Chap. IX. THE SURPRISE SCHOONER. 279 
It was about this time that we heard, by the arrival 
of some vessel from Sydney, of the agitation produced 
among the people in that place who had bought land 
in this country, with respect to the likelihood of their 
claims being allowed. A land commission, to in- 
quire into all such claims, was talked of by the Go- 
vernor of New South Wales, and the fears of the 
Australian land-sharks had been excited by the rumour. 
Mr. Went worth, who was said to claim very large 
tracts in the Middle Island, had taken a leading part 
in an association formed for the purpose of watch- 
ing over their interests. 
On the 6th of May, Captain Pearson left the har- 
bour with his ship. All attempts to procure an 
amicable arrangement of the dispute had failed ; and 
he had gone away vowing vengeance on the " demo- 
"crats," as he called us, for attempting to preserve justice 
and order. A proposition made to enforce the autho- 
rity of the Police Magistrate, by bringing Pearson out 
of his ship, had been finally abandoned; it being 
thought better to let the affair drop quietly than to 
bring more irritation and annoyance upon the settle- 
ment by maintaining a principle against a man who 
seemed determined to irritate and annoy the community 
on account of the very arrangements which it had 
made to insure public tranquillity. 
On the 14th, I started in a schooner of thirty tons 
for JVanganui. She belonged to a man named Mac- 
gregor, who had been living by sealing and other 
pursuits for some years in the neighbourhood of 
Foveaux's Straits. With the assistance of some other 
men, he had built this boat ; and, having got on board 
some natives connected with Tf^anganui, he had come 
up in search of that place in order to land them and 
obtain payment for their passage in pigs and potatoes. 
