not a
more lasting effect was due, amongst other things, to the confiscation
policy.

To punish the insurgent tribes, and to defray in part the cost of the
war, the New Zealand Government confiscated 2,800,000 acres of native
land. As a punishment it may have been justified; as a financial
stroke it was to the end a failure. Coming as it did in the midst of
hostilities, it did not simplify matters. Among the tribes affected
it bred despair, amongst their neighbours apprehension, in England
unpleasant suspicions. At first both the Governor and the Colonial
Office endorsed the scheme of confiscation. Then, when Mr. Cardwell
had replaced the Duke of Newcastle, the Colonial Office changed front
and condemned it, and their pressure naturally induced the Governor to
modify his attitude.

An angry collision followed between him and his ministers, and in
November, 1864, the Ministry, whose leaders were Sir William Fox and
Sir Frederick Whitaker, resigned. They were succeeded by Sir Frederick
Weld, upon whose advice Grey let the confiscation go on. Weld became
noted for his advocacy of what was known as the Self-reliance
Policy--in other words, that the Colony should dispense with the
costly and rather cumbrous Imperial forces, and trust in future to the
militia and Maori auxiliaries. And, certainly, when campaigning began
again in January, 1865, General Cameron seemed to do his best to
convert all Colonists to Weld's view. He did indeed appear with a
force upon the coast north of Wanganui. But his principal feat was
the extraordinary one of consuming fifty-seven days in a march of
fifty-four miles along the sea beach, to which he clung with a
tenacity which made the natives scornfully name him the Lame Seagull.
At the outset he pitched his camp so close to thick cover that the
Maoris twice dashed at him, and though of course beaten off, despite
astonishing daring, they killed or wounded forty-eight soldiers. After
that the General went to the cautious extreme. He declared it was
useless for regulars to follow the natives into the forest, and
committed himself to the statement that two hundred natives in a
stockade could stop Colonel Warre with five hundred men from joining
him. He declined to assault the strong Weraroa _pa_--the key to the
west coast. He hinted depressingly that 2,000 more troops might be
required from England. In vain Sir George Grey urged him to greater
activity. The only result was a long and acrid corre