EARLIEST NEW ZEALAND

Evening Star, Issue 21711, 4 May 1934, Page 12

EARLIEST NEW ZEALAND

W3RK GF DOCTORS CAPTAIN COOK'S TRIBUTES In an article in the last number of the ‘ New Zealand Medical Journal ’ Dr D. Macdonald Wilson summarises some interesting facts concerning the first members of the medical profession to visit New Zealand. In considering the history of New Zealand from this aspect, he says, the first source of inquiry- is naturally the accounts of the voyages of Captain James Cook. Sailing from Tahiti in the Endeavour, Cook came south and eventually sighted the coast of New Zealand. “The actual discovery of New Zealand has a great interest to our profession, as land was first sighted by Nicholas Young, the surgeon’s boy,” says Dr Wilson. “ Thus Nicholas Young, who sighted the coast about 2 p.m. on October 6, 1769, gave literally his nickname to Young Nick’s Head, the southern point of Gisborne Harbour. “ Two days later Mr Monkhouse, the surgeon, the first of our profession to set foot in New Zealand, was a central figure in an incident which has earned for Cook either the apology or the censure of the historian. Cook’s party on shore came in conflict with the Maoris, and it was Monkhouse who fatally shot the first Maori to die at the hands of the British. Our profession has since made amends to the Maoris, and it is pleasant to reflect that a Maori, in 1847 was the first in New Zealand to receive the blessings of ether anaesthesia. HOISTING BRITISH FLAG. “ We again hear of Monkhouse in Queen Charlotte Sound, where Cook arrived January 15, 1770, and anchored in Ship’s Cove. On January 30 Cook set up two posts to advise any subsequent navigator of his visit. One he placed on the top of Motuara Island. Cook states he took with him Monkhouse and Tupit, the interpreter, and having firmly fixed the post ‘ hoisted upon it the Union Flag, and honoured the inlet with the name of Queen Charlotte’s Sound, at the same time taking formal possession of this and the adjacent country in the name of and for the use of His Majesty George 111. We then drank a bottle of wine to Her Majesty’s health, and gave the bottle to the old man who had attended us up the hill, and who was mightily delighted with his present.’ “ Of all Cook’s voyages the second holds the greatest interest to the medical profession. At this time the British Admiralty was much concerned over the ravages of scurvy in the Navy, and Cook’s expedition was specially fitted out to experiment with anti-scor-butics. This voyage was epoch-making. So epoch-making was this voyage considered that Cook received the medal of the Royal Society for ‘ performing a voyage of 318 days in a ship with 118 men with the loss of only one man by sickness.’ ... DEEP DEBT OF GRATITUDE. “If ip Monkhouse Cook had ‘ a sensible, skilful surgeon ’ and in Patten ‘ a skilful physician and affectionate nurse,’ what manner of man was William Anderson, the surgeon who accompanied Cook in 1776 on his third and last voyage ? Cook writes of him : ‘ Mr Anderson, my surgeon, who to skill in his immediate profession added great proficiency in natural history, was as willing as he was well qualified, to describe everything in that branch of science, which should occur worth of notice.’ “ Anderson has left a most interesting description of the country round Queen Charlotte Sound, with his usual observations on the their language, and customs. Anderson was obviously a highly, intelligent and cultured gentleman of liberal education. Not only could he write on geology, natural history, and language, but even his observations on the native music of the various islands visited are classics of their kind. His journal is that which is to-day studied by students of South Sea island ethnology. . . . Anderson’s name deserves to be linked with those numerous other members of our profession who have, outside the immediate scope of their profession, contributed to the development of art, science, ‘and culture. The records of the second and third Cook voyages have been enriched by Anderson, to whom posterity owes a deep debt of gratitude.”