Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1942 NELSONIAN’S HISTORY OF NELSON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 24 January 1942, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1942 NELSONIAN’S HISTORY OF NELSON

NELSON is so rich in the raw material of history and so barren of published histories that the appearance of any book which even partly fills that void is an event of some importance in the life of our Province. It is not possible to buy a comprehensive history of Nelson or to take one telling a complete story from the library shelves. Judge Broad’s compact work, written for the occasion of the jubilee in 1892, and giving a good account of the Province’s origin and development up to that time, has long been out of print. Mr J. D. Peart’s “Old Tasman Bay,” which can still be purchased, chronicles the story of the early Maori of the Nelson district and its association with the Europeans prior to 1842. Now comes a book which, while not a full-length history, tells of the white man’s doings in Nelson Provincial district from the time of Tasman till the foundation of Nelson by the New Zealand Company in 1842. It is called, “Nelson Province, 1642-1842,” and is published by A. G. Betts and Son, Nelson. The author is A. N. Field, a Nelsonian, who, having published several works on economic and social subjects, now makes an excursion into local history. On the whole it is a very successful one and will probably prove the most useful of Mr Field’s published works. Unlike that of many provincial histories in New Zealand its price has been kept within reach of the most modest pocket, though, in order to do this, it has had to be bound in a paper cover which will not enhance its lasting qualities. The appearance of Mr Field's book is seasonable for several reasons. First, it comes on the eve of the Province’s commemoration of its Centennial—an attenuated celebration if judged by the number and picturesqueness of public ceremonies, it is I true—but an occasion when we can turn for the moment from sterner things to look down the vista of a hundred years of Nelson’s history. Mr Field’s book does not chronicle the events of the last century—that is a further worthwhile task waiting for someone—but it serves to remind us that the scenes with which we are so familiar can provide a story going back two hundred years before that but cast in a very different setting. And this chiefly concerns not the Maoris but Europeans who sailed New Zealand waters, explored and charted our coastline, hunted the seal and whale, built boats or prospected for sites suitable to white settlement. The author begins with Abel Tasman, which again is appropriate in a book appearing in 1942. By a coincidence the ’42’s have become memorable in Nelson and New Zealand history. In 1942 we in Nelson are about to mark our hundredth anniversary as a Province of a British possession under the shadow of the gravest threat to our national safety yet experienced. A century ago, in J 842, the early settlers, led by Captain Arthur Wakefield, planted this city and Province. Two hundred years before that, in 1642, Tasman discovered the coast of Nelson Province, the first white man, as far as we know, to look upon it. On 13th December of the present year the ter-centenary of that discovery will occur and it is the intention of the Government to mark the occasion by the erection of some simple but fitting memorial on a suitable site in Tasman Bay. One of the most interesting sections of Mr Field's book rekindles interest in the story of Tasman’s voyage, in its purpose and in the misfortunes which befel some of his nlen near our own shores. It also serves to remind us of the close association of Tasman with the Netherlands East Indies, which are now experiencing the aggression which threatens us. Within the limits of the dates he ! has set himself Mr Field writes a very complete history which shows evidence of much painstaking research. He has gone to considerable trouble to establish his sources and, in filling in the background, he leads the reader into many unexpected places. In concentrating on this

lie has experienced the difficulty that most historians encounter: the task of j keeping the narrative moving and yet buttressing his statements with j the authority of their sources. Hence j the thread of the story sometimes I tends to double back on" itself. Some j readers, too, may think that he has j overdone quotation. Many of the' doings of Tasman and Cook on the Nelson coast are told in their own j words, while he has chosen to use! the full text (in translation) or, D’Urville’s account of his exploration j of Blind Bay and the discovery of the French Pass. This latter is well : worth while, for it has never appear- j ed before in popular histories. j Along with this has been included 1 a valuable section on place names round our coasts assigned by D’Urville, while he also records those j given by Cook and Tasman. The j period between the departure of D’Urville and 1840 he reviews in a chapter headed, “No Man’s Land.” Then he opens up in an interesting way the era of planned colonisation with its painful controversies and conflicting interests. The “Battle of the Sites” is treated so far as the selection of the site in Blind Bay is concerned and the book ends when Nelson has found its home. In this, as well as in other parts of his hundred and forty-four page work (he has not forgotten the index), MiField brings to light illuminating incidents and developments in local history of his period which have remained unchronicled till now. Marlborough will share interest with Nelson in some of these, but the book as a whole can be looked upon as more than a local record. It will be read ! and appreciated as a worthy contribution to the published history of New Zealand.