WHALING VESSELS.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 11, 21 December 1844, Page 3

WHALING VESSELS.

To the Editor of the New Zealand Spectator and C ook's Straits Guardian. Sir, — I have been put in possession of a ccpy of the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants Transcript, an American newspaper published weekly, by Henry Limlsey, 35, North Waters Street, New Bedford. This journal is wholly devoted to American whaling interests, and is thus described in its own columns :—: — " It contains the name of every whaler belonging to the United States, the masters and agents names, time out, date, place and quantity of oil, when last reported, vessels in port, &c. Also a weekly summary of news from the whaling fleet, the oil and bone market made up from sales in this and other places ; latest dates from foreign ports visited by whalemen ; the weekly imports of oil and bone into the United States, and every species of information interesting and important to the merchant and to masters and officers of whalemen, both at home and at sea, the whole arranged in a convenient form for reference and preservation." Further in recommendation it is staged that — " Persons about going to sea can Have regular files ot the Shipping List forwarded to them, overland, to any ports in the Pacific, or by ships sailing from this port and Nautucket, by subscribing and paying one dollar in advance." Several American whaling vessels have visited this port, the captains of which have expressed themselves surprised at the excellence of our harbour and the facility with which all the supplies needed have been obtained here. The knowledge of our possessing a slip, upon which the largest American whaling vessel could be repaired, would, theSe gentlemen have stated, induce many American vessels, requiring to be thoroughly overhauled, to resort to our harbour. One and all have declared that increased knowledge respecting the Port Nicholson settlers and their locality would not fail to be mutually beneficial to our settlement and to American whalers. I believe that America has over 700 whaling vessels, of which between five and six hundred are generally at sea, and the most of them in this part of the world. It requires no argument to show that if we could get a tenth portion of them to resort to this harbour, great good would result therefrom, j The New Zealand Company, or the New Zealand Society, might cause the master of every American whaling vessel to know that our Customs have been abolished, ans that pilotage is optional ; that, in fact, all the ports in New Zealand are now free from duties, taxes, and charges of every kind. Freedom, which if preserved, will, I am convinced, be attended hereafter and at an early date with incalculable good, and which therefore I trust the New Zealand Company and New Zealand Society will call upon the Colonial Office to maintain. The main cause of expensive Government in this country is the maintenance of the native population, who are free from all contribution to the Government. The preservation of the race is a great experiment, the expense of which the colonists cannot afford, and which, if they could, they ought sot to be required to furnish. Tbe British Parliament ought to -contribute some £25,000 or £30,000 a year towards the expeuce of governing New Zealand j and will, upon application, if sincere in their desire to preserve the native population, and I would suggest the propriety of the New Zealand Society's calling upon tbe AntiSlavery Society and upon the Aborigines

Society to petition Parliament upon the siroject. A Colonial Minister, backed by such petitions, would find no difficulty in obtaining the necessary grant for New Zealand, This contribution should be maintained until the direct taxes, now imposed, were sufficient to m££t the expenditure of a consistent and prudent Government. And further, the end in view would be attained if an accurate chart of Cook's Straits, with Port Nicholson well laid down and its approaches clearly described, were to be periodically inserted in the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants Transcript. If a chart of the kind, prepared in London, and | cut on wood of a size to suit the publication in question, were sent to New Bedford, I have no^cloubt it would be inserted, in an edition for whaling masteis, monthly, for six \ months, at a cost not exceeding twenty or thirty dollars for the whole period. I suppose the Whalemen's Shipping List has a large circulation, but the circulation among whaling "Piasters is not likely to be greater than the number of whaling- ships — say seven hundred — and in this number it oijght to be inserted. If inserted as proposed, 4000 charts of Cook's Straits and Port Nicholson would be put in circulation among American whaling masters within fifteen months after the appearance of all the advertisements in the New Bedford Whalemen's Shipping List. Every master would retain one or more, and the re- | mainder would in all probability be given j away, from time to time, to French and English and the whaling ships of other nations as they were met with in these seas. I should have stated that the whaling list is printed octavo form, on crown quarto paper, and that two pages would afford a very good sized chart. : I am, Sir, Yours &c, S. R. Wellington, December 18, 1844.