NEW ZEALAND. 403 



cipline, they will readily be overcome. They are not unlike grown 

 children, and may be more easily ruled by kindness, and by satisfying 

 the wants of the chiefs, than by force. The population will soon 

 disappear before the whites, for the causes that have operated else- 

 where are to be seen in action here, where the savage is already 

 sinking imperceptibly before the advances of civilization. While 

 philanthropy, real or pretended, is ransacking the globe to find sub- 

 jects for its benevolence, it seems a little surprising that scarcely a 

 voice has been raised in Parliament against this act of usurpation. 



On the 29th of February, 1840, there was a violent gale at the Bay 

 of Islands, said by the missionaries to have been the severest they had 

 experienced, with perhaps the exception of one which took place 

 shortly after their arrival. Many vessels suffered great damage. 

 The Thorn, of Sag Harbour, which sailed a few days before, bound 

 home, was obliged to put back, and in consequence of the damage 

 received, was condemned as unseaworthy, as was also the Tuscan, an 

 English whaler. The barque Nimrod arrived, having lost her top- 

 masts ; and several coasters were missing, supposed to have been lost. 

 Most of the vessels lying off Kororarika dragged their anchors, but 

 they suffered less from not being much exposed : the Harriet was 

 driven ashore at Tipoona, a few miles to the eastward, near Point 

 Pocock ; this vessel parted her cables during the night, and the next 

 morning was found a complete wreck. The crew barely escaped 

 with their lives. Besides these disasters on the water, those on the 

 land were also great: fences were carried away, houses deluged, 

 grounds overflowed, wharves injured, and the extensive embankment 

 of the missionary establishment at Pahia nearly demolished. The 

 tide rose six feet, during the night of Saturday, beyond its usual 

 mark, which caused most of the damage. 



This gale was experienced at the Thames on board H. B. M. ship 

 Herald, one hundred and forty miles to the south; also by the Flying- 

 Fish, off Cook's Straits, and by the barque Achilles, to the north. Mr. 

 Hale was a passenger in the last named vessel, and took barometrical 

 observations and notes during the continuance of the gale. 



From the observations, it appears that the changes took place at 

 the two northern and two southern positions, in opposite directions, 

 proving that the gale was a rotary one, and that its centre must have 

 passed between the Bay of Islands and the river Thames. The 

 greatest force of the gale was between the hours of 1 and 3 a. m., on 

 the 1st of March. At the Bay of Islands, a calm was observed by Mr. 



& 



