No trait of human nature was neglected by Sir George Grey, in his exertions to plant the better ideas of living.  He detected that the Kaffirs of South Africa were sharp to humour, owners of a lively sense of the ridiculous.  On that hung an incident, which brought out the value of the personal equation in dealing with natives, whether in South Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa.  It was an item of Sir George Grey’s whole native policy.  An old witch doctor, he mentioned, had been inciting unrest among the dark masses of Kaffraria.  Sir George had him put comfortably in prison, where he could be certain of medical attendance and rest.  That was the least office, demanded towards a human being evidently in a disturbed state of health.

It confounded the witch doctor.  Never was such a father to his people as Sir George Grey, and the tribes of a hemisphere acclaimed it.  The witch doctor had his doubts, took his physic wryly, and begged piteously to be set free.  He was released, on the strict promise that he would cease being a firebrand.  Not that alone, for he publicly recanted among the Kaffirs, gathered on a market morning, to their huge amusement and derision.  He made no more trouble, and could not, had he tried, his fame being ruined.

‘A joust of fun like that,’ was Sir George Grey’s moral from the incident, ’had a wonderful effect upon natives.  It was much better than shooting the witch doctor, and quite as effective.  Even among whites, ridicule may be a very serious punishment.’

But the Pro-Consul was not always warranted to win, in his encounters of wit and wisdom.  He put to the debit account, a dialogue he had with a batch of Kaffir chiefs, on the proper employment of their moneys.  He wondered if the wages, earned from native work on the roads, and in cultivating the lands, were always wisely spent.  The broad inquiry was well enough, as the chiefs took it, but unfortunately Sir George went on to state a case in proof.

‘For instance,’ he innocently pleaded, ’is it necessary that so much should be expended on the jewellery and ornaments of the women?  Would they not really look more handsome, without all those gew-gaws of brass and metal, which they wear round their arms and ankles?’ An aged chief rose and gravely replied, ’You are a great chief, Governor, and you have done marvellous things.  You have persuaded us to labour, yea, to make roads which we knew would lead to the conquest of our country.  But you had better rest and be content, not allowing success in other things to induce you to enter upon what no man can accomplish.  If you attempt, O Governor, to wage war with woman and her love of ornament, you will assuredly fail.’

‘The assembled chiefs,’ Sir George wound up the tale, ’roared with delight at this answer, which really left me without a word to say.’