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Nelson Historical Society Journal, Volume 3, Issue 4, September 1978

Tasman Bay in European History

Tasman Bay in European History

Two of the most famous explorers of the South Island, Tasman and Cook, did not investigate the eastern coastline of Tasman Bay. This task was, however, superficially undertaken by D'Urville. Before D'Urville's visits sealers had plied the western coast of the South Island, but had spent little time actually on the eastern coast of Tasman Bay. Records left by these illiterate men, vying in a highly competitive industry, are understandably virtually non-existent. D'Urville visited New Zealand in the Coquelle in 1824 as an officer. He returned in command of the same ship, renamed Astrolabe, in 1827. After staying several days on the western side of Tasman Bay, he ran across to Croisilles Bay, missing any close inspection of Cable Bay. However, the descriptions of the Tasman Bay Maori are extremely valuable, since they record the situation before 1829, when the Te Atiawa, Ngati Rarua and Ngati Tama inflicted a crushing page 6defeat on the Tasman Bay Maori. From this time on there seems to have been a steady decline in the Maori population of this area, the victors tending not to settle permanently in their newly acquired territories.

Thus in 1839 when Colonel William Wakefield arrived to buy land for the New Zealand Company, the low density of Maori population in the area persuaded him that it would be suitable for settlement. Whaling also became important in Cook Strait during this period. The Nelson settlement was established in 1841 and European settlement spread rapidly throughout the region.

The period from 1642 through until at least the 1830s in Tasman Bay can legitimately be called the Protohistoric. With careful archaeological research in the Tasman Bay area, we may be able to gain valuable evidence to document this period, about which we can learn so little through the traditional documentary sources of the historian.