1884 - Cox, A. Recollections - CHAPTER XXXII. Sir Frederick Weld

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CHAPTER XXXII

AMONGST the earliest colonists that may be said to have done wisely in steering for New Zealand is Sir Frederick Weld. Wellington can claim the honour of being the locality in which he first settled himself. He was a settler in the Wairarapa district before the province of Nelson tempted him to become a squatter in the district of Marlborough. All this, however, is of small consequence by the side of the fact that he soon became utilised in the service of the colony as a statesman.

As a settler in the Wairarapa, he had the reputation of being a fair-dealing as well as a plucky man in his daily intercourse with the Maoris. Like the rest of the earliest settlers in the North Island, he-had often to put up with the capricious ways of the Natives, but his manly, straight-forward way of treating them soon reconciled them to his presence amongst them.

He must have been a very young man when he first landed, in the province of Wellington. But the southern sun and the life of a settler quickly developed in him the qualities that were essential to success, both in his public as well as in his private undertakings. I first saw him in 1854, among the men who can claim the honour of having been in the first Parliament of New Zealand. I think he can also claim the honour of belonging to the first Ministry in New Zealand--a Ministry that distinguished itself by insisting on the recognition of the principle of "Ministerial responsibility." He belonged subsequently to the Ministry of which Stafford was the Premier. Finally, in 1864, on the retirement of the Fox-AVhrtaker Ministry, he-became the head of an administration, which may be referred to as connected with a most important period of the Parliamentary history of the colony. Mr. Weld's first administrative act was the removal of the seat of government from Auckland to Wellington. In the year 1865 Parliament met at Wellington, and from that year to the-present time Wellington has been the parliamentary and central seat of the Government of the colony. During Mr. Weld's tenure of office as Premier, the Governor and his responsible advisers seemed

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to have had no serious differences of opinion upon questions of policy or practice. Some Canterbury man, at this period in the history of responsible government, had the audacity to write--

Mr. Weld's career as a statesman is connected mainly with what was called the policy of "self-reliance." The carrying out of this policy involved the removal from the colony- of the Imperial troops. Gallantly as they had behaved--much good service as they had performed at a critical time in the history of the colony, breaking the neck of the Maori rebellion--it had become impossible, owing to serious disagreement between the Governor and the general in command of the troops, to carry on to a successful conclusion the operations that were still deemed necessary to secure a lasting peace throughout the North Island. The colony was thus almost driven to the necessity of thenceforth relying exclusively on the colonial forces for the defence of the colony. The necessity for employing these forces quickly arose, and was promptly faced by those in authority. As has been already mentioned in these pages, Sir George Grey distinguished himself on the West Coast of New Zealand by his pluck and generalship. The Press newspaper of May 1st, 1866, in reviewing the position of the colony during the year just passed, writes:--"A few months sufficed to show the result of the policy inaugurated by Mr. Weld. Without the assistance of a single Imperial soldier, and at a comparatively trifling cost, the murderers in the Bay of Plenty were chastised, and the Hau-Haus on the East Coast utterly defeated. The year 1865 will be remarkable, not, we hope, for being the only one in which the colony acted for itself, but for being the year in which the colony first threw off the leading strings of the mother country, and relied upon itself alone in the time of its greatest difficulties. Mr. Weld retired from office on discovering that he was not sufficiently supported in the House of Representatives. When he resigned office--to the great regret of a considerable-number of his friends and supporters- -he had still a majority, but it was so small and so uncertain--sometimes reduced to one--that he-preferred to leave with others the responsibility of governing the country. He could have retained office and scraped through the session had he chosen to submit to only as much--or rather, as little

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--support as his party chose to afford him; but men of a different stamp were needed to cling to office under such circumstances. After full notice to his party, he resigned." The writer in the newspaper referred to, says further: "The year 1865 will ever bear witness to the fact that if the Natives are to be subdued or governed, it must be by a local Government not by England; and by men who believe that the colony can fulfil its own duties, and not by men who do not."

During the time that Mr. Weld held office, the opposition party in Parliament was led by Mr. Stafford, his old colleague and chief. These are the instructive sights often recurring in party government that somewhat puzzle young members, and are wholly incomprehensible to outsiders. The encounters between Weld and Stafford were marked by earnestness and ability. Stafford was more than ordinarily aggressive in his attacks, Weld being quite prepared to meet him. We who were numbered among Weld's supporters, took pleasure in declaring that Weld had the best of it. The facts were in his favour, and the outspoken, straightforward style of his defence stirred the enthusiasm of his supporters and accounted for the discomfiture of his opponent.

Matter-of-fact as most men are, or like to consider themselves, in their politics, it is none the less true that on occasions they are deeply stirred by enthusiastic appeals to their sense of honour and chivalry. Mr. Weld, without being ranked among orators of the first order, had the gift of strong convictions and the courage of them, and had a very forcible style of giving utterance to them. None who heard him at Christchurch in those days, expressing his views on constitutional questions and what in the way of policy was at that time becoming in the colony to adopt, would be inclined to question his right to be spoken of as a powerful and impressive speaker. A few years only after the close of his political career in New Zealand, he was appointed to the Governorship of Tasmania; after that, to occupy a similar position in the Straits Settlements. Thus he has been Minister, Prime Minister, and Governor. If ever he should write his " confessions," we may expect to be told whether the role of Governor suited him as well as that of Prime Minister.