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 correspondence between them.  From this—­to one who reads it now—­the General seems to emerge in a damaged condition.  The best that can be said for him is that he and many of his officers were sick of the war, which they regarded as an iniquitous job, and inglorious to boot.  They knew that a very strong party in England, headed by the Aborigines Protection Society, were urging this view, and that the Colonial Office, under Mr. Cardwell, had veered round to the same standpoint.  This is probably the true explanation of General Cameron’s singular slackness.  The impatience and indignation of the colonists waxed high.  They had borrowed three millions of money to pay for the war.  They were paying L40 a year per man for ten thousand Imperial soldiers.  They naturally thought this too much for troops which did not march a mile a day.

Whatever the colonists thought of Grey’s warfare with his ministers, they were heartily with him in his endeavours to quicken the slow dragging on of the military operations.  He did not confine himself to exhortation.  He made up his mind to attack the Weraroa pa himself.  General Cameron let him have two hundred soldiers to act as a moral support.  With these, and somewhat less than five hundred militia and friendly Maoris, the Governor sat down before the fort, which rose on a high, steep