1835.

Captain Robertson did not delay long in Sydney, but sailed on 3rd January for the balance of the Eleanor's sealing gang at Macquarie Island. On 26th February he had them all on board—a gang of 12 men—and sailed from the Island without oil or skins, a clean ship but for 300 tuns of empty casks. During his visit he called in at Chatham Island and found there eight or ten runaways. He reached Sydney on 19th May.

The day after the Bee left, the Sydney Packet sailed for her usual destination and returned on 12th March with Messrs. Palmer and Wareham as passengers. She sailed from New Zealand on 23rd February with a cargo of 496 seal skins, 10 tuns seal oil, and 47 casks black whale oil, consigned to E. B. Mowle.

On 11th March, the New Zealander reached Sydney, having sailed from the southern part of New Zealand on 28th February. The schooner was under the command of Captain Cole and had on board oil and potatoes. Mrs. page 95 Cole was a passenger, but the places called at by this vessel are not given. Amongst other descriptions of her trip, however, one paper speaks of it as “a speculative trip of five months among the Eastern Islands.” In view of the fact that on 12th January, 1839, four men were found on Campbell Island who stated that they had been left there four years before by the New Zealander, it is more than probable that this “speculative trip” took the New Zealander as far south as Campbell Island.

Early in April the schooner Sydney Packet was purchased, through Polack of Sydney, for £800, by John Jones, for many years a waterman of Sydney Cove. By her new purchaser, who was now the owner of the Preservation Bay whaling station, she was fitted out for bay whaling and sailed on the twenty-first under the command of Captain Bruce. Her first voyage under the new ownership ended on 12th July, when she reached Sydney with two passengers—James Spencer and a New Zealander. She left Preservation Bay on 22nd June with 45 tuns of oil. No other vessel was sighted during the trip. Her cargo was consigned to J. Jones. “Johnny” Jones, whose name was afterwards to become a household word in Otago, thus received his first cargo of oil from New Zealand.

In trying to ascertain the first record of “Johnny” Jones' connection with New Zealand trade the author found mention made of a boy named John Jones advertising his intention of shipping in the Venus in 1808.

It was noticeable that renewed activity was imported into the movements of the Sydney Packet when she came under the ownership of “Johnny” Jones. She sailed for the whaling establishment on 21st July with a cargo of casks, whaling gear, rum, tobacco, flour and stores, and returned on 16th September with 45 tuns oil, 30 cwt. bone, 1 cask seal skins and 5 tons potatoes. She had sailed from Preservation on 21st August and J. Jones is stated to have been supercargo. He had evidently gone down and superintended operations in person. The people on the schooner found the measles very bad among the Maoris. On her page 96 next run she reached Sydney on 31st October, with 80 casks black oil, 6½ tons whalebone and 4 tons potatoes. James Saunders was the only passenger. She set sail again on 5th December.

It will be remembered that Te Whakataupuka sold a portion of his land to Peter Williams in 1832, and that Taylor gave 1833 as the date of the old chief's death from measles. There is reason to believe that Taylor is wrong in the date given, because as late as September, 1834, Te Whakataupuka took part in the raid on the Otago station, and left to raid the gangs at Port Bunn, when he was carried off by measles which raged among the southern Maoris during 1835. As a result Tuhawaiki became the foremost Maori in the southern portion of the Island. He described himself as the nephew and successor to Te Whakataupuka and stated that he received a portion of the payment made by Mr. Williams. He was present when the original deed was executed.

Peter Williams now applied to the new dominant chief and got his old grant confirmed. This was done by a document of which he submitted the following as a copy.

“To all whom it may concern be it known that I Toawick are now become Rangatera or Chief of these Southern Territories do hereby Testify that the above deed is true and correct and that the above Tatto is the true likeness of the late Chief Taboca—likewise for and on behalf of myself I do Grant the same unto Peter Williams his Heirs Executors Administrators or Assigns for ever in Witness whereof I have set my Tatto likeness Opposite this 31st Day of December 1835.”

Peter Williams.

Witnesses—James Ives.
George Moss Mowry, X his mark.
Tomarama Mowry X his mark.
Barago Mowry X his mark.

When statistics were being collected in 1836 relating to shore whaling on the New Zealand coast, Jones was page 97 applied to, among the others, and he replied, regarding the Preservation Bay whaling station, in the following terms:—

Sydney, 24 March, 1836.

Sir,—

According to your request I beg to transmit you the following information relative to my Establishment at New Zealand. I have 39 men employed in the Fishery which I have carried on for the last 12 months and procured 125 tuns oil none of which has been exported by me.

I also beg to state that the late George Bunn was in possession of the said Establishment for about 6 years and procured upwards of 500 tuns of oil during that period.

I have the honor to be, Sir

Your obedient Servant,

John Jones.

To Major Gibbs
Collector of Customs.

The station therefore had yielded 625 tuns of oil, and the letter seems to indicate that it was in operation in 1829.