A US TR A LA SI A ILL US TRA TED. 



but was again cut down. In March, 1845, it had been erected thrice, and on the nth 

 of the month was cut down for the fourth time, and the town of Kororareka .destroyed 

 by fire when occupied by the British troops. It contained some four hundred souls, 

 who were sent on board a ship in the Bay and conveyed to Auckland, the settlement 

 being abandoned. About the end of April the Governor proclaimed war against the 

 native insurgents, re-inforcements having arrived at Auckland from Sydney. Several 

 expeditions were undertaken against the rebels, in which the British troops suffered 

 great loss without gaining any advantage. These reverses diminished the British prestige, 

 and induced many malcontents who lost faith in the troops' invincibility to join the 

 insurgents. The war, coupled with the lack of funds for almost any purpose whatever, 

 caused Captain Fitzroy to be recalled by Lord Stanley in May, 1845. 



GOVERNOR GREY. 



Captain Grey, who was now appointed Governor, was courteously received on his 

 arrival in Auckland on the i4th of November, 1845, by Captain Fitzroy, from whom 

 he obtained the most valuable assistance and information upon entering on his new 



duties. He found that some naval 

 and military forces had arrived from 

 China, and that others were to follow. 

 Naval and military men of known 

 ability had been selected with consider- 

 able care to aid him in the difficult 

 circumstances in which he was placed. 

 He thus occupied a much stronger 

 position than that in which his pre- 

 decessor had laboured. Among the 

 officers was Colonel Despard, in com- 

 mand of the troops, who had already 

 acquired some experience in Maori war- 

 fare ; Commodore Graham, a distin- 

 guished naval officer, the brother of 

 Sir James Graham ; and Sir Everard 

 Home, who bore a high reputation not 

 only for naval ability but for his 

 scientific attainments. After the Gover- 

 nor's installation he proceeded to the 

 Bay of Islands, where the war was 

 still in progress. He gave the natives 

 to understand that after a certain fixed 



date he expected the belligerents to return to the loyalty which they had promised to 

 observe by the Treaty of Waitangi, the conditions of which he also intended scrupulously 

 to maintain. Returning to the seat of Government before the I3th of December, he passed 

 the "Arms Importation Ordinance," prohibiting the natives from acquiring arms, gun- 

 powder, or other warlike stores. This step on his part alarmed man) 1 people, who 



, ,. ' 



SIR GEORGE GREY. 



