Page:Report from the Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to inquire into the present state of the Islands of New Zealand.pdf/79

 Rh Do they show any Wish to make Progress?
 * Yes; and when on shore they are exceedingly inquisitive, examining into any thing

What aged Men were those Two Men?
 * One about Twenty-two, the other about Twenty-seven, I should think.

Did they leave any Families behind them?
 * No; they were both single Men.

They went back as Seamen?
 * Yes, they did. They had been on board about Two Years. Those Men had a good deal of Money to receive; each Man received from Forty to Fifty Pounds when he went away.

In what did they expend it?
 * In Clothing and in Fowling-pieces. One of the Articles I saw, which I thought they had better have left, was Watches; they did not know the Time by them after they had purchased them.

Did they go back as free Men to their own Country?
 * No; they went back still Slaves.

Did they expect to be left in Possession of the Things they had got?
 * Yes; they thought the Present of a Fowling-piece from each to their Chiefs would satisfy them.

You spoke of Piracies likely to be committed in some of the Harbours of New Zealand; do the outward Vessels coming from Australia and Van Diemen's Land pass near the Coast of New Zealand?
 * Yes.

They pass into Cook's Straits?
 * I believe some of them pass through Cook's Straits; but, not being concerned in the New South Wales Trade, I cannot say.

Do you conceive that the Objection to the New Zealand Flax has arisen from the Inferiority of the Article, or its having been badly prepared?
 * Its having been badly prepared.

Do you conceive that it will become an Article of considerable Export?
 * I have no Doubt of it; the last Year there has not been a single Bale imported into this Country.

Do you think any has been sent to any other Country?
 * I think some has been sent to France, but I do not think it has been sent in any great Quantity; some has been sent from this Country to France.

The Timber of that Country is peculiarly fit for Ship Building, is it not?
 * Yes.

Does our Government take any Part?
 * Yes; there is now a Person there selecting some.

That is for Spars?
 * Yes; it is fit for Ship Building also.

It is stated that the New Zealanders have built Vessels of British Construction; is that the Case?
 * The New Zealanders in connexion with the British Settlers there.

You stated that a Tax might drive the Whalers to commit Excesses in other Places; did you refer to the Society Islands?
 * I referred to the Island of Papua, New Guinea, and in fact all the Islands in the Pacific Ocean; that if heavy Charges were laid they would visit other Islands. There are a Hundred Vessels in a Year that visit the Bay of Islands now; perhaps a Tax might drive Forty or Fifty of them to other Íslands they do not now visit.

That might depend upon the Amount of the Tax?
 * It would. (123.2.)