A School Essay.

Matamata Record, Volume XIX, Issue 1692, 3 January 1936, Page 2

A School Essay.

“THE GROWTH OF NEW ZEALAND”

It would oe hard to imagine , New -Zealand the densely-forested area it was a thousand 'years ago, for we .think of it as a well-developed iand covered with a network, of roads and railways and dotted with prosperous towns.

Until the fourteenth century New Zealand was peopled by a few tribes of a peaceful race known as Morions*, IrTthe year 1350 a siiaall fleet of canoes, manned by exhausted men, sighted New Zealand, and the adventurers, being skilled in the arts of warfare, soon captured or killed .these peaceful people. After gaining full ownership of their new land • they settled down and became a i happy warlike race known under the name of Maoris. It is thought that 1 these .people came from Rangatoa, i thoug’h ih& jreason for the emigration 1 is hot knowiu .• • M : ' > • . ‘ i , From /then until the seventeenth century New" Zealand was left uakiu^m: to the outside world. -In 1642 .Tasman, discovered New Zealand and tried to land. But he was afraid of the* Maoris’ hostile appearance, and, thinking it a savage land, he returned to the old world and spread bad reports. It was more than a century before .any other white man Ventured to New Zealand. On this occasion. it was visited by the famous English sailor, Captain Cook, in 3.769. He" had promised that he Would honour the first man to sight land, and the' honour fell on a young lad by the name of Nick, after whom iYoung Nick’s Head is named. Cook circumnavigated New Zealand. He Ziarhed, many points on his voyage. He our, country a British possession and took back more favourable reports, thus giving the ;i people of the * world a mere widespread knowledge of New Zealand. On Christmas Day in the year 3.814, Samuel Marsden landed at Bussell and preached his first sermon to the Maoris. Convicts and rough reamen had . been here bef ore t Marsden and had taught these black men many bad and cruel habits. The Maoris were quarrelling with the whalers, . who had built their headquarters on the New Zealand coast. After much discussion the Colonial Office sent Captain Hobson out to govern New Zealand. This was England’s first step in claiming New Zealanjl. He found the country in a

fearful state. The main cause of the fighting was over the ownership of the land. The Maoris were claiming the huge areas which the settlers said they had bought. To settle the dispute and gain the favour of the Maoris. Captain Hobson drew up the Treaty of Waitangi. By this treaty no land could be sold without the consent of the Governor and the Maoris were to be regarded as Brit-

ish subjects. Most ’ >of the chiefs signed the Magna Cartia of New Zealand (as it js often called). In 1841 Captain Hobson bought a large block of land bordering the Hauraki Gulf, from the Maoris. Hobson named this block Auckland, and moved the

capital to the new township because of its more central position. Hobson died in 1842, and for the next three, years New Zealand went from bad to worse under the weak management of Governor, Fitzroy. In 1845 carhe New Zealand’s greatest Governor, Sir George Grey. His first act was to march against Hone Heke, who was causing much trouble in the North. After stern I fighting this rebellion: was quelled, and when Hone Heke asked for a pardon Grey willingly consented. His next task lay in the capturing of Te Raupar.aha, the terror of the South. The Maoris; seeing he was a brave fighter soon learnt to respect him. j In the early ’sixties, the Maori ! Wars raged, but luckily they did not , last long and soon the white and j brown peoples became one. The Govi ernment did not please the settlers, • and after a hard struggle Sir Julius Vogel set up the system of One Par-

li ament. From then on New Zealand has been treading along the road to prosperity. Land Was opened up, and many men became skilful farrhers, and New Zealand was soon shaping to be an agricultural and pastoral country. New Zealand developed with such rapid strides that in 1907 she was made a Dominion and given the responsibility of her own future.