John Bradley, age 15, of Concord, N.H., for his question:
WHO WERE THE FIRST PEOPLE IN NEW ZEALAND?
A group of people called the Maoris were the first people to live in New Zealand. They probably came to the island country in the Southwest Pacific ocean from the Cook, Marquesas or Society Islands, which lie to the northeast.
No one knows exactly when or why the Maoris first came, but indications are that the first of them arrived in New Zealand about 750 A.D.
The first Maoris lived mainly by fishing and hunting. They have been named the moa hunters because they chiefly hunted the giant, wingless birds called moas. Other groups of Maoris came to New Zealand after 750, but historians don't know exactly when. But there were, many there by the 1300s.
Maoris developed a culture based on agriculture as well as on fishing and hunting. They were skilled woodcarvers and, working with stone tools, created many beautiful carvings.
In 1642, the Dutch sea captain Abel Janszoon Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand. He tried to send a group of men ashore, but Maoris attacked their two small landing craft and killed several of the men. Tasman made no further attempt to land.
The Dutch named the islands Nieuw Zeeland after a province in The Netherlands.
No other European came to New Zealand until 1769, when Captain James Cook of the British navy landed on the North Island. Cook made friends with the Maoris and explored and charted both the North Island and the South Island.
The Maoris kept no written records, and so the written history of New Zealand dates back only to Captain Cook's time.
In the late 1700s, many explorers, seal and whale hunters from France, Spain and other countries visited New Zealand. And in 1814, the first of many missionary groups arrived from Sydney, Australia.
At first, New Zealand had no legal government and the islands remained a lawless frontier country until 1840. The arrival of foreigners brought great suffering to the Maoris. The introduction of firearms increased the warfare among Maori tribes. Also, the newcomers brought disease against which the Maoris had no resistance.
By 1840, warfare and disease had reduced the Maori population from about 200,000 to about 100,000.
British settlers and a number of Maoris asked Great Britain to provide law and order. On February 6, 1840, Captain William Hobson of the British navy and a group of Maori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi
The treaty provided that the Maoris accept the British queen, Victoria, as their ruler in return for British protection of all Maori rights, including property rights. Under the treaty, the Maoris gave Britain control over New Zealand, although some Maoris did not realize this at the time.
Hobson became New Zealand's first governor. Soon after he signed the treaty, Hobson declared New Zealand to be a British colony