Old New Zealand.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5650, 8 October 1889, Page 3

Old New Zealand.

The near approach of tho opening ot the \ Dunedin Exhibition is setting the Otago newspapers at work digging up old stories Of the birth of their settlement and province As next year will be the jubilee year of the colony, we may presume that a ram ot old stories, records, and reminiscences of New Zealand's early days will descend upon our heads. We shall havo enough and to spare to read of abstracts andW ' chronicles of New Zealand's history Mort of them, no donbt, will begin with Captain Cook Not that he is usually supposed to be the discoverer of these islands. Most people know, in a vague sort of way, that one Abel Jansen Tasman was tho first mariner to touch on these shores But that is about all they do know. \ cry &8e indeed has ever co.no to liglt about the daring Dutch navigator, who in ono «nd the same voyage, discovered 1 asmanw and New Zealand, to say nothing of minor feats Tho darkness that hangs about his achievements is easily to be extjained. The Dutch deliberately suppressed all intelligence about tho great continent of _ ew Holland aud tho other lands of the southen. ocean. Th-y wanted no intruders there. Theirs was the age of close seas and intense commercial exd-Wcness. I**nan is supposed to have written a full and Locate account of all that he raw, both during the voyage of 16-12, during which ho found New Zealand, and of his adventured in his second voyage two years later. It Uknownthnthewas commissioned to do so by his chief, Anthony Van Dieinan. and the Dutch East India Company. But the iealous merchants took wire never to publish the ioumal. Only v few extracts from it wore'printed by one Dirk Remhranck, who was struck with the curious nature of 0,0 contents. Luckily, and for this the iudicious- Dirk must be held entitled to tho eternal gratitude of all New Zealand antiquaries, one of these extrwta contain; part, or perhaps *"> ° f * hat Ctt ' ,U4m '\ M J;l '?" Tasman had to a*y about tho country ' destined two hundred years nflerwards to Yin taken possession of by _apta.ii Hobson K.N., in tho name of Her Majesty

Qii__i Victoria. It was w» th. thirteenth of December, 16 _■' that tho two little Dutch ships, the Heemskirk and the Lee-Haan, running before the westerly gales, with a heavy sea roUinff from tho south-west, c.imo in sight _f tho high Westland mountain*, nnd, coasting northwards, doubled Capo FarewenS cast anchor in Golden Bay. . No _nnht the adventurous seamen were right Xd to get there, for they were three Months and a half out from Batavui, having ♦„,.___! at Mauritius and discovered Van Smen'sLandbytho way But though Shad found a haven, they profited so Httlo from it that they spent two days there, thanks to the " massacre " which „„» its name to tho bay. We read that fhe discoverers saw abundance of inhabi- ■. *.„ta- '• they had hoarse voices, and wore a V very" large-made people, of a color __s.«en brbwn and yellow, and with oetwieu alraopt a 8 t j llo k fts that of Tasman notes how they hair up on the top of the W over a sort of comb or quill; also how SS often blew on a kind of trumpet, to ._!__ sound the Dutch sailors would reply kTSiSS °» their own musical instruSfS«.«i perhaps this incident !_. to bo noted as the first instance of a Sfi'iSK-Vew Zealand In spite, Kwewr, of this " concord of sweet sounds, S. M___s and the Dutchmen mnde no £o_Sw_rds friendship. Tasman.deP i £ ft at on the first day, the natives Snotappro-ch within * /stone's thro. _v- _£in* a timidity which is m marked 2_^^W w *r^ ithw,, S , *___t_.rew ftone« at Captain Cook smen-of-SE S defiantly dare_ the English sailors to come on shore and bo eaten. At last, on &___ber 19, some Maoris ventured to S the Heemskirk and begin barter. T__W then says that he despatched a ______ with seven men, but unarmed, to ahaUop wwi Heemskirk to be on thatonite way thosliallop ww attacked by the natives, who killed *__«men and forced tho four survivors to S for their lives He did not attempt ___evenge this assault because of the rough weather *»<■ eailed a ri l _ is .. T>i h Xr naming the scene ot the bloodshed the Bay of Murderers-not Massacre Bay nsis ZZ ;„ coast of the North Island passing iffiSSmt, which he docs not trouble f_ mention) seeking an opening to tho eaet. Th" o course, tc did not find (having SndW passed Cook Strait) until he reached CaS Maria Van Diemen. All the .hip's coXaiy were overjoyed here to find a They only stayed to sail CiuUhe Island of Three Rings, and then rounu-u Zealand, giad to be c On tho Three Kings T«m,i_ notes _?r.h. saw somo twenty or thirty natives ___tt_ff on a hill shaking clubs and shout- ?,._■ hoarsely. Evidently ho was not attracted b/a cou« "Ly which produced such fcroHous but the true reason - whis hasty departure seemn to have been "ffes^ri::;;,::'!™": consequence P d , hat he __« aX e S pendi,ure of ££* ForiSance, he missed discovering ' Bass' Strait or tho south coast of Australia, fly nothing on tbo greater part of New 7eal_nd A chart of New Holland based on ?_Y'.d voyage was engraved, it is said, __ thplvomU of the Stadthouse at Amsterdam, but with his second voyag* &£/Snd had nothing to do It is v . _ mentioning, by the way. that ho did V Tt namo tWs &u_W Now Zealand, but " "£?\ , _n<i Its present name was given i»P of Mg Sequently. As ° d hter 0 f rc.mautm u ££ wa W ill believe iv ofThe Australian .poet who I ? M __the brave sailor " saw in streumeverywhere the curious spienJDg «^ c X e o 4 n hair ." No one can dor of _ci o"' , wrong at uny rate. pro ve our Ms" ye fear, that ill we can be *w*«* £ q iton Times. ______