"Sir George Grey and his Relations with the Maoris"

Abstract

George Grey was born at Lisbon on April 14th 1812, and, as one of his biographers points out the place of his birth was indeed significant, for not only was he born out of England but he was destined to spend almost all the year of his manhood and his old age in distant lands, in the service of the Mother Country, for whom his father gave his life. Indeed several of the incidents of Grey's early life were significant of the man who was to come, not the least of these his act of mutiny in running away from school at the somewhat early age of thirteen. It was a revolt against authority and restraint, and acts similar in spirit, though different in form, were to occur many times during his career. To some of them he owed some of the greatest successes of his life, while for others he received severe censure, and to one final display of his supreme contempt for authority was due his ultimate recall from New Zealand and dismissal from the Imperial Service at an age, when he could with reason have looked forward to many years of distinguished service.