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/80

 76 The Port Charges of Chili and Peru prevent the Whalers frequently touching there, do they not?
 * Yes, the Charges in some of those Ports are very high.

Are they high in Valparaiso?
 * We have not had any Ships there for a great many Years.

Your Ships go in pursuit of Whales over the whole Pacific?
 * Yes; from the North to the South Pole, Japan, and the Sandwich Islands, and wherever they are to be found.

What is the average Voyage?
 * Three Years and Three Months; varying from Two to Four Years.

Are the New Zealanders you take on board employed for the whole of the Voyage, during the whole Period?
 * Yes.

Among those so employed as Seamen have any been Chiefs?
 * Yes, we have had some Chiefs.

Do you find any Difference in their Conduct?
 * No, I am not aware of any.

Have any of them being employed as Harpooners?
 * Yes.

That is a Station requiring great Activity?
 * Yes; it requires great Courage, Activity, and Skill.

Your Ships touch at most of the Islands occasionally?
 * Yes; a great Part of the Discoveries in the Pacific Ocean have been made by Whaling Ships.

Have they committed great Outrages?
 * Great Outrages. There was a Village burnt in the Island of Japan. There was a Vessel of ours that went to the Friendly Islands; an Apprentice deserted; the Captain called upon the People of the Island to interfere to get him back; they refused; upon which he loaded his Guns, having Six on board, with Grape Shot, and fired on the Natives, and he afterwards landed with a Boat's Crew of his own People, who were all cut off. Only a few Months after that another Vessel went into the same Island, and was cut off as an Act of Retaliation.

It would appear that those Acts of Cruelty are as much the Fault of the Masters of the Whalers as the Crews?
 * I think, generally speaking, more the Fault of the Masters than the Crews. A great many Disputes arise on shore from the Men having Connexion with the Women, and from Intoxication. That occurs at all the Islands; the Crew of

a Vessel never visits an Island without some Disturbance.

The general Cause is the Want of some local Authority?
 * Yes. At some of the Islands in a savage State there is some Authority established now; in that Case these Things are repressed.

Is there at the Sandwich Islands?
 * Yes.

Those are native Authorities?
 * Yes.

Have they Authority by which they can repress the Disorders of Seamen without any European Authority being exerted?
 * Yes.

What Part of New Zealand do your Ships visit?
 * The Bay of Islands.

Do you think that if the British Resident had Power to arrest those who offended the Law that would prevent those Irregularities which occur?
 * The Authority given would not be sufficient unless he had Power to enforce it. Rh