HISTORIC LANDING PLACE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20243, 1 May 1929, Page 12

HISTORIC LANDING PLACE.

VISITS BY CAPTAIN COOK.

SOVEREIGNTY PROCLAIMED.

Ship Cove is one of th.e most historic places in New Zealand. It lies near the entrance to Queen Charlotte Sound and on its western arm. On his first visit to New Zealand in 1770 Captain Cook made Ship Cov.e his headquarters, and on February 1 he proclaimed British sovereignty, hoisting the flag on'Moiutara, Island, which lies in the channel opposite the cove. It was on a surveying expedition from the cove that Cook; climbing the hills on the eastern shore of the sound, was rewarded with ;i sight of Cook Strait • which Tasman had tried in vain to locate.

A scenic reserve of 1700 acres has been proclaimed at Ship Gove and here has been erected the Cook monument, an anchor placed on a concrete pedestal. In October of last year, on the bicentenary of Cook's birth, two guns were placed at the foot of the monument. The cannon aro of Cook's period and were presented by the Admiralty. On three occasions Cook made the cove his headquarters and on the second occasion a boat's crew of Cook's second ship, tho Adventure, came into conflict with the Maoris and were massacred and eaten. The relations with the Maoris were generally, however, of a friendly nature, Cook distributing seeds and binding pigs.

A beautiful description of the bird songsters living in the bush in those distant days is given in Banks' journal: "I was awakened by the singing of the birds ashore from whence we are distant not a quarter of a mile. Their numbers were certainly very great. They seemed to strain their throats with .emulation and made, perhaps, the most melodious music I have ever heard, almost imitating small bells/ but with the most tunable silver sound imaginable to which, maybe, the distance was no small addition."-