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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 4, Issue 188, 27 April 1861, Page 5

Auckland lately tools a step which has long been urged upon the attention .pf its merchants— -rthat of fitting out a syessel as a whaler and thus endeavouring to share with their American brethren the " treasures of the deep." The ship was duly despatched on her first cruise, and has lately returned with no less than 200 barrels of sperm oil obtained upon or near the New Zealand coast. The last fish caught has been valued at £982. Now, this province may scarcely be prepared to follow the footsteps of her elder sister ; the enterprise is one which swallows up, in the outset, a good deal of capital. But the subject should not be lost sight of as the province advances in material wealth ; seeing that Hawke's Bay, above all other provinces, ;has within itself the elements of success. It' has the bone and sinew, the hardihood and the experience. The whaling stations of the Bay have been knt)wn and appreciated for many years ; and we hope to see the time when stations on shore — not now so successful as in days gone by — will be exchanged for good sound sea-going bottoms, and when the character of Hawke's Bay as an oil producing settlement will 'rank higher even than in days of yore.