84 Transactions. 



The " Britomart " ran down the harbour on the 26th and came near the 

 entrance, when she spoke the British merchant ship " Speculator," just 

 arrived. Sails were loosed on the 27th, and further preparations made for 

 sea. At 8 a.m. Captain Stanley " discharged Mr. C. B. Robinson, police 

 magistrate," and at 9 made sail down the harbour, coming to at the 

 anchorage. Putting to sea the following day, the " Britomart " spoke the 

 schooner " Success," of Sydney, from Port Cooper, and another sail. On 

 the 29th she shaped her course for Pigeon Bay, where she came to and sent 

 a boat to survey and get water. On the 30th she sailed for Port Cooper 

 (now Lyttelton Harbour) and anchored there. On the 1st September the 

 " Britomart " was again under sail, and a cable was passed to the merchant 

 ship " Africane," but in getting under way in the squally wind the hawser 

 parted, and the " Britomart " touched bottom. She made a good passage to 

 Cape Palliser, which was in sight at daylight on the 2nd, and in the after- 

 noon she was working up to Port Nicholson, where she anchored at 5 p.m. 



Lieutenant-Governor Hobson sent a copy of Captain Stanley's report 

 to Governor Sir George Gipps, saying, " I transmit a copy of Captain 

 Stanley's report of his proceedings while at Akaroa. The measures he 

 adopted with the French emigrants are, I think, extremely judicious, and 

 the whole of his conduct evinces a degree of zeal and intelligence which, 

 I trust, you will consider worthy of the notice of Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment." There is no note of " forestalling " the French ; and the first 

 apparent note of anything that might be construed into pleasure at such 

 forestalling is found in Governor Gipps's despatch to Lord John Russell : 

 " I have already transmitted to your Lordship copies of the instructions 

 which have been given to Captain Stanley, of H.M.S. " Britomart," by 

 the Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand. ... I have now the satis- 

 faction to inform your Lordship that Captain Stanley preceded the 

 French . . ." 



Even in the French Chamber of Deputies the position seemed to have 

 been clearly perceived ; for later, on the 29th JMay, 1844, the following 

 remarks were made in that chamber by M. Guizot, Minister of Foreign 

 Affairs : " There are two Proclamations, one on the 21st May, the other 

 on the 17th June. Both are anterior to the arrival of Captain Lavaud, 

 of the ' Aube.' Of these I have carefully read only that of June 17th, rela- 

 tive to the taking possession of the southern island. Here is the English 

 text — I translate literally : ' Taken possession, in the name of Her Most 

 Gracious Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, of the southern island of New Zealand. This island, situated in 

 [here follows latitude and longitude], with all its woods, rivers, ports, and 

 territory, having been ceded in sovereignty by different independent chiefs 

 to Her Most "Gracious Majesty, we have taken solemn possession of it, &c.' " 



There was a diary in existence, and may still be, though its whereabouts 

 is not known — the diary of C. B. Robinson, one of the Magistrates sent 

 with Stanley. Thanks to the foresight of the late Mr. S. C. Farr, of Christ- 

 church, important extracts from it are printed in Canterbury Old and New, 

 as follows : — 



August 3rd, 1840. Appointed by Captain William Hobson, Lieutenant-Governor 

 of New Zealand, with all necessary instructions and a proclamation signed " William 

 Hobson," and dated August 3rd, 1840, at Government House, Russell, Bay of Islands. 

 Also signed by Willoughby Shortland, Colonial Secretary. Instructions were : " To 

 proceed with all despatch in H.M.S. (brig) ' Britomart,' Captain Owen Stanley R.N., 

 Commander, to Akaroa, Banks Peninsula, and hoist the Union Jack, which ^^ill be given 

 to you, on a spur jutting out a little more than half-way up the harbour, on the east 

 side, and marked in red on the map you take with you." 



