those to whom he had a right to look for at least some encouragement.
He admitted that the colony had made a mistake in not adopting some of the schemes put forward by Sir Julius Vogel and Sir George Grey many years previously, but he thought that the time had come to remedy that mistake. Once, in the Stout-Vogel régime, the Government steamer “Hinemoa” was waiting at Auckland, with everything ready for the annexation of the Navigator Islands, but just before the steamer set out to take possession of the islands the imperial authorities became alarmed, and the Governor was instructed by cable message to prevent the intended action being taken.
Investigations had convinced him that the annexation of the Cook Group would be satisfactory to New Zealand commercially, and he believed that thousands of pounds would be brought into the colony by means of the new connection. He had no fear of a native trouble. The natives would be practically self-governing. He found that they were law-abiding, and would not require an elaborate system of local government. Apart from that, he struck the imperial note in his addresses on the question. When he brought his motion before the House, several members said that they wanted to think over the scheme before they decided upon its feasibility; but Mr. Seddon was too intent on annexation to listen to proposals for delay, and he said that it would not be in the interests of the colony or the islands to postpone the great action.
“We want to think over it,” they reiterated, but their inexorable Dictator replied: “It is not a question of thinking it over; the time has come for action. It has been thought over already. It will not be wise to postpone this debate, and the House must come to a decision.” It did so by passing his motion by a large majority, and he was a happy Premier, with a small “foreign policy” in hand and a larger one in view.
In that thorough manner he carried through the policy founded by Sir George Grey almost exactly half a century previously. It was not New Zealand’s fault that this step in the direction of annexation was delayed. At an early date Sir George Grey brought his scheme before the imperial authorities, and in
