Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/428

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414
NEW ZEALAND
NEY

Monrad, in Das alte Neu-Seeland (Bremen, 1871). The Maoris, according to tneir own traditions, came originally from a place called Hawaiki, which the most recent investigators suppose to have been Savaii in the Samoan islands. Their traditions still speak of Rarotonga and other islands of that region. In consequence of civil war their ancestors to the number of 800 emigrated from Hawaiki in 20 large canoes about A. D. 1400, and after a voyage of 3,000 m. reached New Zealand, which they 'found uninhabited. The discovery of New Zealand by Europeans is claimed by the French, Spaniards, and Dutch. It is asserted that Binot Paulmier de Gonneville, a French navigator, visited the country in 1504, and that Juan Fernandez reached it from the W. coast of South America in 1576; but these accounts are doubtful. The Dutch navigator Tasman, with two ships from Batavia, anchored on Sept. 18, 1642, in a bay in South island, next to that in which the town of Nelson now stands. He had .an encounter with the natives, in which he lost four men, and departed without landing, calling the place Massacre bay, and naming the country New Zealand. Capt. Cook landed at Tauranga in the province of Auckland in 1769, and took possession of the country for the crown of England. Three years later a French navigator, Marion du Fresne, arrived with two ships in the bay of Islands, and after a month's friendly intercourse with the natives offended them by violating the taboo and put.ting some of their chiefs in irons, and was attacked and killed with 25 of his men. Capt. Cook subsequently visited New Zealand four times, and introduced pigs, potatoes, and other animals and vegetables. A few years later English and American whalers began to frequent the coast, and several runaway sailors took up their abode among the people and married native women. European visitors were generally treated with kindness, though in 1809, the captain of the English ship Boyd having flogged and otherwise ill-treated a chief at Wangaroa, his tribe massacred the crew and passengers to the number of 70. In 1820 Honga Hika, the most distinguished of New Zealand chiefs, visited England, where he was received with attention by George IV. and loaded with presents, with which he returned to his own country, favorable to the introduction of civilization and Christianity; for though he did not become a Christian himself, he intrusted his children to be educated by the missionaries, whom he always protected and encouraged. In 1833 the British government appointed a resident at New Zealand, and in 1838 Capt. Hobson was sent to the islands as lieutenant governor, the European population at that time exceeding 1,000 persons, and the number of vessels, chiefly whalers, entering the bay of Islands in that year amounting to 130. The number of converts made by the missionaries was at this time about 4,000. In 1839 the New Zealand company was chartered in England with a capital of 500,000, the earl of Durham, Francis Baring, and other eminent merchants and statesmen being at its head; and systematic colonization was commenced by a settlement at Port Nicholson on Cook's strait. In 1844 a serious war broke out with the natives, in which the town of Kororareka, an English settlement, was destroyed, and the English troops were repeatedly defeated. Peace was restored in 1848, and shortly afterward a severe earthquake shook a large portion of New Zealand, doing much damage and causing great alarm. In 1850 Canterbury province was settled on church of England and aristocratic principles, a bishop, priests, lords, baronets, and gentlemen of all the professions being among the early settlers. Two years before the province of Otago had been settled exclusively by members of the Free church of Scotland. These colonies are now composed of persons of every variety of Christian faith. In 1855 a second war with the natives broke out in Taranaki province, about land claims, which ended in 1857. It is generally conceded, even by English writers, that the lands of the natives were sometimes taken without just compensation, and that wars were needlessly provoked, in which the British often fared the worst, the savages fighting with fearful energy and desperation behind their slight intrenchments. One of the most desperate encounters was in 1863, when 15,000 soldiers under English command contended against 2,000 natives, hiding and fighting behind ramparts. Another struggle followed in 1864, and petty rebellions have been frequent, causing great expense and trouble to the colonists and great demoralization among the converted natives. As they learned to hate the colonists, they hated their religion, and invented one of their own, called How-Howism, those who professed it being called How-Hows. It was a most absurd mixture of their old superstitions with some Bible tenets, and a virtual return to heathenism. One Je Kooti made himself famous, fighting with a handful of followers against the English from 1866 to 1872, when the pursuit of him was virtually abandoned. Since that time the natives have been more quiet, and the colonists seem more disposed to try the effect of kind treatment and conciliation. By the constitution of 1872 the natives were made voters and eligible to office. Four of them have recently been elected members of the lower house of the legislature. See "The Story of New Zealand," by A. S. Thomson (London, 1859); "The War in New Zealand," by W. L. Fox (1866); "The Past and Present of New Zealand," by the Rev. R. Taylor (1868); Neu Seeland, by Hochstetter (Stuttgart, 1863; English translation, London, 1868); "Australia and New Zealand," by Anthony Trollope (London, 1873).


NEY, I. Michel, duke of Elchingen and prince of the Moskva, a French soldier, born at Saarlouis, Jan. 10, 1769, executed in Paris, Dec. 7,