. From that combination of large populations sprang an increase of intellect and vigour and a competition in every branch of art which has fostered and developed all the newitnenlion«thathave taken place, and has amply repaid the inventors and those who at great cost carried their inventions into absolute practice." Speaking of his future movements Sir George ?aid, " I am now engaged on literary work relating to colonial subjects, and on its completion I propose to pay a visit to England. lam going there only for a visit, and with the full intention of returning to this colony for the remainder of my days " This concluded the interview, on which our rcpvesen'ative exprejscd hi& acknowledgments and withdiew.