246 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



conflict with them. The Maoris made frequent raids upon the shore stations and burnt 

 down buildings ; but they also traded with the whalers for fire-arms, supplying in return 

 potatoes and vegetables generally. The Maoris, also, in many places, used to engage 

 in whaling on their own account and sell their captures to the whaling ships or to the 

 shore stations. At Te-Awaiti they used to obtain j^zo apiece for the carcases of the 

 whales which they took. 



The whalers used to arrange with the local chiefs for the use of their coves and bays 

 for whaling, and McNab records that these arrangements not infrequently led to 

 jealousies and feuds between the chiefs. The natives supplied the whalers with wood, 

 fuel and water, and often came on board the ships to assist in dealing with the carcases. 

 In this connection McNab states that the American whalers were at a serious disad- 

 vantage compared with their Australian competitors because they lacked intimate 

 knowledge of the Maori and of his language. Owing to the great distance from their 

 home ports the Americans were especially dependent on the natives for food supplies 

 and the recruiting of labour. They frequently had to make use of interpreters and, in 

 Cloudy Bay, there were two or three men who acted in this capacity. These interpreters 

 were usually Europeans, runaways from ships, and were locally known as "tonguers". 

 Each "tonguer" had a boat and a number of natives attached to him. On the arrival 

 of a vessel in Cloudy Bay he Vv'ent on board and canvassed for employment, which 

 consisted of interpreting and furnishing a boat's crew to help to tow in the dead 

 whales and to cut them up. The remuneration for these services was the carcase 

 and tongue of the whale. Only the blubber was taken by the whalers and the tongue 

 was left untouched. This provided the "tonguer" with about six or eight barrels 

 of oil. 



McNab records that, although American and English whalers were carrying on their 

 trade side by side during a time when their countries were at war, the most friendly 

 relations existed between them. They seldom quarrelled and frequently formed treaties 

 of mutual assistance, under which they helped to tow in each other's whales and com- 

 bined against the assaults of the natives. 



The year 1839 saw the maximum development of the Right-whale industry in New 

 Zealand. After 1840 its history is only that of a steady decline resulting directly from 

 overfishing. In 1892, the first year for which figures are given in the New Zealand 

 Year Book, the whaling industry in the Dominion had become insignificant, 3100 gallons 

 of Sperm-whale oil and 1572 gallons of Right- whale oil being taken. 



In the years immediately before the war of 1914-18 the attention of Norwegian 

 whalers was directed towards the waters around New Zealand. The rapid development 

 of the South African fishery during the years 1908-11 led to the supposition that a 

 similar whaling ground would be found to exist off the coast of the Australasian land 

 masses, to which whales from the Antarctic Ocean would migrate during the southern 

 winter. The somewhat vague reports brought back from these waters by sealers and 

 others, and the knowledge that flourishing Sperm and Right-whale industries had once 

 existed in this region, encouraged several firms to fit out costly expeditions to explore 



