1875 - Carter, C. R. Life and Recollections of a New Zealand Colonist. Vol. III. [NZ sections only] - CHAPTER XVI. A MEETING OF COLONISTS AT A RAILWAY HOTEL...p 185-197

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CHAPTER XVI.

ON our second arrival in England from New Zealand, and after an absence of two years, I found London much about the same, in appearance, as when we had last left. The health of our daughter--though it was still delicate--was, I am happy to say, much improved by the sea-voyage.

For some months, now, I had leisure to look about me. At this time trade was dull in England, and public meetings were being held at which emigration was recommended as a remedy for existing distress. There was also considerable discussion going on respecting our Colonies and their relation to the Empire at large. It was quite evident that the leaders of both the Conservative and the Liberal parties had made up their minds to withdraw all British soldiers from the Australasian Colonies, but they hesitated to do so.

On the 1st of December, 1869, I attended a meeting of

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Colonists at the Cannon Street Terminus Hotel. This meeting was convened for the purpose of calling public attention to the importance of the Colonies to England, and to protest against their being suffered to drift away from the Empire through sheer neglect of them on the part of the British Government, and in consequence of its decision to withdraw the garrisons from some of them. At this meeting I met my old Colonial friends Sir George Grey and Mr. Sewell, and exchanged cordial greetings with them. We were all Colonists there. One paper designated us "Returned Colonists." Nearly every British Colony furnished a Colonist to this Meeting, who was on a visit to or resided permanently in England. I do not know whom we represented but ourselves. At all events, we were not accredited to act by any of the Colonies, and hereafter what we were doing might be termed presumptuous or officious by the colonial press. Some effective speeches were made, and this agitation--like most agitations--had weight with those in high places--who were not unfairly charged with being in favor of measures calculated to diminish the extent and prestige of the Empire. There were several meetings held at Cannon Street. I heard Sir George Grey and Mr. Sewell speak at one of them. The irrepressible Mr. Wilson of the Melbourne Argus seemed to act as leader. The result was that a deputation waited on the then Secretary for the Colonies, Lord Granville, on the 15th of December, at the old official bureau, the world-known Downing Street. Sewell asked me to go, and in consequence I was present at the interview. The room we were ushered into was rather large, but with a low ceiling. The deputation was large, and was introduced in the usual manner. Lord Granville received us in a bland and smiling way. Several Colonists addressed his Lordship, and after hearing them and asking if any one else wished to speak, and there being no answer, he made a long, elaborate, and able reply, evidently carefully prepared

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and intended to confuse rather than convince or refute the arguments of the deputation speakers. In fact, it seemed to me that the reply was in answer to what had been said at the Cannon Street meetings, where there were facts, arguments, and statistics in the speeches, combined with boldness and spirit in their delivery. If so, the reply was very defective: but taken as a rejoinder to what was so timidly said, so feebly urged, and so mildly put by the Colonial speakers, on this occasion, it was very effective and made the deputation look rather ridiculous. Then it must be borne in mind that there were at least two Lords and a Duke present, before which class Englishmen are apt to stand abashed. Yet in Lord Granville's personal appearance there was nothing aristocratic or calculated to produce a feeling of awe. He looked very much like a good-natured and educated middle-aged well-to-do farmer. Perhaps his title was the cause of the effect produced. "Who is that speaking?" I quietly remarked to a gentleman (Mr. Wilson, I think) standing next to me. "Hush," said he, "that's Lord Milton." You might have heard a pin drop, all were so anxious to hear a Lord speak. I looked towards his Lordship. I could not help feeling for him--he looked so pale and sickly--and he was a most indifferent speaker. Had he been a commoner, I thought, how different his reception would have been.

It also occurred to me that the British nation must be very easily governed, if such ordinary, but easy-going educated gentlemen, like Lord Granville and other noblemen can govern successfully. However, position is everything in England; but then there is this difficulty, position cannot dispense with the assistance and talents of a Gladstone or a Disraeli, or even a John Bright.

Next day after the above interview, the members of the deputation awoke to find themselves, if not famous, yet public property, for the Government had sent a report of their interview with Lord Granville to all the principal morning

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newspapers, which report was headed with their names, and was intended to show how the deputation had been discomfited by the Colonial Minister. It certainly was a wet blanket that damped the ardour of active Colonial politicians in London.

I must now briefly record that on the 5th of January, 1870, we had to mourn the untimely loss of our daughter--our only child--who died of scarlet fever, after about three weeks illness, and in her nineteenth year. Her remains were interred in the catacombs in Highgate Cemetery. The following copy of an extract from a letter of condolence, which I received from an old and tried friend, will help to show the extent of the grievous and irreparable loss we had sustained:--

During the year 1869, the N.Z. Government had appointed Dr. Featherston and Mr. Dillon Bell as Commissioners to proceed to England, to settle certain vexed questions and disputes between the Colony and the British Government. They arrived in England in January, 187.0. I saw Featherston at the Charing Cross Hotel on the 24th, the day after his arrival. I found him in excellent spirits, and he expressed himself as sure to have his own way with the Imperial Government. I told him I thought he would not be able to induce the Home Government to allow the recalled regiment to remain. "Oh! yes, I think I can," he said, with his usual significant nod. I replied, "I know your success as a negotiator is great, but I fear that in this case the utmost you will do, will be to get a guarantee to a loan and assistance in raising a body of men on your own account." He dissented from this opinion. On the 27th, he and Mr. Bell had an interview with Lord Granville, and on the 29th, he dined with his Lordship. Lord Westbury and several Cabinet Ministers were present.

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After dinner the party returned to the drawing room where Lady Granville was reclining on a sofa. Featherston entered into conversation with her for about half an hour, when seeing one or two of the guests leaving he rose, took his leave of her Ladyship, and was about to go also. Just as he had left the drawing room, Lord Granville called after him and took him into another apartment. There he assured him how glad he should be to see him at the Colonial Office. "Say when you will come; fix your own time, and bring your credentials with you," said his Lordship. The Doctor felt himself in excellent cue, and replied, "My Lord, I have but one proposal to make and till I have an answer to that, I cannot go into any other." His Lordship seemed struck with this remark, and said, "We have half the Cabinet here, let us talk the matter over;" so Messrs. Bright and Lowe and the Lord Chancellor were called in to discuss New Zealand matters, and listen to Featherston's reasons for not withdrawing the troops from our Colony. The Ministers hinted at the propriety of acknowledging the Maori King, and Lord Granville expressed the willingness of the Government to assist New Zealand with officers for any military forces she might raise herself, or to let her have discharged Indian soldiers or constabulary, but British troops must be withdrawn. In reply to this, Featherston asked the following decided and pertinent question:-- "Is it your policy to serve all the Colonies as you have served New Zealand? If it is, dare you avow it? You say, 'acknowledge the Maori King.' Can you legally do so?" I don't know what the Ministerial response to this was: but the meeting broke up without any definite understanding being come to. 1

The result of the troop question was that on the anniversary of the foundation of the settlement of Wellington, namely--

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January 22nd, 1870 (seven days before the date of the dinner above named), her Majesty's ship "Virago" sailed from Wellington Harbor with the last detachments of the 18th regiment on board, and on the 19th of February following, the head quarters of the last Imperial regiment, the 2nd Battalion of the 18th, left Auckland in the steamer "Hero."

Thus on the 19th of February, 1870, the last Imperial soldier departed from the shores of New Zealand.

Many centuries ago, there was a great Roman Empire-- showing signs of decline--that withdrew its troops from the shores of Britain. At the present day, that same Britain (another Empire, greater than the world has yet seen, and which rules 238 millions of people in India alone), has withdrawn its legions from one of its remote island dependencies--colonized by its own people. Is this a sign of weakness? No thinking man can call it an indication of strength. It may be policy to do so--at the same time it is just as well to be frank, and acknowledge that henceforth the British Empire must be contracted rather than extended, and that therefore it has entered upon the first phase of decline.

If Dr. Featherston was unsuccessful about the retention of the troops in New Zealand, he certainly was much more fortunate in this loan of one million. I know the difficulties he had, in inducing the Home Government to give an Imperial guarantee to so large a sum. At first, the utmost they would do was to give a guarantee to only half a million. Bell would have consented to a guarantee on a small sum; but the persistence and inflexibility of Featherston prevailed over the scruples and fears of Lord Granville. It is easy work for an Agent to come home to raise a loan and place it in the hands of the Crown Agents, to make all the calculations respecting it, arrange the mode of issue, advertise it and receive applications for it. It is a very different thing to induce a Government to guarantee a loan of one million, when it is well known that

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they are much opposed to it; and what a gain to a Colony it is, when the saving in interest is considered. Without this loan, as a stand-by, Mr. Vogel's recent borrowing operations would have been jeopardised, if not frustrated.

At the risk of being tedious, but in justice to Dr. Featherston, I will here place on record a few particulars connected with his mission to England in conjunction with Mr. Bell--in the year 1870. In the Colony it was well known that these two gentlemen had not been remarkable for their cordiality in their political relations when associated together. Mr. B. was vain and assuming without being a man of great ability; while Dr. F. was a man of great ability and without vanity or assumption. In the Colony, as public men and old Colonists, they were both respected but not in an equal degree --the lion's share of respect being generally awarded to the "Doctor." At first, while acting as Commissioners in London, in 1870, they played at cross purposes; besides, while Dr. Featherston was away in the north at the end of April, there was a little intriguing going on. Mr. J. Morrison, our Agent, wanted to take some credit for a little emigration scheme of his own, or rather for one, the abstruse calculations of which a friend of mine (Mr. Temple) had worked out for him. This scheme was intricate and impracticable. It affected to show how 50,000 emigrants might be introduced in ten years, at the rate of 5000 a-year, and was introduced as a self-supporting scheme, requiring only yearly advances of from £60,000 to £93,000 (£426,692 in all, to be repaid in thirteen and a half years) from the Imperial Government to set it agoing. Mr. Morrison--through the kind agency of a member of Parliament (Mr. Magniac)--succeeded in bringing his scheme under the notice of Lord Granville, but, as might be expected, it fell through.

Featherston's colleague, Mr. Bell, became aware of this, and, not to be outdone, took the matter up in order to do a little

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business and gain credit on his own account, while the Doctor was away; so Mr. Bell talked over his scheme with the Under-Secretary for the Colonies, Mr Monsell.

One day, at this time, I called upon Mr. Bell at Charing Cross Hotel. I asked him how Featherston was getting on in health at the north. "Oh!" he replied, "he is very well, and I should recommend him to stop there some time longer." The Doctor did not "stop there some time." He returned to town sooner than was expected.

A day or two after his return I called upon him in the large front room of the first floor of the Charing Cross Hotel. Mr. Bell was seated at the opposite end of the room. After we had chatted a little, in came Sir Charles Clifford, who with his usual brusqueness said to the Doctor, "What is this I hear, Featherston? Monsell has been telling me you have been negotiating for a small loan of £25,000 a-year, for emigration purposes." The Doctor, surprised, said that he did not know anything about it. Bell up to this time had not apparently noticed the entrance of Sir Charles Clifford. This is readily explained, for Bell was very near-sighted. Featherston then turned to Bell, and said, "Good God! Bell, surely you have not been proposing anything of the kind? nothing less than a million will do." Bell colored up, and admitted he had had "some talk" with Monsell, about a loan and about emigration matters. The fact was, he had been negotiating for an advance of £25,000 a-year, the interest of which was to be paid by the Colony to the Imperial Government annually; and at the expiration of three years, one third of the principal was to be repaid: and then, if all went on well, New Zealand might go on again in the same way and continue till 50,000 emigrants, some day, might probably be introduced. Mr. Monsell expressed his surprise--in reference to Mr. Bell's scheme-- that the Colony was content with so little. Shortly after this, Featherston told me he was almost afraid to leave Bell a day

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by himself. I have no doubt Mr. Bell was very anxious to do his best for the Colony, and thought that the Doctor asked too much. We shall see which proved right. I doubted the Doctor's success.

Fresh negotiations were opened with the Colonial Office, which on the 10th of May resulted in Lord Granville's agreeing to guarantee half a million sterling if the Doctor would sue for it in forma pauperis. This the Doctor declined to do. The security to be given for the half million offered, was to be 3 1/2 per cent. Treasury bills, to be issued each year as the money might be required, and repayable at the end of ten years, by means of a special loan raised on the Colony's own credit. Doctor Featherston's terms were simply an Imperial guarantee on one million to be raised by the Colony, and which was to be expended on the construction of roads, and other public works, and employment of Maories on them. Featherston offered to telegraph to the N.Z. Government the offer made by Lord Granville, but declined to recommend its acceptance. Negotiations seemed on the point of being broken off. Several wordy and stormy messages passed between the two: private notes were written in which separation of the Colony from the Empire was alluded to: but neither would give way.

May the 11th came, when the telegram must be despatched. Featherston and, I think, Mr. Bell went to the Colonial Office to show Lord Granville the telegram they were about to forward to New Zealand. His Lordship was out; they saw the permanent Under Secretary, Sir Frederick Rogers, who desired them not to send it without Granville's first seeing it. He recommended Featherston to go to his Lordship's private residence in Bruton Street. As the telegram was to be sent away at 4 p.m. the Doctor went, but found him from home. Lord Granville had gone to be present at the ceremony of opening the University of London, at Burlington Gardens (of which place of learning he was Chancellor), said his private

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secretary. Would the Commissioners wait? he knew his Lordship was anxious to see them; could they not agree to delay the transmission of the telegram in question? intimated the same gentleman.

The Commissioners agreed to wait and delay the telegram until 5 p.m. They returned to their hotel, where, very soon after, the private secretary arrived, and informed them that Lord Granville would not insist on the Commissioners asking for the £500,000, but would make the offer himself; to which Featherston replied, "I will forward the Imperial offer to the Colony, but will not recommend its acceptance." And so the telegram was flashed across the Mediterranean--over the desert in Egypt--down the Red Sea--on to Aden--across to Bombay, and forwarded overland to Point de Galle in time to catch the mail steamer to Australia. When the Doctor had finished telling me all this, on the evening of the 13th, I went away impressed with the belief that this was a final offer. The Doctor seemed to think the game almost up, for in a day or two he said he was off to the Continent for a week's holiday.

On the Monday following, May 16th, I was surprised to see a short paragraph in a morning paper, to the effect, that the Imperial Government had consented to guarantee a loan of one million sterling to New Zealand, to be expended on public works and emigration, and that Parliament would be asked to sanction the same.

On the evening of the same day I saw Featherston, who handed me two proposed new telegrams to read. One was by Granville, the other by the Doctor, which he had written himself because he thought his Lordship's was rather ambiguous. The Imperial telegram stated that N. Z. Treasury bills bearing 3 1/2 per cent, interest were to be given by the Colony to the British Government. Dr. Featherston, in his telegram, left these words out, and introduced the word "conciliatory."

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The Doctor's telegram was in its turn altered by Lord Granville, and the result was, a telegram embracing the views of both these negotiators was agreed to, and in consequence the two preceding ones were cancelled. The mutually accepted telegram was sent off at half-past 10 p.m. on Saturday night, May the 14th, orders having been previously given to "clear the line" through to Bombay for two Government messages. That night, I presume, the two Commissioners slept soundly, and dreamt pleasantly about thanks and monetary gifts to be bestowed on them by an appreciative Colonial Parliament, and a grateful public, on their return to New Zealand.

On the evening of the 16th of May, the Representatives of the Colony were honored. They attended a grand ball, given by her Majesty at Buckingham Palace, in court costume. There they found the usual crowd and crush of gaily and splendidly dressed ladies and gentlemen of the period; but as I never heard of any one of these high-classed, and highly civilized people either feeling very happy or even comfortable on such state occasions I presume that the two gentlemen in question were not an exception to a general rule. However that might be, one sad misadventure befel them. They left the palace at about two o'clock in the morning. At the Palace gates "The Commissioners' carriage" was called out again and again: but no "Commissioners' carriage," appeared: no Commissioner's carriage was to be found; no Commissioners' carriage was there, and what was worse, no cab was to be had for love or money. What was to be done? The morning was fine but cold; their knee breeches and silk stockings were thin and the rest of their finery and glittering swords had rather a theatrical appearance; but I am happy to say they were equal to the occasion for they walked home to Charing Cross by way of St. James' Park and the Birdcage Walk--with no one to stare at them excepting people of nocturnal habits. The Doctor related this adventure with great glee the day after it

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happened. He was always fond of a joke, and told an anecdote with wonderful effect, even when it went against himself.

After this, on the 28th of the same month, came Lord Granville's dinner in town, in honor of the Queen's birthday, to which Sir George Grey, Dr. Featherston and Mr. Bell were invited,and which they attended. Grey had had some unpleasant recent correspondence with the Colonial Office (the chiefs of which I am of opinion had not behaved well to him--an old and faithful servant of the Crown) and he was invited, as it were, to come and shake hands and let by-gones be by-gones; but he arrived the last guest, sat a considerable distance from Lord Granville, and excused himself for being late by saying he had called for Mr. Torrens (M.P.) and Mrs. Torrens, not being a punctual lady, was not ready, which detained him. Suffice it to say, I was told it was a pleasant party, though there did not appear to be any cordiality between Granville and Grey.

In February of this year I agreed with Mr. Stanford, Charing Cross, to publish a small volume I had written, and entitled "Victoria the British El Dorado." He undertook all risks of publishing, and the profits, if any, were to be equally divided. The book appeared, and was reviewed in the highest quarters in the most favorable manner, as may be seen from extracts from the various critiques in the Appendix to this volume. The result to myself, from a pecuniary point of view, was not satisfactory. I may say I lost nothing-- neither did I gain anything.

I went one evening to hear Charles Dickens read portions of his own works. At this time his age was 58. His appearance was that of a middle-sized tallish spare man. His hair was grey, yet there was juvenility in his manner. I expected great things from him, yet I was a little disappointed. His voice was not powerful enough to fill St. James's Hall, and he did not seem to captivate his hearers. He made his farewell speech at this the last of his series of readings, at the conclusion of which he said:--

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This was in March, 1870; on the 9th of June following he died in harness.

While writing his last book, the "Mystery of Edwin Drood," he was taken ill, and twenty-four hours afterwards he was dead. He was a great writer, and is deservedly popular wherever the English language is spoken.

On the 28th of October, 1870, I took my leave of Dr. Featherston, who left next day for New Zealand, via Suez. Just prior to his departure, he told me that he had some hopes of returning to England as sole Commissioner for New Zealand.