EARLY EXPORTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 184, 6 August 1927, Page 8

EARLY EXPORTS.

Wheat was first exported from New Zealand as early as 1839, when a consignment was forwarded to Hobart in a brig called the Hamilton. This vessel arrived in the Derwent River on Friday, November 29, of that year. The wheat, which amounted to only twenty bushels, was for sample purposes, but with the object of creating a substantial market in Tasmania a large area of land was prepared for cultivation. A number of Maoris made the voyage in the Hamilton, and it was suggested by one of the papers in Hobart that "provided a barque or a light wooden canoe can be had in time it is the intention of an admirer of aquatic sports, with four New Zealanders, to challenge, the field afloat. With five paddles," he says, "a variety will be given to the scene at the regatta, whilst an occasional war whoop from the crew may possibly astonish the natives." In the same publication it is more or less amusing to not that "it is in agitation by several of the inhabitants of Launceston to send to New Zealand for two or three cargoes of the natives of that country to supply the general demand for domestic.servants." It is difficult to believe that the domestic problem was acute in those days, more so when it is remembered that the convict labour market was flooded. The humour of the suggestion is added to when it is considered that less than twenty years before the Maoris were unnamed cannibals and when the fighting instinct w. 3 particularly strong.