UNKNOWN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7732, 27 February 1909, Page 3

UNKNOWN

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR.

MR McNAB'S RESEARCH WORK.

Sir Robert McNab, who was a passenger for the south by this morning's express, chatted very interestingly on a variety of subjects to a Guardian reporter who monopolised his time between Christchurch and Hinds. Questioned as to what he had been doing since his return tram Australia, Mv McNab said that he had been engaged in his literary work, and expected to get his extended history out this autumn. Before leaving Wellington last evening he had been able to hand tne balance of his manuscript to the printer and it would be now only a lew weeks beiore the- result of his work would be available to those who wished to peruse it. /' Wherein does it differ from your former work?" was asked. "It differs in this respect," replied Mr McNab, " that it is no longer confined to the extreme south and to the 1 period prior to 1830. It is a much larger book than- the previous one, and the field covered includes the whole of the South Island from the discovery by Tasman in 1642 instil the close of the whaling season in '.isito ; whereas the first volume covered tiio gniiind between 1770 and 1829 only. m addition to the South Island, tho northern coastline of Cook Strait had to be included, so that the events in connection with Wellington harbour, Terawhiti and Cape Palliser are dealt with, and also tne trade with the natives under Te Rauparaha (at Kapiti Island), who went into the tiax trade to get money to purchase the arms and ammunition that enabled him during the latter 'twenties and the whole of the _ 'thirties to carry on his devastating raids over the North and South Isdealt with only as far as it affected the European, and, also so far as European trade was responsible for the Native history. Up to the present time Maori scholars have had to rely upon the evidence of the natives in the Land Court of the country to ascertain the sequence of events of Maori history, and the dates were in many cases merely approximate. My work will indicate the dates by reference to the arrivals and departures of certain vessels which are on record, thus supplying many missing rinks to the Maori scholar. At the same time the does not profess to be an elaborate Maori history." The reporter next enquired whether this completed the range of work .in regard to the history of the South Island. Mr McNab said: "No! Not by any means. Any "future work will have to take a shorter period to deal with in one volume. There is still much more to be said than has been said regarding the whaling period." "What in your opinion, was the trade of that period worth?" "It meant a very greairtleal to the countries engaged in it. The larger portion of the trade was taken up by Sydney, by whaling vessels and shore parties. The Americans had the next largest portion, then the English whalers, and finally the Hobart people.' Counting the oil and the whale products I would say that it must have run into £300,000 per annum for perhaps the greater part of the 'thirties, and of course. that was not the only trade. It was too, pretty well confined to the South Island. To that you must add a small sealing and a large flax trade, and a trade in food products (chiefly pork and potatoes) for Sydney, so that very nrobably one is not far out in supposing that at that early period the South Island trade with tho world was worth no lesf than £400,000. And that was the decade before the treaty of Waitangi, and before European settlement." Mr McNab added that one of the results which he would like to follow from a more intimate acquaintance with the history of our country woulS be the restoration of the names given by tha original discoverers. They really carried the history of the country on the face of the map. We are very apt to overlook them and substitute meaningless names 'of our own. He would not call them meaningless names if the original native names were adhered to. " Take, for instance, Tasman," he went on. " The South Island hasn't a name that Tasman gave it. The country is not even called by the name he gave it. He identified it as Staaten Land, and when that was found to be a mistake the Dutch authorities gave it the name of New Zealand. We have thrown aside every one of his own names and given his name to places he never saw or his ships never sailed in, such as Abel Head and Tasman Bay. With the exception of Cook and WVrville none of the great explorers have had justice done them. Of Malaspina and Bellinghausen, the former had a number of. his names dropped out and the latter has not one name to his credit, yet the one surveyed Doubtful Sound and the latter spent a considerable time in Queen Charlotte Sound. The Hon T. Mackenzie, the Minister in charge of the Tourist Department, who is an ardent believer in the history attached to our beautiful sounds, I have no doubt would, if his attention were called to it, do his best to perpetuate the history of these great explorers of our coasts. It would be something that the. tourists'would particularly apIn conclusion, Mr McNab said that the -work now in the press would include the whole of the contents of the former book, subject to corrections, and would contain the added matter belonging to the more extended field of his researches and studies. It would simply be called: " Murihiku," though the name would no longer be descriptive of the area as formerly. He would be keeping up his historical research work in the future, with a view to leavng eomethng in the nature of a complete and exhaustive history of the southern part of New Zealand. bo many appreciative communications had reached him regarding the work in nand that he hoped at an early date to be able to go forward, and to place in the hands of students and the public Generally an exhaustive .history ot the South Island previous to the time when an" organised Government was, established.