The first landing of Europeans in New Zealand, at Turanganui-a-Kiwa, used to be marked in Gisborne – but since the sestercentennial (250th anniversary), seems to have been erased from the calendar.
This past week, the troubled islands of New Caledonia have marked their own meeting with Cook and his crew on their second voyage to the Pacific.
The first meeting of Kanaks with Europeans occurred on September 4, 250 years ago, in 1776.
New Caledonia was sighted by the Resolution, while the locals sent out a pirogue (a small canoe). Cook anchored in the bay of Balade, in the north of the main island, and went ashore to meet the locals and high chief Ti Bouma.
Valerie Vattier, director of New Caledonia’s Maritime Museum, told France Television they exchanged yams and sugar cane for metal and glass beads. Before leaving for New Zealand, the expedition gave pigs and a pair of dogs to the locals. They also distributed medallions showing the Resolution and Adventure, and the image of King George III. One was found and now has a valued place in the museum.
Despite the current disturbances, Cook’s landing was commemorated this week with events for families and school children.
Cook did not claim New Caledonia for England – Admiral Auguste Febvrier-Despointes took possession for France, by raising the French flag 77 years later, in Balade, on September 24, 1853.
So, will we mark our 255th anniversary in any way? Or is Cook and the Endeavour’s arrival forever condemned as a blot to be quietly banished from the pages of local history?
Roger Handford
Coal wagon in the sky
Recently a visitor came to see me, her 3-year-old mokopuna had come to her house crying that her other Nanny was in a coal wagon in the sky.
She told me the following story. When her Nanny died, she was told to look into the sky and she would see and feel her spirit looking over her here. She would look up every night and have a chat to her Nanny in the stars.
One day her 12-year-old cousin arrived to stay – before she went to bed, she went to have a chat to her Nanny in the stars. Her cousin told her that that was stupid: “Your nanny is in the ground, she’s dead.”
So when this mother talked to her nephew, she was corrected by her nephew who responded with: “There are no stars in the sky – they are all coal wagons.”
It appears now that the rockets and payloads sent into space are filling the skies. The mother has asked me what does she do with the old stories she has had mai ra ano. She had actually sat there and looked into the sky and saw satellite trains and all the rubbish floating around the universe.
My answer is that you should keep faith and the wairua of the spirit should still carry on in the universe.
Pauline E. Tangiora
Sensible and pragmatic
Re: Ferries friction, September 6 letter.
Lol, more propaganda from the Comrade Press.
The exit from the ferry deal is still being negotiated. Truth of the matter is, under Labour the cost of the project went from $750m to $3b. Only 21% of the increase was on the ferries, the balance was on port infrastructure.
As previously expressed, you wouldn’t buy a big new plane only to have to completely remodel the airport to accommodate it. In other words, the original ferry contract was negotiated by someone who indeed lived with the fairies, and where the magic money tree existed.
Careless and wasteful vs sensible and pragmatic ... spot the difference between the previous and current administration.
Iain Boyle
Milk replacement on way
Precision fermentation as a new industry is due to arrive in 2025.
Milk made by altering yeast and fermentation will destroy our dairy products industry. Now is the time to alter our farming, before our lands return to customary title in a worthless condition.
Ian Gaskin, Waikaremoana
