General Cameron is New Zealander of the Year for showing restraint and moral courage in the face of extreme political pressure.
After coming into conflict with Governor Grey and the colonial administration of Frederick Weld, Cameron resigned and returned to Britain.
"The brave old General has not been trained in the school of Machiavelli or in that of the Frenchman who declared that 'language was invented to conceal our thoughts'," said the Herald.
"The lower acts of diplomacy are beneath his contempt even. He says what he means, and he means what he says, and hence he diverges from those in authority with whom he has lately been in contact."
IN HINDSIGHT
History has not been kind to Cameron who was regarded as plodding and unimaginative by Pakeha critics and lampooned as a "lame seagull" by his Maori opponents during his reluctant Taranaki campaign. The insults must have stung the ears of a fighting general.
