[Stylist] 250 years ago today

[Jackie]

Jewel,

I found this history of New Zealand to be fascinating. My reasons are
personal. One of my three mountain climbing partners moved from Africa,
where we climbed the Ruwenzori mountains, back to England, then to Nigeria,
then to Papua New Guinea for ten years, then married a girl from Australia,
and they then moved to New Zealand. I am not sure what town he lives in, but
he has climbed most of the mountains, has written the first installment of
his very comprehensive autobiography, and has a grown son living in New
Zealand also. His son is into photography and has a website called Two
Bearded Men, I believe.

I agree with Brigit that an article where you combine a particular part of
the history you have related is complemented by your personal exposure to
that bit of the history would be a place for you to experiment. 

Have you ever been out in the bush with the Maori? If so, you could expand
on their native lore and bush skills. This is assuming, of course, that are
not still practicing Cannibalism!

Have you been involved in any way with the recent mass shooting, and gun
legislation, or know anybody that has been?

I am interesting in your own history, how you got there, do you have a
family, have you t raveled very much, etc. You could pick one of Annie's
story starters, and make it your personal story weaving into some aspect of
New Zealand's history.

I finally spelled out your name. I was hearing it phonetically as Jule, and
I thought you were a male. You could even tell us how you got the beautiful
name Jewel.

I will look forward to whatever you write.

Jacqueline Williams

 

Clarity is just questioning having eaten its fill.

     Jenny Xie

 

From: Stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Jewel via
Stylist
Sent: Saturday, October 05, 2019 9:13 PM
To: Writers' Division Mailing List <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Jewel <jewelblanch at kinect.co.nz>; blindlikeme at yahoogroups.com;
GoatsPlus at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Stylist] 250 years ago today

 

Captain James Cook first sighted New Zealand :  or to be more precise:  Nick
Young, one of the most junior midshipmen of the Endeavour's crew:  did, when
he was on watch in the Crow's nest:  on October 6 1769 , exactly 250 years
ago today.
   As a reward for his sharpness of eye,  the piece of God's Own:  New
Zealand:  Aotearoa [ Land of the Long White Cloud] that he spotted bears his
name:  Young Nick's Head:  and is the cape that is the southernmost arm of
Poverty Bay.

 

NOTE:  There is more about this name at the end of this letter.  END  OF
NOTE.

 

The ship's heading was adjusted and it sailed for the cape that Nick had
reported and from there it was only a matter of 
turning the ship's helm a smidgeon, and the Endeavour sailed into Poverty
Bay:  Cook's first, of several,   landfalls.
This was quite opposite to the strategy of   the Dutch navigator,  Abel
Tasman who was the first 
European  to sight this new country in 1642 and who, incidentally, bestowed
the name of New Zealand 
upon it:  he, merely sailed around the coastline, never once touching land,
which, as will be found 
a little later in this telling was perhaps, a very wise decision. 
Now having jumped back into our time machine and pressed the button marked
1769, we see the Endeavour sailing into the bay that bears the rather
unprepossessing one of Poverty Bay.  Note:  that is not the, original, Maori
name and there will be more on that later.
As I said at the beginning of this letter, that was, to the day, 250 years
ago, but here we are, now having to beg the Maoris forgiveness for the fact
that when the Endeavour entered the bay, the 
welcome she and those aboard received from the locals was, a tad, and quite
a big tad at that, less 
than friendly.
At the sight of a fleet of war canoes paddled at speed and packed with
heavily-armed warriors, the 
Endeavour's crew resorted to cannon fire as a warning, but this was ignored
so, to ram the point 
home, instead of firing wide, the next cannonball landed in one canoe,
killing 11 of its occupants:  I thought that that showed a great deal of
restraint as, without breaking into a sweat, the entire fleet and all aboard
could have been sent to the bottom.
Unlike the tribes of the North American continent,  the Maoris did not have
bows and arrows, so all 
fighting, and there being no love lost between many of the tribes, there was
plenty of that, all 
weapons were for hand to hand combat.
Now I don't know if the next incident that I am about to relate occurred in
Poverty Bay or not, but 
Cook's men went ashore to gather water to refill the ship's water barrels,
and when they failed to 
return, a second party was sent out to search for them, and they were
successful, well! successful 
insofar as they found what was left of the water party:  left after the
Maoris had ambushed, killed 
and roasted and eaten them!
Which was the more heinous of the two incidents?  At least the Endeavour's
crew didn't cannibalise their victims!!!
But are we of European descent asking that our dark-skinned brethren go down
on their knees and offer their abject apology for what was done by their
rellies of 250:  and less:  years ago?
Harking back to those North Island east coast bays:  there are two in
particular:  the Bay of Plenty and its immediate neighbour, Poverty Bay.
When the Endeavour dropped anchor in the Bay of Plenty, unlike the hostility
demonstrated by its neighbour, when the crew went ashore, they were welcomed
and shown every kindness and the ship was reprovisioned:  hence the Bay of
Plenty, but when they paid a second visit to the neighbouring bay, and this
time, being well armed with revolvers, the Maoris having learned a lesson
from the ships's previous visit, they did not offer any outward show of
hostility, but neither were they forthcoming with help of any description:
hence Poverty Bay, "and you can put that in your pipes and smoke it, and we
won't even give you the tobacco, whatever tobacco is!"
On February 17th of this year, one of the district councellors proposed that
Poverty Bay have a dual name:  its current one and its original Maori one.
If it wasn't for the fact that the Maori one is a heck of a mouthful for us,
tongue-tied New Zealanders of European descent, I would have said "Ditch
Poverty Bay as the region is far from being poverty-stricken.  so the region
would be:  Te Reo Turanganui A Kiwa Poverty Bay.
I can envisage the Maori name being shortened to Turanganui, which would, in
time and given practice:  heaps of it:  , be quite manageable.  The largest
town:  or is it a city?  is Gisborne, and the largest populace in the Bay of
Plenty is Tauranga, so there might be a little confusion there at first,
but, at the present, I think that the proposal is writ in water, and not in
stone!
         Jewel 

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