stoms duties at
Kororareka. Naturally a cry at once went up from other parts of the
Colony for a similar concession. The unhappy Governor, endeavouring
to please them all, like the donkey-owner in AEsop's Fables, abolished
Customs duties everywhere. To replace them he devised an astounding
combination of an income-tax and property-tax. Under this, not only
would the rich plainly pay less in proportion than the poor, but a
Government official drawing L600 a year, but owning no land, would pay
just half the sum exacted from a settler who, having invested L1,000
in a farm, was struggling to make L200 a year thereby. The mere
prospect of this crudity caused such a feeling in the Colony that he
was obliged to levy the Customs duties once more. His next error was
the abandonment of the Government monopoly of land purchase from the
Maoris. As might be expected, the pressure upon all rulers in New
Zealand to do this, and to allow private bargaining with the natives
for land, has always been very strong, especially in the Auckland
district. Repeated experience has, however, shown that the results are
baneful to all concerned--demoralizing to the natives, and by no means
always profitable to the white negotiators. When Fitzroy proclaimed
that settlers might purchase land from the natives, he imposed a duty
of ten shillings an acre upon each sale. Then, when this was bitterly
complained of, he reduced the fee to one penny. Finally, he fell back
on the desperate expedient of issuing paper money, a thing which he
had no right to do. All these mistakes and others he managed to commit
within two short years. Fortunately for the Colony, he, in some of
them, flatly disregarded his instructions. The issue of paper money
was one of the few blunders the full force of which Downing Street
could apprehend. Hence his providential recall.

Before this reached him he had drifted into the last and worst of his
misfortunes, an unsuccessful war, the direct result of the defeat at
the Wairau and the weakness shown thereafter. It was not that he and
his missionary advisers did not try hard enough to avert any conflict
with the Maoris. If conciliation pushed to the verge of submission
could have kept the peace, it would have been kept. But conciliation,
without firmness, will not impress barbarians. The Maoris were far too
acute to be impressed by the well-meaning, vacillating Governor. They
set to work, instead, to impress him. They invited him to a