Mike Pole's New Zealand Prehistory and Biogeography. ( # June 2003 )

Changes in Vegetation over the past 20,000 years.

China likely the original homeland of Polynesian people
The origin of the Polynesian people who inhabit most of the South Pacific islands including Hawaii and New Zealand has been obscure and the location of a mythical homeland called "Hawaiki" unknown.
By analysing human deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), Victoria University scientist Geoffrey Chambers claims that it is possible to show that Polynesians, including New Zealand's Maori, have migrated from Asia, through the Philippines, Indonesia, West Polynesia, East Polynesia and finally to New Zealand.

Raymond Weisling's Austronesian Language Comparison
From the island of Madagascar off the east coast of Africa, all the way to tiny isolated Easter Island (Rapa Nui), and extending into Taiwan, Vietnam, Northern Australia, New Zealand and most of the Melanesian and Polynesian Islands, the languages in this single family have many cognates (words in common).

The Settlement of Polynesia   The Vaka Taumako Project.
Tribes & Canoes 925 - 1998   ancient tribes and canoes, modern tribal divisions.

Archaeology in Oceania.
The New Zealand Archaeological Association   compendium of archaeological site photographs from Northland to Central Otago photographed by Kevin Jones of the Department of Conservation.
Pa Excavation in New Zealand Archaeology: a History and Review.
The Characterisation and Prehistoric Exploitation of Nephrite.(# May05)
Archaeozoology in New Zealand,   the study of animal bones in archaeology.

Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magelhaes)
Le Maire, Schouten, and Cape Horn.

In 1642 a Dutch expedition led by Abel Janszoon Tasman made the first European contact with Aotearoa. A translation of his journal of the 1642-3 voyage by Nathaniel Hooker.
The Tasman map reconfigured.
Tasman named his discovery Staten Land, believing that it might be part of the Staten Landt discovered by Le Maire and Schouten off the southeast coast of South America in 1616. However on his world map of 1645-46, Joannes Blaeu renamed it Zeelandia Nova, Nieuw Zeeland, perhaps to match New Holland, as Australia was then known.
The naming of New Zealand Brian Hooker

From 1605 to about 1792 there were in fact two New Zealands, both of them well charted and both discovered under the auspices of the Verenigde Öostindische Compagnie, Dutch East India Company (the VOC).

James Cook - British Navigator and Explorer.   Cook Internet resources   A brief life of Cook.   Michael Dickinson's links to Information about Cook.   Richard Aulie's study of   Cook's First Voyage, 1768-1771   BBC - the Ship     A modern day Endeavour   A full scale replica of the sailing ship 'Endeavour'.
Joseph Banks' journal of a voyage on HMS Endeavour, August 1768 - July 1771. from Sir Joseph Bank's papers in the State Library of New South Wales.   Daniel Solander the Botanist and Nature's Argonaut.

The Endeavour arrived in New Zealand in October 1769, the first time that Europeans had set foot in New Zealand.   Unknown to Cook, Jean de Surville was in Hokianga Harhour on 12 December 1769. He later visited Doubtless Bay. One of the anchors he left behind is on display at Te Papa the Museum of New Zealand.

Jules-Sebastien-Cesar Dumont d'Urville

Notices of New Zealand. From Original Documents in the Colonial Office. Communicated by R.W. Hay, Esq. from The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, Volume 2, 1832 (531k).   Map of New Zealand 1832 (160K) The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection UT Austin.

A Declaration of Independence - of the Confederation of United Tribes of New Zealand,  1835.

James Reddy Clendon appointed U.S. Consul in 1838.

William Hobson 1793-1842   Naval officer, colonial governor,
The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography vol.1 (1990).

Instructions to Captain Hobson concerning his duty as Lieutenant Governor of New Zealand: 1839.

The Treaty of Waitangi is seen as the founding document of the nation of New Zealand. It was signed in 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and Maori chiefs. Links

There are three versions of the treaty:

• the English text as signed;
• the Maori text as signed; and
• a modern English translation of the Maori text.

The trail of Waitangi by Gary Williams.
Eye-witness accounts of people and circumstances at the time that the Treaty was signed.

Legislative Violations of the Treaty of Waitangi: The first 150 years.

Information About the Treaty, Treaty Claims and the Waitangi Tribunal. Search the database.

Waitangi Day: A History - an account of the day's troubled history by Claudia Orange.

The New Zealand Wars   were fought in New Zealand by Maori people, the British Army and new settlers, between 1843 and 1872.     Through the use of ingenious tactics and innovative fortifications the Maori side was able to withstand the might of the British Empire for many years.     Background to the wars : 1845 - 1872.

Kawiti and Hone Heke.

Fencibles These soldier-settlers, called the Royal New Zealand Fencible Corps, had served in the wars for Britain in the 1830's and 1840's and retired on a pension. They were offered a new life in New Zealand; a free passage with their families, and a cottage with an acre of land to become theirs after a seven year term, in return for certain military duties.

Chronology of events relating to the life of Sir George Grey, 1812-1898.

John Ballance 1839-1893 Newspaper proprietor and editor, politician, premier, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography vol.2 (1993).

New Zealand Bound find the emigrant vessel that brought an ancestor to New Zealand.

The Edwin Fox last surviving wooden New Zealand immigrant ship.
As the Euterpe, the Star of India spent a quarter century hauling emigrants to New Zealand for the Shaw Savill line.

"We fellows were packed tight, six in a cabin; had to do our own cooking; very little flour and much hard dog biscuit [sic], grated into the flour and a few raisins, made a fair pudding. The salt junk, we couldn't eat."

Alexander M. Owen, 1932, recalling his voyage to New Zealand in 1879.

New Zealand Disasters     Mt Tarawera eruption,   Hawke's Bay earthquake,   Tangiwai,   the Ferry Wahine.     The Day The Wahine Went Down Times-Age Reporter Natalie Campbell talked with one of the rescuers on Eastbourne Beach and two Masterton survivors about their memories of April 10, 1968.
Why the Wahine which initially appeared stable after suffering minimal damage, suddenly lost her stability and capsized.

Air New Zealand sightseeing flight 901 from New Zealand to Antarctica crashed into Mt. Erebus during whiteout conditions. All 237 passengers and 20 crew were killed, 28 November 1979.

A brief History of the New Zealand Police.
Sergeant John Nash the first officer.

Development of Railways in New Zealand, a heritage that has roots in both British and American railroad practices.

The McLean Motor-car Act 1898 allowed the use of motor vehicles on New Zealand roads.

Highlights in New Zealand Aviation History . Richard Pearse achieved the first powered take-off in New Zealand on 31 March 1903 at Waitohi, near Temuka.

Chinese Settlement in New Zealand - Past, Present and Future by Dr James Ng.   Te Papa Tongarewa exhibition to tell story of Chinese Migrants.

From the midnight sun to the long white cloud Finns in New Zealand by Olavi Koivukangas.

The New Zealand Ireland connection explores the historical and contemporary links between New Zealand and Ireland. Check the list of Irish emigrants who sailed to New Zealand.

Judaism in New Zealand.   The Jews of New Zealand .
A Standard for the People commemorates the 150th anniversary of the founding of a Jewish community in New Zealand's capital city.

Elizabeth Yates: The First Lady Mayor in the British Empire ( Mayor of Onehunga in 1894 ).

New Zealand's Participation in the South African ('Boer') War 1899-1902.

New Zealand and the Great War - an examination of New Zealand's involvement in World War One.

The Somme, a land of history and remembrance   Australia and New Zealand in France during WWI.

Over 33000 Allied and 86000 Turkish troops died in the eight-month Gallipoli campaign of world war I which achieved none of its objectives. Though the campaign was a failure, Anzac ( initials of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps ) has come to stand, in the words of the historian, C.E.W. Bean, "for reckless valour in a good cause, for enterprise, recourcefulness, fidelity, comradeship and endurance", remembered each year on April 25th.

A guide to Anzac Day.

A Turkish account "Step by Step Canakkale Battle fields".

" Those heroes that shed their blood and 
lost their lives...! You are now lying in 
the soul of a friendly country, therefore 
rest in peace. There is no differences between 
the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they 
lie side by side here in this country of ours... 

You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away 
countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now 
lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having 
lost their lives on this land they have become 
our sons as well." 

                                 ATATURK, (1934).

New Zealand Fighter Pilots Museum, Wanaka's Planes of Fame.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum.

When my father came back to the barracks late that afternoon and told my mother and us children that we had been accepted as migrants for New Zealand, my mother was completely shocked. She said, "Where is this place, New Zealand? Probably at the end of the world!."
The saga of Kornel Romaniuk displaced from Bukovina after WWII. ( # Dec 2001 )

New Zealand Vietnam Veterans
Victor Company Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment Vietnam 1967.

A history of Time in New Zealand:   Standard Time and Daylight Time.

Sir Edmund Hillary A Man and his Mountain Salon Magazine.