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" close " one and during which it \¥onkl be penal to hunt or destroy the 

 whale. In reply to the first portion of this question, all the informants, 

 with one exception, attribute the disappearance of the whale to the fact 

 of its great destruction during the whaling season. One informant 

 states that he has known, for many years in succession, as many as 

 300 sail of American, besides many German, French, and colonial 

 vessels, fishing on these coasts. They would commence the bay 

 whaling in all the principal harbours of the Middle Island from 

 Cloudy Bay to Pi-eservation Inlet, and would afterwards rejoair for the 

 oflf-shore whaling, to the banks between ISTew Zealand and the Chatham 

 Islands. Many of them would sink and lose more whales than they 

 procured ; on an average, he would consider that each ship lost about 

 fifty whales per season. One Captain Perkins stated that he had sunk 

 and lost about seventy in the year 1838. He had known many to lose 

 ten or twelve in a day. Another says that by far more whales were 

 lost than taken. A Captain Fisher said that he had killed over 300 in 

 one season, and secured but 100. Many captains s]3oke similarly of 

 their losses, and anticipated that after a few years whales would become 

 so scarce that it would be useless to come again for a cruise to the New 

 Zealand seas. This wholesale destruction, or slaughter, as it should 

 rather be called, taking place, as it did, in the shores and bays during 

 the calving season, introduced a further element of loss, inasmuch as the 

 cow-whales were then destroyed, either whilst in calf or together with 

 the young calf by their side. When the cows, accompanied by their 

 calves, left for the deeper waters ; and when this terminated for the 

 season, the bay, or in-shore whaling as it is called — this wholesale destruc- 

 tion was continued by the ofi'-shore whalers, and amongst them the 

 wasteful loss was as great, if not greater, than befoi'e, as in the bay a 

 sinking whale was anchored and buoyed ; it would then probably rise to 

 the surface in from forty-eight hours to four days, and would so be recover- 

 able. Sometimes, also, a harpoon-stick, with a small distinguishing flag 

 appended, was driven into the body, by which the cajjtors would 

 recognize their own again upon its resurrection. One only of the 

 informants, Mr. George Green, considers the disappearance to be due to 

 the constant traffic of steamers and various other vessels up and down 

 the coast ; and he is borne out in this opinion, to use his own words, 

 "by the fact that what was known as the middle groimd — viz., the area 

 between New South Wales and New Zealand, and which was considered 

 one of the best^is now almost deserted by the whale." Whilst 

 admitting this as a partial cause, I think the view held by the rest is 



