Cook’s Flagstaff Site Found?

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32005, 4 June 1969, Page 28

Cook’s Flagstaff Site Found?

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON,- June 3. A Hamilton historian says he may have discovered the site where Captain Cook claimed New Zealand for King George HI 200 years ago. - ; ’i ?

The site is on a levelled area of volcanic rock on the southern tip . of Mercury Bay, near the place where Cook obtained supplies of water and wood. «> W inaccessible by land. Cook is known to. have erected a flagpole, and claimed New Zealand in the area. Mr C. G. Hunt former curator, of : -the Waikato Museum, visited the site on Sunday. He and Messrs W. Hamilton. of Whenuakite, and F. G. Harsant, of Purangi, went by launch from the Purangi River and landed by punt on Cbbk Bluff, at the southern end of Mercury Bay. "On the bluff, about 70 feet above sea level, we-found s flat square, measuring’ 11'feet by 13 feet, which had been cut out of the soft volcanic rock,” said Mr Hunt “A hole had been chipped into the centre of the square and it is surrounded by four slabs, apparently put there to hold something in place. ! “There are font boulders placed in the corners which could have been used for tying guy ropes.” "The work is obviously of,

European origin and could not have been done by Maoris,” he-said.