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 He was not a theorist, but a practical reformer. Unlike Sir George Grey, he took up no reform until he was prepared to apply it immediately. If it was not practical, and if the time was not ripe, he would lay it aside or wait. In the meanwhile he would not waste time and energy on it. He never expected to do things all at once, and was not disappointed when he failed. He would try again by-and-by, more strenuously. He was willing to take small profits and slow returns. He did not despise piecemeal methods. Short and steady stages were good enough for him. Slowly and surely he removed obstructions to the people’s development, and offered facilities to bring about a better state of affairs. That was what he had in his mind when he talked of humanitarian legislation. It was that spirit which he endeavoured to infuse into all the progressive laws and State experiments tried by his Government. He liked to call those measures “Our Humanities.” He even had a classification for them, placing them in the following order:—


 * (1) Humanity for the mother and the infant.
 * (2) Humanity for the young.
 * (3) Humanity for the worker.
 * (4) Humanity for the old and feeble.

His memorandum on the preservation of child life, sent out to the people through the newspaper press in 1904, was widely read. In it he sketched many new departures and made many suggestions, some of which he saw embodied in laws before he passed away. His mind had been greatly exercised by the Report of a Royal Commissioner in New South Wales on the falling-off in the natural increase. He set his officers to collect information in New Zealand, and when the results of the inquiry were placed before him, he saw that the evil existed in his colony as well as in Australia, although not to the same extent. He was led to the conclusion that it was his duty to do something for the preservation of infant life. He was there to prevent sorrow and affliction as far as he could.

“Too much money is spent in coffins, headstones, and funeral expenses,” he said; “and it is pure hypocrisy to