HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



999 



himself at \Yaitangi, in the Bay of Islands, a short distance from the Paihia Mission 

 Station. His appointment not answering the expectations formed, Governor Bourke 

 recalled him in 1837. In 1835 Mr. Busby suggested that the New Zealanders should 

 have a national flag enabling vessels built in New Zealand to possess freedom of trade 

 in British ports, and the proposal being approved, H.M.S. Alligator was sent to the 

 Bay of Islands with 

 three patterns of flags 

 for the chiefs to select 

 from. The flag was 

 chosen accordingly, 

 and saluted as the 

 standard of an inde- 

 pendent country. 



From the Bay of 

 Islands H.M.S. Alliga- 

 tor proceeded to the 

 west coast of the North 

 Island to punish the 

 Ngatiruani tribe, who 

 had behaved with in- 

 humanity to the crew 

 of the barque Harriet 

 in April, 1834. This 

 vessel had been 

 wrecked near the spot 

 where the town of New 

 Plymouth now stands. 

 She was commanded 

 by one Guard, a sealer 

 in Cook Strait, who 

 had been to Sydney 

 for supplies, accom- 



paniecl by his Euro- ' A MU)RI SALUTATK)N _ 



pean wife. According 



to their general custom the natives attacked the shipwrecked party, and Guard, after 

 defending himself with some resolution, fled with about a dozen of his crew, leaving 

 his wife and two children prisoners, and his dead in the hands of the conquerors. 

 While making their escape, Guard and his followers met a party of another tribe, 

 about a hundred in number, to whom he surrendered. He was sent to the Moturoa, 

 i.e., " The Sugar Loaves," where the fugitives were hospitably treated. Guard carried 

 the story of the wreck and the capture of the woman and children to Sydney, and 

 Sir Richard Bourke sent by the Alligator a company of the Fiftieth Regiment to 

 rescue the prisoners. Mrs. Guard and the children were released, two villages crowded 

 with a mixed multitude of men, women and children were cannonaded, the habitations 



