History.

First Settlement by Maoris.

New Zealand appears to have been first discovered and first peopled by the Maori race, a remnant of which still inhabits parts of the Islands. At what, time the discovery was made, or from what place the discoverers came, are matters which are lost in the obscurity which envelopes the history of a people without letters. Little more can now be gathered from their traditions than that they were immigrants, and that when they came there were probably no other inhabitants of the country. Similarity of language indicates a Polynesian origin, which would prove that they advanced to New Zealand through various groups of the Pacific islands, in which they left remains of the same race, who to this day speak the same or nearly the same tongue. When Cook first visited New Zealand he availed himself of the assistance of a native from Tahiti, whose language proved to be almost identical with that of the New Zealanders, and through the medium of whose interpretation a large amount of the early information respecting the country and its inhabitants was obtained.