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Coromandel's Long Passage.

Although she left London at the end of 1839, the Coromandel, 662 tons, Captain Edward French, did not reach Port Nicholson until August of the following year, but this long voyage of 260 days was accounted for by the fact that she had called in at Sydney en route. With 44 passengers on board she left Gravesend on December 13th, 1839, called at Cork on February 2nd, 1840, and the following June 26th arrived at Sydney, where she must have remained some time before proceeding on to Wellington, which she reached on August 29th. At Sydney the Coromandel took on board a number of horses, cattle, and sheep, which must have been among the first introduced to the Cook Strait settlement. Major Richard Baker, J.P., joined the vessel at Sydney. He was one of the earliest of Wellington's settlers, and had gone over to Sydney to defend himself on a charge preferred against him by Captain Pearson, of a vessel called the Integrity. Acting in his capacity of magistrate, Baker had ordered the captain to be taken into custody, and this led to an action for wrongful arrest. New Zealand was then merely an offshoot from the mother colony of New South Wales, so the case, which caused considerable stir at the time, had to go to Sydney for trial. The Court found in favour of the J.P.