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 The old man’s eloquence fired the imagination of the people, who were struck with profound veneration at the sight of the Great Pro-Consul descending from the towering heights of intellectual superiority to take part in the humdrum affairs of colonial life.

Things had gone very smoothly with the governing class until he came to preach the new crusade, and wherever he spoke he created a political disturbance.

He justified his appeals by devising a policy designed to bring about at least some of the great things he promised.

Although his words were sometimes meaningless, his policy was firm, straightforward, progressive and sound. He declared that the voice of the tax-gatherer should no longer be heard in the houses of the poor. His first measure, therefore, provided for a land tax; his second reduced the customs duties on the necessaries of life; and his third sought to tax the incomes of companies. That was the method by which he intended to make property bear a larger share of the burden of taxation, and to relieve the working classes. The land tax was one halfpenny in the pound on all land exceeding £500 in value; a customs reform measure abolished the duties on forty-three articles, reducing the duty on tea from 6d. to 4d., and on sugar from a penny to a half-penny; and companies were to pay a tax of 3d. in the pound on their incomes. By an Electoral Bill he proposed to give the country manhood suffrage. By a beer tax of 1½d. a gallon on beer, which was expected to yield £30,000 a year, he intended to amend his finances.

He took office in 1877, and met Parliament in the session of 1878 in a hopeful spirit. It was soon seen, however, that Sir George Grey in Parliament was a different Premier from Sir George Grey on the platform.

His Ministry was weak and disorganized. The policy was the policy of the Premier, not of the Government. The Premier said one thing, the Colonial Treasurer said another thing, and the Attorney-General said yet another thing. Nobody knew where the party was going.

It was weak when the session began; it grew weaker as the session advanced. Towards the end the Premier was facing a