rchical and often sanguinary. It is this third great migration which reverberates throughout Maori oral tradition. It is said that a great fleet of seven canoes with eminent Maori chiefs and warriors are the ones who populated the Islands.In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman briefly sailed along the west coast of New Zealand. He named it Staten Land. Nevertheless, any thoughts of a longer stay were thwarted when his attempt to land resulted in several of his crew being killed. In 1769, Captain James Cook circumnavigated the two main islands aboard the Endeavour. Initial contact with the Maoris also proved violent but Cook, impressed with the Maoris' bravery and spirit and recognizing the potential of this newfound land, grabbed it for the British crown before setting sail for Australia. When the British began their antipodean colonizing, New Zealand was originally seen as an offshoot of Australian enterprise in whaling and sealing: in fact, from 1839 to 1841 the country was under the jurisdiction of New South Wales. However, increased European settlement soon proved problematic: a policy was urgently required regarding land deals between the settlers and the Maori.In 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi (see appendix B) was signed. The Treaty of Waitangi was designed with the Maori ceding sovereignty of their country to Britain in exchange for protection and guaranteed possession of their lands. But relations between the Maori and the European settlers soon soured. In 1860, war broke out between them, continuing for much of the decade before the Maori were defeated.By the late nineteenth century, things had temporarily calmed down. The discovery of gold had engendered much prosperity, and wide-scale sheep farming meant New Zealand became an efficient and mostly self-reliant country. Sweeping social changes such as women's suffrage, social security, and the encouragement of trade unions and the introduction of child care services cemented New...
