e fitting himself. 'Yes, yes,'
was his exclamation, 'I understand, I understand!' Then he cried like a
baby.

What judgment would England pass upon King Tawhiao if, while a visitor
there, he gave way to drink? He would disgrace, not himself only, but the
whole Maori race.

'Alas, yes,' sobbed Tawhiao; 'what can be done?'

'I'll tell you,' said Sir George gently. 'We'll both sign a pledge,
agreeing to abstain from alcohol in any form. That pledge will mutually
bind us for a term of years, and there could be no more sacred contract.'

It was a bright contract for Tawhiao. And now here he was, at a New
Zealand wayside station, where there drew up the train carrying Sir
George Grey, on his last New Zealand journey, to the Plymouth-bound
liner. 'I wished him farewell,' Sir George described this parting, 'and
he wept. I was much touched, remembering that he had been all through a
Maori war against me.'

That was retrospect. The second Maori war afforded Sir John Gorst an
experience not without humour.

In Sir George Grey's phrase, Sir John Gorst went out to New Zealand to do
good and did it. He conducted a school for the education of the Maoris,
and acted as Government Commissioner. 'He had been at work for some
time,' Sir George added, 'and had achieved excellent results altogether.
He was popular with the Maoris, and indeed they never had a truer
friend.' However, some of those ardent in the 'king movement,' regarded
his mere presence in the heart of their territory, as an influence
against its success. The crisis arrived from an encounter of wits which
fairly set the Waikato river on fire.

'The Maoris,' Sir George retailed this affair, 'had founded a paper to
propagate the king movement. They christened it by a name which might be
freely translated as "The Giant Eagle Flying Aloft." With my approval,
Sir John Gorst brought out a protagonist to the Maori weekly. I furnished
the requisites for the venture, the money coming from revenues applicable
to native purposes.

'The idea was to counteract the teaching of "The Giant Eagle Flying
Aloft"; to show how absurd it was for any section of the Maoris to think
they could beat the English. Our organ was designed to be educative, and
in that respect to help in the maintenance of peace. The title of the
Maori paper was in allusion to a great eagle, which, at a remote period,
had existed in New Zealand. The Maoris had chants about it, and in their
legends it was describe