a peace-making
mission to this place, and was forced to spend the cold night amongst
Maoris who showed no readiness to receive his message, a hand was laid
upon him in the dim dawn, and the voice of the king-maker said, "You
will perish in this place. Arise, come down and stay with me." After
breakfast, he found Tamihana at his plough: "The day was wet; he was
soaked with rain and bedaubed with mud. The great man--for such he
really is--was dressed in a blue serge shirt and corduroy trousers,
without hat, and toiling like a peasant." The missionary was then taken
to the school, where this Maori Tolstoi gave the children some practical
problems in arithmetic, and a dictation lesson from his favourite Book
of Deuteronomy.

The latter part of 1861 saw a temporary improvement in the situation.
War was for the time suspended. The Stafford ministry were driven from
office by the vote of one of their friends, who felt the injustice of
their war policy, and--most important of all--the weak governor was
removed, and Sir George Grey sent back to take his place. Past suffering
did not prevent Henry Williams and his friends from welcoming one who,
with all his faults, was a real lover of the native race; and the
governor soon showed that he had not forgotten the mistakes he had
formerly made. One of his first acts was to go off by himself to Otaki,
and there to spend a day or two with Hadfield--son-in-law to Henry
Williams. "Of course," writes the latter, "they were agreed upon all
points." Somewhat later he called upon the patriarch himself at
Pakaraka, and consulted with him as to the best means of bringing peace
to the land. With generous trustfulness Henry Williams wrote, "I have
every confidence in Sir George, but he is in want of men to carry out
his views."

The period from October, 1861, to May, 1863, is thus interesting, as
being the last occasion in our history when it can be said that the
voice of the Church was really effective in guiding the policy of the
country. The indignant protests of Selwyn, Hadfield, and Martin had
taken effect; an enquiry into the Waitara case proved the illegality of
the Government's action. The new governor tried to establish a system
of local self-government among the Maoris, and to atone for the misdeeds
of the past. Henry Williams described the situation with characteristic
bluntness: "Of the feeling of the old ministry and their partisans,
there was no mistake: 'Hang the missionaries a