POLICE OFFICE. Wellington, 8th September, 1845.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume I, Issue 49, 13 September 1845, Page 3

POLICE OFFICE. Wellington, Bth September, 1845.

William Fell solemnly declares I have just come up from Waikokopu, Hawke,s Bay, and was lately a whaler at Mr. Perry's fishery there : On the 28th July last, about half-past eight o'clock in the morning, we received information of the wreck of the Falco brig, then lying at Wangari, Table Cape. I, in company with the other whalers, were ordered, by the headsman, to go to the wreck and render assistance ; we accordingly went, and on arriving there I saw the American Consul, with about twenty natives near him on the beach ; the Consul gave our headsman a bag containing specie to carry to a place of safety ; the Consul requested our headsman to allow us to go on board the wreck to assist in any we could ; we asked the captain if we could assist, he replied, that he thought it no use now, as the natives had been plundering the wreck ever since before daylight ;" this was about half-past nine o'clock in the rooming ; the cabin was full of natives ; the captain informed us that he had on board the Falco the English mail for Auckland, that came out in the Tyne ; we wished him to allow us to save it, but he said no, that he had got everything on shore that he cared about, and that he was well insured ; he shortly afterwards went down into the cabin, accompanied by the captain, and succeeded in turning the natives out of it ; we then came on deck ; soon afterwards one of our men went down into the forecastle of the vessel, to see what the natives were about, as they were handing up some things in bags, and passing them over the side of the vessel ; he came up, and said that the natives were stripping the cabin, and had broken through the'hold into it ; I went, in company with George Thorns, and Joseph Mason, into the cabin, and found the cabin stripped of everything but the medicine chest, which one of the natives had in his hand, but ou seeing us he threw it down and went away ; the captain then ordered the half deck hatches to be opened ; they were opened, and I saw the natives filling the mail bags with prints and several other articles, having thrown all the letters out cf the bags into the hold ; I went down, in company with another man, and filled an empty case full of the letters, and gave them to the captain ; some time after this, when the natives had taken a quantity of goods from the vessel, the captain ordered our party to save all we could ; we did so, and took everything to Mr. Perry's fishery; the following persons were present with me at this time : — George Thorn, William Wright, James Brown, William Edwards, Mr. Robert Harrison, (late New Zealand Company's Surveyor) Joseph Mason, and John Anderson ; Mr. Perry did not arrive at the wreck uutil after we had left it, for we met him between 4 and 5 o'clock in the afternoon, going to it ; he was then about two miles from the wreck. William Fell. Declared before me this Bth ) <?ay of September, 1845. ) JHenry St. Hilx, P. M, w