216 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



Mr. Yate, a missionary, writing in 1835, tells of several establishments 

 for the seal fishery on the coast of New Zealand. But fifteen or twenty 

 years of persistent and indiscriminate slaughter on shore had practi- 

 cally exterminated the seal in 1840. 



893. As to the causes of the depletion, Mr. F. Chapman, writing from 

 Dunedin, says: "As to the cause of this there is but one answer: reck- 

 less killing and disturbance in the rookeries. Mr, Dawson need not 

 trouble himself about pelagic sealing; there is not and never was such 

 a thing in these waters.'^ 



894. In the early years of this century the port of Sydney did a 

 large trade in seal-skins, and it is undoubted that with rise in market 

 l^rices of more than ten-fold over that period, the industry may well be 

 revived by judicious Government regulations duly enforced. 



The main difficulty in these seas, as elsewhere, is the raiding ashore, 

 especially in the breeding season, by unauthorized j)ersons. It is to be 

 hoped that the outcome of the Behring Sea negotiations may be inter- 

 national agreement as to the illegality of all such proceedings, and thus 

 all territorial Powers will be empowered to execute regulations againvst 

 all comers, so necessary to the preservation of so imi)ortanl an industry 

 as that of sealing. 



895. It will be well if the Governments of New Zealand, Tasmania, 

 Victoria, the Cape of Good Hope, and the 1 "alkland Island, as well as 

 those of the Uruguayan Eepublic and Chile, take stei)S to secure for 

 themselves any international advantages for the projDer protection of 

 the fur-seal in the South Seas which maybe determined to be applicable 

 under international sanction in the North Pacific. As a commencement, 

 each of these Governments should forthwith make statutory provision 

 for close seasons, restriction of numbers taken, and other matters affect- 

 ing seal life within their territorial dominions and the waters thereof. 



896. A further point in connection with South Sea sealing remains to 

 be dealt with. 



Some of the older sealers who gave us evidence mentioned their opin- 

 ion that the fur-seal of the Pribyloff Islands were the overflow of the 

 fur-seal of the South Sea when disturbed and harassed by the indiscrim- 

 inate slaughter above detailed. 



We observe also that the United States authority, Mr. Elliott, in his 

 " Monograph on the Fur-seal" (p. 0), writes: "It appears as if the fur- 

 seals had originally passed to Behring Sea from the i)arent stock of the 

 Patagonian region, up along the coast of South America, a few tarry- 

 ing at the dry and heated Galapagos Islands, the rest speeding on to 

 the northward, disturbed by the clear skies and sandy beaches of the 

 Mexican coast, on and up to the great fish-spawning shores of the Aleu- 

 tian Islands and Behring Sea. There on the Pribyloff" group and the 

 bluffy Commander Islands they found that union of cool water, well- 

 adapted landing, and moist foggy air which they had missed since they 

 left the storm-beaten coasts far below." 



897. We have, however, received from the Director of the Natural 

 History Department of the British Museum a very valuable Mem- 

 orandum (Appendix D), pointing out the structural and other differ- 

 ences which distinguish the various species of fur-seal, and 



149 which clearly indicate that the seals frequenting the North 

 Pacific do not migrate south of the Equator. Nor can we hold 

 out any hope that, as was expressed by a New Zealand authority, the 

 persecution of the fur-seal in the North Pacific may drive them south 

 to rei^leuish New Zealand rookeries. 



898. The rel.ilivcimiwrtanceof the South Sea fishery is insignificant 

 at the present day in comparison with that of the North Pacific. In 



