GEORGE BASS. 373 supplied annually to the public stores. Government aiding me in the project, I will make the experiment." The aid asked for was "exclusive privilege or lease of the south part of New Zealand, or that south of Dusky Bay, drawing the line in the same parallel of latitude across to the east side of the island, .... together with ten leagues of sea around their coasts." The lease was to be for seven years, renewable to twenty-one if successful during the seven. The first seven years being probationary, he could not undertake to supply any specific quantity, and therefore did not ask the government to bind itself to receive any fixed quantity. For fish delivered he would be content with a price less by one penny a pound than the cost of a meat ration. "If your Excellency thinks the above proposal worthy your notice, I request at once to have the privilege that I may begin to set matters in motion. If I can draw up food from the sea in places which are lying useless to the world, I surely am entitled to make an exclusive property of the fruits of my ingenuity as much as the man who obtains letters patent for a corkscrew or a cake of blacking."^ King seconded Bass*s project. It was to be at Bass's risk; the government was not bound to buy. Bass's last voyage had been most lucrative to the government in obtaining pork. He presumed that every encouragement should be given, and that the project would '*be attended with much advantage, but how far the lands described by him can or ought with propriety to be leased to Mr. Bass for so laudable an undertaking I must submit to your Lordship's wisdom, as the permis- sion I shall give him to that effect will be conditional until I have the honour to receive your Lordship's instructions on this point." The fishing scheme was not to be proved until the return of Bass from the cruise to Batavia and elsewhere. Mean- while he projected a new scheme. King wrote :
- Mr. Bass's enterprising speculation has led him to attempt getting a
breed of guanacos from the coast of Peru, for which purpose he solicited a certificate from me which I took upon myself to grant, a copy of which 1 have the honour to enclose. . . . I do not perceive any political inconvenience that can attend the open and unequivocal manner he goes in, and perhaps it may ultimately tend to some public advantage." ^ MS. autograph of Bass.
