0295, 2318 NEW ZEALAND - Māori people

0295 A Māori man

Posted on 01.08.2012, 21.02.2016
In 1642, at about 350 years after Māori colonized New Zealand coming from the mythical home Hawaiki in their canoes (waka), Abel Tasman arrived with two ships near to the South Island's shore. Couldn't be said that it was love at first sight. Behold a fragment from the Dutch explorer diary: "Upon this the other natives, with short thick clubs which we at first mistook for heavy blunt parangs [large knives], and with their paddles, fell upon the men in the cock-boat and overcame them by main force, in which fray three of our men were killed and a fourth got mortally wounded through the heavy blows. The quartermaster and two sailors swam to our ship, whence we had sent our pinnace to pick them up, which they got into alive. After this outrageous and detestable crime the murderers sent the cock-boat adrift, having taken one of the dead bodies into their prow and thrown another into the sea."

2318 Māori performing Haka at Whakarewarewa, Rotorua

 

Europeans didn't revisit Nova Zeelandia until 1769, when James Cook mapped almost its entire coastline, anglicised also the name to New Zealand. The route was created, so that the islands have become a stopping and supply point for whaling and trading ships, the sailors developing over time some trade relations with the locals. Besides potato, Māori received diseases unknown for them and muskets, who helped them to be fewer and fewer, the population decreasing to around 40% at the mid of 19th century. Further, Captain William Hobson brought them in 1840 the British sovereignty. Also the Christianity. Although tensions have continued, some Māori have contributed actively to the life of British Empire, even putting his fighting spirit in the crown service in WWI and WWII.

0137 NEW ZEALAND - Sheep farming

The first European who reached New Zealand was Abel Tasman in 1642, but the islands weren't visited again until 1769, when James Cook mapped almost the entire coastline. Captain Cook was also the one who brought the first sheep in New Zealand, in 1773, 41 years before that the first Christian missionary to set foot on the shores of the North Island. Wool was New Zealand’s major agricultural export during the late 19th century, and even in 1960s it made up over a third of all export revenues. Since then, its price has steadily dropped relative to other commodities and wool is no longer profitable for many farmers. Thereby the sheep population decreased from 70 million in 1982 to about 32 million in today, which mean that however the number of sheep in New Zealand is 8 times greater than the number of inhabitants.