KiwiNewZ

A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW ZEALAND

Archaeological evidence indicates that New Zealand was populated by fishing and hunting people of East Polynesian ancestry perhaps 800 years before Europeans arrived. Known to some scholars as the Moa-hunters, they may have merged with later waves of Polynesians who, according to Maori tradition, arrived between 952 and 1150. They were not fisherman who had blown off course in a storm. They came in double-hulled voyaging canoes (pahi) stocked with the plants and animals on carefully planned voyages. Some of the Maoris called their new homeland "Aotearoa," usually translated as "land of the long white cloud."

The first recorded European to sight New Zealand was the Dutch navigator, Abel Tasman who sighted the South Island's West Coast, on December 13, 1642. He mapped a part of the coastline and gave the country, which he believed was a continent, the name Staten land. When the mistake was discovered the country was given a new name, Nieuw Zeeland. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, lumbering, seal hunting, and whaling attracted a few European settlers to New Zealand.

On October 7, 1769 English Captain James Cook arrived to the country. With him onboard was the Swede Mr Daniel Solander.... "Archaeological proof suggests that there already were living people in New Zealand before the Maori came. They were a Polynesian people called the Moa hunters who gradually reached the Islands beginning in about A.D. 900. They were living on the South Island and they were hunting the Moabird. It was a big ostrich like bird. The Moa hunters were dark skinned." Captain Cook thoroughly explored the coastline during three South Pacific voyages

In 1840, the United Kingdom established British sovereignty through the Treaty of Waitangi signed that year with Maori chiefs. In the same year, selected groups from the U.K. began the colonization process. Expanding European settlement led to conflict with Maoris, most notably in the Maori land wars of the 1860s. British and colonial forces eventually overcame determined Maori resistance.

Constitutional government began to develop in the 1850s. In 1867, Maoris won the right to a certain number of reserved seats in parliament. During this period, the livestock industry began to expand, and the foundations of New Zealand's modern economy took shape.

By the end of the 19th century, improved transportation facilities made possible a great overseas trade in wool, meat, and dairy products. By the 1890s, parliamentary government along democratic lines was well established, and New Zealand's social institutions assumed their present form. Women received the right to vote in national elections in 1893. The turn of the century brought sweeping social reforms that built the foundation for New Zealand's version of the welfare state.

Maoris gradually recovered from population decline and, through interaction and intermarriage with settlers and missionaries, adopted much of European culture. In recent decades, Maoris have become increasingly urbanized and have become more politically active and culturally assertive.

New Zealand was declared a dominion by a royal proclamation in 1907. It achieved full internal and external autonomy by the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act in 1947, although this merely formalized a situation that had existed for many years.

The Maori have many stories and legends about the shaping of New Zealand. Their history records that it was Maui who fished up the land. This fish was called Te Ika a Maui, Maui's fish. This was the North Island. Maui returned to Hawaiki to find a tohunga who would remove it's tapu but in his absence his brothers cut the fish up and their canoe became the South Island. This is now known as Te Waka o Maui, Maui's Canoe. The anchor stone became Stewart Island or Te Puka o te Waka o Maui, the Anchor Stone of Maui's Canoe.

The enemies being killed, often landed on the Maori dinner table and the Maoris also used the heads as a trophy - moko mokai - to promote fertility. Many of these heads were sold as a curious fact for excessive prices in Europe and to this day they are being recvoered.

From the beginnings of European exploration of New Zealand, it was realised that here was a peculiarly unique country. As the natural history collections obtained by the various early explorers were examined and interpreted, the special character of much of the New Zealand fauna and flora became apparent. It is still hotly debated whether or not New Zealand was completely submerged between 60 - 30 million years ago (mya).

There are now two competing views as to NZ's biogeographic history:
(1) the traditional view, that our biology - especially the vegetation - is a living example of a 'Gondwanan' fragment that has a lineage directly traceable back to when NZ split off from Gondwana (maybe as early as 90 mya or as late as 75 mya, depending on who you believe).
(2) a more recent view, that actually almost none of our current plants and animals can be traced in a continuous lineage back to Gondwana, and instead have all arrived via long-distance dispersal from Australia and SE Asia, maybe even as recently as 20 - 10 mya. There is some compelling fossil evidence for this view.