CAPTAIN COOK

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 143, 2 June 1936, Page 11

CAPTAIN COOK

Sixty-year-old Paper Read to Napier Rotary Club DIARIST’S VERSION A paper disputing the generally recognised date of the claiming of New Zealand as a British colony by Captain James Cook was read at the Napier Rotary Club yesterday by Mr L, 8. McClurg. The paper was originally read to the Napier Philosophical Society by the Bev. William Colenso, F.R.S., on August 13, 1877, almost 60 years ago. In it, Mr Colenso asserted that Captain Cook took possession of New Zealand on October 10, 1769, instead of on November 15, which is usually accepted as the correct date

The accepted date, November 15, Is based upon information published in the account of Cook’s first voyage. It was a significant fact that Cook did not himself publish this account, but was actually away from England for several years after that time, and thus any wrong impression created then would be hard to eradicate after the lapse of so much time. The paper based its claim upon three points: that the method of taking possession described was contrary to Cook’s usual custom; that the length of time he spent in New Zealand before taking possession of the islands was too long for him to have delayed such an important duty; and that the account of an eye-witness of the ceremony at the time which Colenso alleged was the actual time conformed with the last two points, and, being published in the same year as Cook’s First Voyage, was more likely to be correct. ACTED IMMEDIATELY. In connection with the first point, an account of Cook’s claiming of several islands of tho Society Group, near Tahiti, was given. Then, at his last call before leaving for New Zealand, Cook landed at one of the islands and immediately took possession of the island and two others which were in sight. After that he watered the ship and left for New Zealand. Yet the description of the method employed in claiming New Zealand differed in that the land was not claimed until the Discovery was on the point of departing. It was established that Cook first saw New Zealand on October 6, aud landed next day. Oh the tenth he anchored near Tologa Bay. At this time he was not sure whether ho would land in the country again because of the attitude of tho natives he had met on tho first landing That, therefore, would be the place and opportunity to claim the country, especially as tho natives in that district appeared to be friendly, and ho did not expect hindrance from them. Yet the account of his voyages, published some time after, would lead to the belief that he was actually in the counter for 30 days before he planted the British flag in tho soil. On November 15 he had decided to spend further time in the vicinity of New Zealand, because he had then found that the Maoris were mainly friendly. He had no intention of leaving, so, having delayed so long, would be expected to wait until upon the point of leaving before he performed his duty.

EYEWITNESS’S EVIDENCE. The third point was the evidence of ah eye-witness to the claiming of the country on October 10. He was an experienced draughtsman named Sydney Parkinson, and kept a scrupulously accurate journal of all that occurred. Do described the ceremony in some detail, ami it followed the method of procedure described by Cook in tho claiming of the Society Islands. Parkinson died at Batavia on the way home, but. his journal was published by his brother in 1773, almost at the same tithe as the account of Cook’s trip. The brother who published the article was hardly likely to have altered it in any way, and both Parkinson’s training as a draughtsman and his good character countered any suggestion that he had put in his carefully-kept journal anything that was not correct.