2. Explorers and first settlers

Archeological findings indicate that the brown-skinned people called Maori were the first inhabitants to live in New Zealand. They came from eastern Polynesia, sometime between A.D. 700 and 1,000. Their ancestral island, which they called Hawaiki, was probably near Tahiti.

Europeans first came in 1642. Dutchman Abel Tasman was the first European navigator to visit the islands this year. He named the country Staten Landt, later Nieuw Zeeland for the Dutch province of Zeeland. The islands did not attract much interest until they were described in detail by Captain James Cook, who visited the islands four times between 1769 and 1777, circumnavigated the coast, traded with Maori and clamed the land for the British crown. In 1769, Captain James Cook, heading a British expedition to Tahiti to examine the transit of Venus across the face of the sun, arrived in New Zealand in October to investigate Tasman’s discovery. Cook treated the Maori with caution, he found them still cannibals. His initial contact with them brought to violent confrontation in Poverty Bay, but good relations were established later.

Cook sailed round the two main islands and accurately placed New Zealand on the map, proving that it was not part of a southern continent. During this and further voyages Cook with the naturalist Sir Joseph Banks, made the first systematic observations of Maori life and culture. A Polynesian who had joined the Endeavour in Tahiti was able to interpret the Maori Language, enabling the crew to trade goods with the people. The expedition sciences collected many samples of plant life. Cook spent 176 days charting New Zealand and produced a very accurate map of the main islands. Further, in his book “A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World” stressed the intelligence of the Maori people and the suitability of a new land for colonization. And soon colonists as well as other discoverers and explorers followed Captain Cook to the country he had made known.

Soon after Cook the French came to New Zealand and were involved in even more dramatic conflicts with the Maori. The French explorer Jean de Surville anchored in Doubtless Bay in December 1769, just after Cook had passed by. De Surville had a dispute with the Maori and sailed off with a captive hostage. Another explorer, Marion Du Fresne, who spent five weeks at the Bay of Islands in 1772, quarreled frequently with the Maori he met. He was killed along with 24 of his crew. Those who survived gathered their forces and retaliated, killing at least 300 Maori. The death of Du Fresne, who had had a naïve trust in Maori as a group of noble savages, shocked Europeans and warned them off New Zealand, and they did not resume contacts fro 20 years.

Early settlers

A growing demand in Europe for seal-skins and whale oil in the 1790s sent seal-hunting and whaling ships to New Zealand’s coastal waters. Australian settlers began deep-sea whaling and sealing off the New Zealand coast and the first hunters came from the British convict settlements at Sydney.

The first European coastal stations were established after 1790. They were chiefly engaged in seal and whale hunting, as well as obtaining timber and flax and trading with the growing Australian colonies. Maori people became involved in these activities, buying provisions and supplying trade goods, implements, muskets and rum.

Missionaries began to settle in New Zealand to convert the Maori to Christianity. Missionaries quickly followed the traders. Anglican, Protestant and Catholic missions expanded rapidly, this expansion indicated that the Maori were being converted to Christianity in large numbers.

The colonists erected buildings, established gardens and married Maori women. Many of the first European settlements around the southern sounds and bays were established in this way, and the descendants of the settlers still live there. Many villages and settlements sprang up in the Bay of Islands on the eastern coast of the Northland Peninsular in the early 1800s.

The timber and flax industries also developed quickly. The region’s kauri trees provided long, sturdy timbers for ship masts, and native flax plants yielded fibre for rope and cordage.

In northern ports there was a busy local shipbuilding industry and also a growing timber trade across the Tasman Sea. Trade created jobs for many Maori. They cut timber, prepared flax, became whaling crew members or worked at the shore camps. Maori chiefs often visited Sydney. They brought pigs and potatoes back to their tribes, and these items became valuable articles of trade.

By 1840, there was a large township at Kororareka (present-day Russell) in the Bay of Islands, with several hundred European inhabitants of various nationalities. Among the inhabitants of this town and other coastal villages were escaped convicts from Australia and runaway sailors.

Massacres

Early Europeans contacts with the Maori often resulted in massacres. Occasional Maori attacs on Europeans continued to take place. The Maori were probably more violent towards one another than they were toward the Pakeha (the Maori word for persons of European descent) Fighting was common between tribal groups, and those, who first got Europeans weapons, especially muskets, used them in attacks on their traditional enemies.

Traders, sailors and numerous adventurers greatly affected Maori society. These pakehas introduced guns, new diseases and liquor into New Zealand. Guns made some Maori leaders very powerful.

Infectious diseases posed another thread to the Maori, who had lived to isolation for centuries and had no natural protection against European illnesses. As guns, sickness and alcohol spread among the Maori, their population, which probably numbered about 250,000 when Cook came to New Zealand, declined rapidly. By the end of the 19^th century there were only a about 42,000 Maori left. Early in the 20^th century, their numbers began to increase as they became more resistant to such diseases as influenza and as a result of their birth rate growth.

The expansion of comers and Christianity in New Zealand caused an increasing amount of European colonization. Traders and speculators scrambled for obtaining Maori land, what produced harmful effects on the native population.

In 1839 the British government appointed a naval captain, William Hobson, lieutenant-governor of New Zealand, which was then part of the Australian colony New South Wales, and sent him to administer the islands and safeguard Maori interests.

The Treaty of Waitangi

On the arrival in Sydney on January 29, 1840, Hobson issued a proclamation to stop the buying of land in New Zealand. He traveled to the Bay of Islands and drafted a treaty between the Maori and the British government. The treaty offered the Maori leaders a proposal to bring New Zealand into the British Empire. In return for granting Britain authority and control over the islands and their lands, the Maori would receive clear possession of their remaining lands, full status as British citizens and British protection. In addition, the Maori would sell land only to the British government. Hobson and other British officials believed the document would protect the Maori from being cheated in land deals. After a day of discussion, most Maori chiefs who were present decided to accept the terms, and they signed the Treaty of Waitangi on February 6, 1840. In practice the principles of the Treaty were often ignored. Dissatisfaction over the control of land in the North Island led to war in the 1860s with the result that much Maori land was confiscated. The anniversary of the Treaty’s signing, 6 February, is celebrated as New Zealand’s national day.

Towards Self-government

In 1841 a charter was issued separating New Zealand from New South Wales and constituting it as a British colony. As a governor Hobson established a small Executive Council, made up of himself and senior officials, and a Legislative Council, consisting of the same people plus three nominated colonists. The colonists demanded self-government though they were still out-numbered by the Maori.

The new capital, Auckland soon became a trading centre. Auckland replaced the Bay of Islands as a centre of trade, which hurt the Maori economy. In the middle of the 1840s the powerful Maori leader Hone Heke, the first chief to sign the Treaty of Waitangi, led uprising in the area north of Auckland to protest against unfair treatment by the pakehas. After a year of fighting, the colonial troops of Governor George Grey, who replaced Hobson in 1845, defeated the rebels.

By 1851 the European population had reached 26,707. The discovery of gold in Otago (1861) and in Westland (1865) brought not only wealth but also thousands of gold seekers from Australia and North America who increased the population and settled the land.

In 1852 the country was granted a Constitution that recognized the scattered and diverse nature of the European settlements and made New Zealand largely self-governing. The first national Parliament was formed in 1854. It consisted of two houses, the House of Representatives, whose members were elected by male European landowners with a certain amount of property, and the Legislative Council, whose members were appointed by the governor-general. Six principle governments were formed – for Auckland, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, Canterbury and Otago – each with elected superintendents and councils.

Land Wars

The attempts of the government to buy land often divided Maori tribes into land-holding and land-selling groups. Fighting soon broke out between these groups. From time to time a series of assaults on Maori settlements happened. The Maori fought bravely, inflicting heavy casualties on the British. But after a heroic defence of Orakau, they were defeated. The fighting then spread to the Bay of Plenty. The British suffered a humiliating defeat there before gaining revenge at Te Ranga. This was the last major battle of the Maori Wars, and most of the British regiments were withdrawn. But the conflicts were far from over. The wars were prolonged by two factors. One was the confiscation of land from the rebel Maori, which provoked them into desperate resistance. The other was the appearance in 1863 of a religious cult, known as Hau Hau, from which the Maori drew divine inspiration to continue their struggle. Eventually, however, disease and the greater strength of the British forces weakened the Maori fighters. They withdrew to an area known as the King Country, between the Taranaki and Waikato regions.

Gold Boom and Squattocracy

In 1865, to be closer to the more populated South Island, the New Zealand government moved the capital from Auckland to Wellington, on the southern coast of the North Island. The South Island, unaffected by the northern wars, developed rapidly. A few years earlier prospectors had discovered gold on the South Island, and the find caused an economic boom that drew many immigrants to the country. A rich goldfield was discovered in Otago. The province was soon invaded by eager diggers, mainly from the largely worked-out Victorian fields in Australia. Otago was quickly transformed into the most populous and prosperous province in the colony. Canterbury also prospered with the discovery of gold on its west coast in 1864.

In the 1850s the grassland of the Canterbury plains and the foothills of the Southern Alps was rapidly taken up for pastures. Merino sheep wool provided the country with its first important export. The squatters, wealthy landowners, became a new squattocracy. They dominated the political and social life of the colony until their wealth was threatened by depression late in the 188s.

Gold did not replace wool as the leading export. By the early 1870s the gold industry had declined. But it did bring more colonists to the country than did the New Zealand Company and its branches. Moreover, the gold diggers profoundly altered the social structure of the population. Eventually they formed the basis of a working class, though politics continued to be dominated by the commercial and farming middle class. But the exhausted gold deposits left thousands of people with no work. The continued Maori War expenditures added to New Zealand’s hardships. And when prices

for its main exports, wool and wheat, fell in the late 1860s, the country entered a depression and faced serious economic problems. To set the colony on the road to recovery decisive measures were needed.

Problems and Solutions

These measures came in 1870 from New Zealand’s treasurer Julius Vogel, who proposed a solution to these problems through a program to create jobs and develop the country at the same time. He proposed to borrow 20 million New Zealand dollars overseas to promote immigration and the construction of railways, roads, bridges, telegraph lines, and government buildings. The transportation aided the development of manufacturing industry. Factories produced woolen cloth, farm machinery, refrigeration and mining equipment.

During the 1880s refrigeration and freezing came into use on ships. The first cargo of frozen meat sent to Great Britain in 1882 earned a considerable profit for New Zealand farmers. Refrigeration also meant cheese and butter could withstand the long trip to Europe. As a result, more people wanted to become dairy farmers. The success of new technology made farmers less dependent on wool and wheat for income. The New Zealand Shipping Company began a regular shipping service with refrigerated vessels.

However, despite improvements in transportation and manufacturing, New Zealand suffered severe economic problems throughout the 1880s.

In 1890 the newly formed Liberal Party won the elections to Parliament and began a new era in New Zealand politics. In the past governments were unstable coalitions of largely provincial interests. But the Liberals were to become the first nationwide political party. Under John Balance and his successor, Richard Seddon, the Liberals enacted sweeping social reforms. The government created more than 5,000 new farms. It passed the Land and Income Tax Act , which forced many wealthy properly owners to sell parts of their estates to pay their taxes. New laws protected women and children from long working hours and unsafe conditions in factories and shops.

In 1893 New Zealand became the first nation in the world to give voting rights to women. The same year the government extended free education from the primary to the secondary levels. New Zealand was among the first countries in the world to provide, in 1898, social security benefits and old-age pensions for its people. By the turn of the century the Liberal legislation gained New Zealand a reputation as a social laboratory, for some of the world’s most advanced social programs.

In 1907 Britain granted the colony status as a dominion – a self-governing country within the British Empire.

Self-reliant Islanders

The isolation of the country from the rest of the world has played an important role in its development. However, in the 20^th century New Zealand has been involved in international affairs, being an active member of the League of Nations and the United Nations.

Formally, New Zealand gained full independence from Great Britain in 1947 under the Statute of Westminster. The new nation became a member of the British Commonwealth.

For much of the 20^th century New Zealand has long been dependent economically on the export of agricultural products, especially to Great Britain. But when in 1973 Great Britain entered the European Union, New Zealand was forced to expand its trade relations with other nations.

Being isolated and living far from the world’s major developed regions New Zealanders proved to be self-reliant people who devised their own practical solutions to problems that arose. As a result New Zealanders have a high standard of living, and their country today is a welfare state, a nation in which the government takes responsibility for the well-being of its people.