Like his father, King Tawhiao opposed the war in Taranaki. The government, however, remained unconvinced. In July 1860 Governor Gore Browne sought to isolate the Kingitanga and its supporters when he invited about 200 chiefs to a conference at Kohimarama near Auckland.
Grey assumed control on 18 November 1845. He believed FitzRoy’s
negotiations were ‘inconsistent with the interests of the British
Government’. Negotiations broke down in early December. Grey ordered Despard to move against Kawiti's new pa, Ruapekapeka.
Ruapekapeka may have been a tactical victory for the British. But many
consider the battle to be a draw. Heke and Kawiti had escaped with
their forces largely intact. The terms of the peace settlement that
followed suggests that the Maori had enjoyed a strategic victory.
Historian James Belich contends that Grey won the propaganda war and
Kawiti and Heke the real war on the battlefield. Others argue Belich’s
revisionism goes too far and maintain that Grey’s decisive action sent
a powerful message to Kawiti and Heke about the nature of their new
opponent.
Sir George Grey was our only politician for whom the premiership was an anticlimax. He governed autocratically from 1845 to 1853 (greatly shaping our constitutional arrangements) and returned as governor in 1861.
Governor George Grey personally led a small force that captured the Pai Mārire (Hauhau) pā at Weraroa, Waitōtara. But this had long lost its strategic significance, and the small garrison had seemed willing to surrender.
Grey played a central role in 19th-century New Zealand politics, serving two terms as Governor before entering Parliament to fight Vogel's plans to abolish the provinces. He was the first person to hold both positions.
Grey served two terms as Governor and later one as Premier. His most notable achievement in his first term as Governor (1845-53) was probably his management of the relationship between the Crown and Māori.
The battle at Ruapekapeka, the 'bats nest’, was the last encounter of the Northern War. Debate soon raged as to whether the pa had been abandoned by its defenders or captured by the British.
During what turned out to be his final campaign in New Zealand, General Cameron was apparently called 'The Lame Seagull' by a Maori opponent because of his slowness and timidity
During his first term as governor, Grey was praised for ending the Northern War and obtaining land from Māori, but also angered settlers by delaying the implementation of a constitution that would have given them political power.
The New Zealand Constitution Act (UK) of 1852, which established a system of representative government for New Zealand, was declared operative by Governor Sir George Grey.
This law allowed for the confiscation (raupatu) of Māori land to punish North Island tribes which were deemed to have rebelled against the British Crown in the early 1860s. Pākehā settlers would occupy the confiscated land.
Captain George (later Sir George) Grey was New Zealand's most complex governor. He was governor, governor-in-chief and then governor again, serving from 1845 to 1853 and again from 1861 to 1868.
