A Successful Ruse.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 15 November 1890, Page 2

A Successful Ruse.

Mr William Alison, of Qneenslown (f innorly of Mcs-rs Mas n ml Wales), relates the i'ullowiiig ehvumsUmce in conneotio i with ihe an tvxation of tho South Island bv t litBritish: — " I w.is at Ivor >rarcka, in •.I ip Hay of Islands, in 1840, and siw tho Ftoncli wardiip Viro— l think that was her nmiM- arrive. We ooi.ld not, make nut. wliat ha-1 lirought her to visit such an out- f-the-way spot. Oi course tho commodore and liis officers were treated with every hospitality 'hat, in our then circumstances, could be shown them. After a short ti mo it eako 1 out that they w<*ro on their way to annex tho M ddl« Isl nd to France, and that Akaroa wa- the port fr>m which possession was to 1-e taken. The Britomirt was the only re;>ios<M)tativG British man -'if- war a 1 Kororaroka, Mid porhapsin the is and Doubtless (Governor Hobson and Captain Stanley took council togoili ras t ) what should bo done in order o k ep Now Zi^ala d f>r th British J'ho outcome was this ; tho ritom'rt wa-« dis aant'od, sails unbent, spars, slandin^ and running rigging out n shore and iiousol ; nut everything was m irked as to bo replaced qui'-k'v 'i'l is wsd neosteusibly to careen thi! ship, V)iit really to deceive tho French. It sue-

ceeded. Commodore T.evaud left a 1 dismantled hulk behind him, so why hurry? He did not, for he afterwards put into what was th^n Port Nicholson The French ship's topsails were hardly out of sght when . tno work of re rigging was com , menced on the Britornart, and so ex- , peditiously was it done that in some* , thing less thar a day the brig was steering for the North Cape to c^mo down the w^st coast of the Morth Islind, The Vire having sailed d wn the east. What followed is well known.''' — D unp di n Star.