NEW ZEALAND 



until the end of 1853, were his resistance to two unjust 

 acts of the Home Government consisting of a violation of 

 the land clause of the treaty of Waitangi and an unfair 

 constitution and the establishment of representative gov- 

 ernment on a just basis. He found the colony on the 

 brink of ruin and left it in a state of prosperity and pro- 

 gress, and although just at the end of his first term he 

 made the mistake of reducihg the price of public land from 

 £1 to IDS. and under certain conditions to 5s. an acre, 

 which led to the purchase of enormous territories by run- 

 holders, speculatars and monopolists and the locking up of 

 large estates in few hands. Yet his motive was excellent, 

 even in these cheap land regulations which he intended to 

 enable poor men to get farms, not forseeing the speculative 

 purchases and in spite of this mistake the Colony owes to 

 Karl Grey much that is best in its history. 



The New Zealand Company and its settlers at Welling- 

 ton, Auckland, Nelson, etc., were contiiiually agitating 

 for representative government and in August, 1846, the 

 British parliament enacted a constitution for the Colony. 

 But it was ill-made and wholly unjust to the Maoris, who 

 far out-numbered the whites, and who by the Treaty of 

 Waitangi had been guaranteed all the rights and privileges 

 of British citizens, yet were practically excluded from any 

 share in the government by the proposed constitution and 

 the instructions sent with it. Sir George Grey with a 

 moral courage and good sense, which did him great honor, 

 succeeded in postponing the enforcement of this constitu- 

 tion for several years until a just and reasonable, and at 

 the same time practicable one could be adopted. In 1852 

 Britain sent over the seas another constitution affcrding 

 substantial self government, and leaving the right to vote 

 open to Maoris as well as white men. It established a cen- 

 tral government and six provincial governments, the lower 

 House in each case being elective under a franchise based 

 on a property qualification. 

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