COOK’S STATUE SOUGHT FOR MERCURY BAY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28792, 13 January 1959, Page 15

COOK’S STATUE SOUGHT FOR MERCURY BAY

“The Press’ Special Service

AUCKLAND, January 12. On a slope overlooking the Coromandel Peninsula’s Mercury Bay, where holiday-makers swim and fish, there may soon stand a statue of Captain James Cook. It’s the spot where, according to a Whitianga barrister and solicitor Mr H. L. Rees, Captain Cook took possession of New Zealand for King George HI on November 9, 1769. And it is also the place where the great explorer, discoverer, navigator and astronomer observed the transit of Mercury. Mr Rees, part-owner of the land at the southern end of Cook’s Beach, has sought support for his statue idea from the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Anderton, members of Parliament, the Historic Places Trust and others. He has his eye on the valuable marble statue of Captain Cook which looks out over, not Mercury Bay, but Khyber Pass. But the owners. New Zealand Breweries, Ltd., will not part with the captain, who has stood atop the Captain Cook brewery for many years. The significance, according to New Zealand Breweries, is that Captain Cook was the first brewer on New Zealand soil and that the brewery was probably the first in New Zealand. Meanwhile the Mercury Bay proposal is under consideration by the Historic Places Trust Two Snags There are two snags. First, there is no irrefutable proof that at Mercury Bay Captain Cook took possession of all New Zealand. Dr. J. C. Beaglehole, of Wellington, world authority on Captain Cook, is not convinced. But at least it is accepted that he took possession of the bay that day 189 years ago. Second, there is already a stone cairn at the bay in commemoration of the observation of the transit of Mercury. But it is two miles away on Shakespeare Bluff, in the wrong place. Many years ago the Crown obtained land for a memorial on the bluff, and the Coromandel County Council erected the cairn. Fixing of Cook’s Beach as the point follows the discovery recently of a chart of the bay drawn by Lieutenant Pickersgill, cartographer in Cook’s ship, the Endeavour. Eclipse Observed Historians record that Cook, a skilful astronomer, peered into a cloudless sky just after mid-day tc watch the passage of Mercury across the disc of the sun. Such an event occurs about seven times every 50 years Observation of the transit of Mercury and the transit of Venus (twice a century), particularly the latter, were two main reasons for Cook’s 1769-70 Pacific voyage. In his day astronomy was of great value in navigation and observation of the planets of great value in astronomy. So his observation in Mercury Bay deserves recognition—in the right place. Cook observed the transit of Venus at Tahiti on June 3, 1769. and then set off in quest of the gre-, continent supposed to exist ' the South Pacific. He reached Xew Zealand, circumnavigated the coast for six months and headed off to Australia. ; Historians do not agree on

whether and where he took possession of New Zealand. After his visit to Mercury Bay he wrote: “Before we left this bay we cut out upon one of the trees near the watering place the ship’s name, date, etc., and after displaying the English colours I took formal possession of the place in the name of His Majesty.” But was the “place” Mercury Bay or New Zealand?

Four months later Cook landed at Queen Charlotte Sound in the South Island and wrote: “I dignified this inlet with the name of Queen Charlotte Sound and took formal possession of it and the adjacent lands in the name of and for the use of His Majesty.” Mr Rees reasons that Cook either unwittingly took possession of New Zealand twice or took possession of the South Island when he found the country was divided into two major parts.