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of it has already commenced at Wellington, and some vessels have been supplied with cordage, &c. from it. Several country sections have also been chosen on the sea coast, near to Port Nicholson, for flax farms, on land which, from the exposed situation and poverty of soil, would not produce grain, or be at all adapted for general agriculture. Colonel Wakefield says, in one of his despatches, "It is impossible to overrate the value of flax as a staple article of commerce; and the only impediment to its introduction into Europe and America has been removed, by the discovery of a cheap method of preparing large quantities for export, in reduced bulk, and without injury to the fibre. A short time only will elapse before our settlement will provide a profitable return cargo for the foreign vessels visiting Cook's Straits." The Hon. Mr. Petre says, in like manner, Although I will not venture to anticipate what profit the future cultivator of New Zealand flax is likely to realize, I have a very strong conviction that it will be our staple article of export; and that like the wool of New South Wales, its profitableness will be such, as to make it not worth while, for many years to come, to invest capital in any other exportable commodity."

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Though it grows wild every where, yet the best districts are at Taranaki and Hawke Bay, in the North Island; and at Nelson, on the Middle Island, which is considered preferable even to the Taranaki district, from the country being more open, and more abundantly watered. The more recent accounts received in this country in regard to this article are very favourable, as will appear from the following paragraph which appeared in the New Zealand Jour

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nal of 17th February, 1844, published in London once a fortnight.

"The Nelson, which has recently arrived from New Zealand, brings replies to despatches and advices by the "Ursula," the first of Mr. Earp's packet ships. The "Ursula" made her passage to the colony in 110 days, and the letters received by the Nelson were in reply to others from home, written only eight months previous; the most rapid communication that has yet taken place with the colony. The Nelson brings a few tons of flax, exported by Messrs. Ridgways, Guyton, and Earp, of a very superior quality, fully equal to the best Russian hemp, and of longer staple. This flax was prepared by machines made in the colony, and the quality of the article is such as at once to set at rest the question of the possibility of preparing New Zealand flax in a state fit for the home market. With the improvements which experience will suggest, there can be now no doubt but that, in a short time, flax, equal to the best Flemish specimens, will arrive from the colony, which will thus speedily possess a staple article of export, limited only by the scarcity of labour necessary for its production, and equal to that of oil-for which New Zealand is rapidly becoming the depot of the Pacific Ocean." A cheap plan of preparing it has been lately discovered, by merely boiling it in a solution of potash, or wood ashes.

Oil is the next valuable staple commodity. From May to December, the different bays in Cook's Straits, and on the east coast of the Middle Island, are much frequented by the black whale; and the sperm whale is found in great abundance in the surrounding ocean,

not far from land. The whales of New Zealand are said to yield one-fourth more of oil than those of a similar size or species in any other part of the world. The black whales have no teeth, consuming their food by suction. The sperm whales, on the contrary, have teeth, and, in general, do not exceed sixty feet in length, whereas, the black whales are sometimes a hundred. The former, however, are the most dreaded by the whalers, from its being so often dangerous to attack them. One of them, to whom they gave the name of New Zealand Tom, was long celebrated for the havoc he made among the ship's boats. Tom seemed to be delighted at the sensation which he produced; and spent occasionally an hour before breakfast at his favourite amusement, by way of a lark, and with the view, no doubt, of improving his appetite.

The principal whaling stations in New Zealand were, till of late, in the hands of the Sydney merchants; but the settlers on the spot have now become formidable rivals to them. In the year 1838, one single mercantile house in Sydney, exported to London seventy tons of whalebone, which is produced exclusively from the black whale; and as each whale yields about five hundred weight of bone, the number required to supply the above quantity of whalebone must have been 284. The Americans, however, have perhaps the greatest number of large vessels engaged in this trade of any nation, as they have upwards of 500 whalers in the Pacific Ocean, while the English have only about 160, and the French 140. The quantity of oil imported into that country amounted in 1838 to 129,400 barrels of sperm oil, and 228,710 barrels of black. Indeed, till of late, they injured the

local fisheries very much, as sometimes twenty American and foreign vessels have been seen at one time at the entrance of Cloudy Bay, in Cook's Straits, intercepting the whales as they approached the shore; and sailors on board of whale ships are very active, as they are paid in shares, at the end of the voyage, according to the net proceeds of the oil.

"Shore parties," as they are termed, for capturing the black whale, (sperm whales never coming within reach of a shore party,) are now forming rapidly in Cook's Straits and other parts; composed chiefly of emigrants who have gone to settle in that country. Captain Daniell almost loaded a vessel called the "Brougham," from his own fishing station at Porirua, about fourteen miles from Port Nicholson, in the year 1842, which was the first vessel that sailed direct from that country to England loaded with oil, and made the passage in ninety-two days. These shore parties have large boats, and being constantly on the lookout, when the whales make their appearance, they man their boats and seldom fail in capturing them; and the process of cutting them up and boiling them, generally takes place on shore. This, besides being more economical, is more advantageous for New Zealand than sending out ships on a three year's voyage; for though that may be necessary when the whales are at a distance, yet, as on the coasts of that country, they come so frequently within reach of boats from the shore, the great cost of pursuing them with ships is saved. "This advantage," Mr. Petre says, "is well understood by the settlers at Port Nicholson, who bid fair to be the purchasers of the greater part of the oil made at the stations already established, and have begun to form new stations." It is evident

that a great part of the black oil, in particular, which was procured at New Zealand, and shipped for this country at Sydney, will, in future, be conveyed in the boats and small vessels which they have begun to use on the spot, into merchant ships about to return home direct, so that the Sydney, American, and French trade will soon be annihilated. The first shipments of oil and flax direct from New Zealand to Britain, of any extent, commenced in 1843, as will appear from the following despatch from Colonel Wakefield, the Company's principal agent at Wellington, to the secretary in London, dated 18th September, 1843.

"I have information from the coast, where the natives are apprehensive of a visit from the man-ofwar. They remember with awe the power exhibited by the "Alligator" and the "Pelorus." They have a great fear of regular troops, and particularly of the guns of a ship; but I must repeat that continued impunity will encourage them to petty assaults on individuals, and the entire obstruction of the further settlement of the country.

"I am happy to be able to assure you that, with the exception of the state of the natives, this settlement is in a much more prosperous state than when I last wrote; and, considering the fearful impediments to colonization, by reason of the unsettled state of titles to land, than could reasonably be expected.

"The whale season, now drawing to a conclusion, has turned out to be very successful. The quantity of oil taken in the Bay fisheries, which will be exported principally from this port, on account of the supplies furnished by the merchants of Wellington, will not be far short of two thousand tons.

"The preparation and exportation of the native

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