HISTORICAL REVIEW OF NEW ZEALAND. 



1013 





THE MANAWATU GORGE. 



other places in the South 

 Pacific were less expensive than 

 Kororareka had become, and 

 the cheaper ports of call were 

 chosen as refreshment places. 

 Tobacco became scarce, and 

 new blankets not being easy 

 to acquire, the natives con- 

 sidered that the emblem of 

 British authority the flag-staff 

 on the hill overlooking the 

 town was the cause of the 



decay in their shipping revenue, and, as a writer remarked, the idea arose in the native 

 mind " that if the flag-staff were cut down, the fine old days of Kororareka would return." 



On the 8th of July, 1844, a native chief named Hone Heke cut down and burned 

 the Kororareka flag-staff and carried away the signal-balls. The Governor sent to 

 Sydney for troops, which arrived in New Zealand early in August. The chiefs, inter- 

 viewing the Governor, promised to maintain peace, and the flag-staff was again erected ; 



