Early New Zealand History Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1642

Tasman was rather timid. When some of his sailors were killed by Maori in what is now Golden Bay (near Nelson), he simply sailed away again. Generations of schoolchildren in New Zealand were taught: "In sixteen hundred and forty-two, Tasman sailed the ocean blue".

As for the other years given, 1769 was the year that Captain Cook "discovered" New Zealand while looking for the Great Southern Continent. 1788 was the year that Botany Bay in Australia was first colonised, and 1652 was the year that the First Dutch War between England and Holland began.

Answer: To observe a transit of Venus

Cook's voyage was an amazing feat for the times. The Royal Society, led by Edmund Halley (of comet fame), had persuaded the King to sponsor a scientific voyage to the South Pacific with the specific purpose of observing the transit of Venus which would occur in 1769.

The reason for this was that Halley had determined that if the time that the transit took could be measured at various places in the world, then it should be possible to calculate the actual distance, in miles, from Earth to Venus through the use of parallax.

While it was a good idea, the calculation turned out to be impossible because of errors in measurement. But that did not detract in any way from the huge overall scientific value of Cook's voyage in terms of increased knowledge of world geography and botany.

Answer: All of these

It has been claimed, however, that New Zealand was not a sovereign nation at the time because it lacked a central government. This, theoretically, therefore made the Treaty null and void -- even as it was signed -- because international treaties could only be reached between sovereign nations. Whatever the literal truth of this claim, the Treaty has always been regarded and treated in law as valid.

Answer: William Hobson

Hobson was actually an Irishman who joined the Royal Navy and did well in it. His tenure as Governor was short however - he died in 1842 of a heart attack. He proved to be a fairly inept administrator. The leading colonists complained to the British government about this, and his recall was already on the way to New Zealand when he died, still officially the Governor.

Answer: Lieutenant

He was actually a master (a senior non-commissioned officer) until shortly before he was appointed to command the voyage to Tahiti. Friends tried to persuade the Admiralty to move him up the ranks more quickly, but like any bureaucracy, the Royal Navy was very protective of its promotion system.

Answer: Russell

Russell burned down in 1842 and was never rebuilt, the capital moving the next year to Auckland. But it continued to have a significant role in the densely-populated northern part of New Zealand even after it was superseded as the capital. The move to Auckland also proved to be the event which sparked off the New Zealand Wars. Russell was to be the centre of the early skirmishes.

Answer: Beagle

FitzRoy was made Governor of New Zealand in December, 1843. He struggled with the rapacity of the New Zealand Company, the land-hungry colonists, the disappointment of the Maoris in the Treaty and the lack of any real government revenue. The New Zealand Company agitated for his recall, and this duly occurred in early 1845.

But FitzRoy was much maligned. He had done his best by all parties including the Maori, and was well-liked on a personal level. He was replaced by George Grey in May, 1845. FitzRoy was in no way disgraced, however.

He almost single-handedly established the Meteorological Office and retired as a Vice-Admiral. He was apparently clinically depressed and committed suicide in 1865. The southern sea forecasting area of the British Isles formerly named Finnistere was renamed FitzRoy in his honour in 2002.

Answer: He chopped down the flag pole at Kororareka

The war was also known as The Flagstaff War. A girl from Heke's tribe had gone to live with a butcher in Kororareka and refused to return when Heke demanded that she do so. Heke went to town to get her and, almost as a afterthought, chopped down the flag pole.

In fact, Heke or his men chopped down the flag staff at Kororareka FOUR times. The "war" only began when it was chopped down for the fourth time. After the third occasion, Governor Fitzroy had it clad in iron to make it more difficult to drop, and posted a large guard around it.

This was to prevent the loss of "mana" or face which losing the flag pole cost the government. Heke attacked the guard and somehow managed to drop the flag pole again while the guard was distracted. It lay where it fell until 1858, when some Maori chiefs replaced it.

Answer: Muskets became available to the tribes

Maori needed no instruction on how to conduct wars. Inter-tribal fighting over scarce resources had almost always been a way of life for them. Their traditional weapons, the mere and the taiaha, were more than adequate for the purpose and while steel axes became favourite weapons as well, it was the introduction of muskets which, more than any other factor, led to The Musket Wars. Those chiefs able to acquire sufficient to arm a reasonable percentage of their men turned on tribes which didn't have the advantage of firearms and quite mercilessly set out to destroy them. Probably the most famous warrior chief during the first forty years of the nineteenth century was Te Rauparaha, who led the Ngati Toa from being a rather minor tribe to controlling most of the southern North Island and most of the northern South Island.

Answer: Captain George Grey

Grey was appointed Governor twice, the first time in the 1840s and the second in the 1860s. He stayed in New Zealand after his second term, entered politics and became Prime Minister in the late 1870s. He avoided the pitfalls encountered by the first two Governors because he had a better political "nose" than either of them.

Although he was far from being without fault, he learned a good deal about Maori culture, which enabled him to both negotiate with them and to anticipate what they might do under a given set of circumstances.

This had a major effect on the course of the early bouts in the New Zealand Wars.