EARLY NEW ZEALAND

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 107, 7 May 1909, Page 3

EARLY NEW ZEALAND

LECTURE BY MR. R. M'NAB. AN INSTRUCTIVE EVENING.

Mr. M'Nab was in his element last night. He was lecturing, under the auspices of the City Council, in the concert chamber of the Town Hall, to a crowded audience on a subject which he has made peculiarly his own — the early history of the South Island. "Murihiku" and the events associated with it ere ever it became a fully established colony — much less a Dominion — have for years been his hobby, and in pursuit of thai hobby he has chased the fleeting log and the musty archive, if not from China to Peru, at any rate in Hobart, Sydney, London, America, Madrid, and Paris — to name only a few places. Already he has put on record in book form the result of ten or twelve years' patient research, and all who have read that book appreciate the fullness of his knowledge and the innate capacity he displayed for giving the geader the full benefit of his knowledge m the most attractive manner. Last night he gave the. public an insight into the subject which was singularly well adapted for such an occasion, and yet must have left on the minds of many the impression that in the course of the lecture he had touched a string which would vibrate for long afterwards— that he had given those who were fortunate enough to hear him an idea of how entrancing the subject of historical research can be-/ come. A TASMAN CHART. It is difficult to give even a condensation of Mr. M'Nab's informing lecture. Never over-much given to an over-plus of words, he crammed into about an hour and a quarter more actual facts connected with the early history of New Zealand from the time of Tasman to the foundation of the colony a? a colony than could be acquired by the ordinary student in months of reading, and the "lecture" proved as interesting as a novel. Incidentally he showed a picture of a chart of New Zealand made by one of Tasman'E officers in ' 1642. It has never been shown in New Zealand previously, and only arrived here a few days ago. He got it from The Hague, after a lot of trouble. But it shows this : At that time the North and South Islands were supposed to be one, but the navigator evidently had a lingering suspicion that there was a water-way between the two, and the chart gives evidence of that suspicion. It was 120 years afterwards that Cook Strait was discovered by Captain Cook. CAPTAIN COOK INCIDENTS. Again, Mr. M'Nab gave further details of the early history of the Dominion, particularly in regard to Captain Cook's early discoveries and adventures. He showed on the screen a chart of New Zealand as first drafted by Cook. Stewart Island was then supposed to be joined to the mainland, and it was many years later that a sealing vessel, in search of fresh "grounds," found what is now known as Foveaux Strait. He also showed a picture of a medal. When Captain Cook set out on his , expedition he was supplied with a considerable number of medals, commemorative of his probable (or possible) discoveries, to distribute among the natives. Only three — or, at most, .four — have been found, and in one case the medal was almost the only relic of a boat's crew which was murdered by the natives. SEALING AND WHALING. Mr. M'Nab's account of the sealing industry in New Zealand was particularly interesting. He related how he found the log of a small vessel called the Britannia, 'at the Essex Institute, Salem, near Boston, Massachusetts ; gave a vivid description of the tremendous wealth of the sealing industry off the New Zealand coast in those days ; interspersed his narrative with an inte)--esting story about the Endeavour (not Cook's), which was wrecked at Dusky Sound ; and, among his final remarks, referred to the old-time whaling industry of New Zealand. It was interesting to hear him remark that in 1836 (the height of the whaling industry) there were at Cloudy Bay fifteen vessels from the New England States of America, besides several vessels from England, Sydney, and France, and he estimated, after careful calculation, that from 1835 to 1839 the value of the whale oil and whalebone taken by such vessels from New Zealand amounted to £300,000 a year. Among the last of the pictures shown was one of the first chart of Wellington Harbour, made by the captain of an expedition in 1826. It is in the possession of Mr. Turnbull, of Wellington, and, from the landsman's point of view, differs very slightly from the latest maps. In this connection, Mr. M'Nab threw a lot of cold water on the suggestion that Captain Cook at one time visited Wellington Harbour in his ship via what is now Lyell Bay. Captain Cook anchored about two miles off the entrance, he said, and he never made any closer acquaintance with Port Nicholson. The lecture was listened to from beginning to end with the closest attention, and Mr. M'Nab was given a hearty vote of thanks.