Chap. XVI. INCREASING TRADE WITH THE NATIVES. 443 
was no commercial intercourse between Wellington 
and Auckland, it would have been necessary to charter 
a vessel on purpose to communicate with the Govern- 
ment. This, indeed, has been repeatedly the case in 
later times, when such communication has seemed 
so desirable to the Cook's Strait settlers or to the 
Company's Agent as to overcome the objection, to such 
an enormous rate of postage. .; I •. - . ■ ■ i. 
The petition, numerously signed, was forwarded to 
Valparaiso by the Cuba, on the 2nd of March. Mr. 
Henry Petre was a passenger in this vessel, on his way 
to England ; whence he proposed returning finally to 
the country which he had adopted, for he had perfectly 
satisfied himself as to its natural capabilities and its 
future prospects. 
In the end of February, the Chelydra had sailed for 
Auckland, with the troops, and the crimped mechanics, 
who were allowed a free passage among other induce- 
ments. Mr. Dudley Sinclair, attracted by the prospect 
of speculation in town-lots at the proposed capital, left 
Wellington in this ship. He had parted with all his 
land and other property, and totally separated himself 
from the colonists, among whom he had come as a 
leading man. He openly avowed that he was only a 
land-jobber, and not a colonist. 
A schooner, and the old cutter which had been lying 
so long idle off Barrett's house, had sailed for TVan- 
ganuiy with some of the second-series sectionists and 
their goods. 
The increasing trade which the natives maintained 
in the town began to draw attention. Mr. Lyon, one 
of the earliest Scotch colonists, kept a shop which was 
their favourite resort; and he had in his ledger up- 
wards of sixty names of native customers, to whom he 
was not afraid to give credit to a certain extent. They 
