(1906–64).

Artist-engraver.

A new biography of Taylor, Ernest Mervyn appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Ernest Mervyn Taylor was born at Auckland on 4 August 1906, the son of Ernest Herbert Taylor and Emily, née Webber. He was educated at Auckland Grammar School and attended the Elam School of Art (Auckland) and the Wellington Technical College School of Art. After serving his apprenticeship as a jewellery engraver, he held various positions until 1935 when he joined the W. D. and H. O. Wills's advertising studio. In 1938 he transferred to Carlton-Carruthers, an advertising firm, but left in the following year to become a free lance commercial artist. From 1942 until 1944 he served on the New Zealand Temporary Staff. Then followed two years as illustrator and art editor in the School Publications Branch of the Education Department. From 1946 till his death he was a free lance artist in Wellington. In 1952 Taylor was awarded a scholarship of £1,000 by the Association of New Zealand Art Societies to enable him to prepare a set of wood engravings illustrating Maori mythology. He was an honorary member of the Society of Illustrators, New York (1950), a Fellow of the International Institute of Arts and Letters, Lindau (1952), a council member of the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, and a member of the committee of management of the National Art Gallery from 1952 till 1964. Prints by Taylor were included in the first and second International Graphic Arts Exhibition, Tokyo, 1957 and 1960, and his works were also shown in New York, Moscow and Poland. He is represented in most New Zealand Art Galleries.

Skill acquired during his apprenticeship to jewellery engraving was eventually transferred to wood engraving in which he became the foremost exponent in New Zealand.

On 15 December 1937 at Christ Church, Wanganui, Taylor married Edelweiss Yeoville, daughter of Gerald Vaughan Cooke. He died at Wellington on 7 June 1964 leaving his widow, a son, and a daughter.

by Stewart Bell Maclennan, A.R.C.A.(LOND.), Director, National Art Gallery, Wellington.

• The Dominion, 8 Jun 1964 (Obit)
• Evening Post, 8 Jun 1964 (Obit).

(1868-1941).

Social worker.

A new biography of Taylor, Elizabeth Best appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Elizabeth Best Taylor, née Ellison, was born on 21 September 1868 at Lyttelton, the daughter of Robert Best Ellison, a South Canterbury farmer, and of Rachel, née Robinson. Educated at the State schools, she attended Canterbury University College and the Teachers' Training College, where she qualified for her Teacher's D Certificate. On 18 April 1892, at the East Belt Wesleyan Church, Christchurch, Elizabeth Ellison married Thomas Edward Taylor. She became closely associated with her husband's political and civic career, being particularly interested in the welfare of women and children. An early member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, she became Dominion president, and, from 1929 until her death, was a member of the World Advisory Committee and peace superintendent of the union. As early as 1896 she read a paper on Marriage and Divorce before the National Council of Women and, in later years, campaigned to protect the nationality of married women. She was co-founder and first president of the Christchurch Free Kindergarten Society and a life member of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children. In 1927 she was vice-president of the New Zealand Alliance, After her husband's death in 1911 she entered public life on her own account and served on school committees, on the Christchurch City Council, and on the Unemployment Relief Committee. Partially responsible for the Family Allowances Act of 1926 and for the appointment of women to the Commission of the Peace, she herself was appointed Justice of the Peace and was one of the first women to sit in the Children's Court as Magistrate's Associate. She was a member of the Pan-Pacific Women's Association, being its New Zealand chairman at the time of her death. She was also an executive member of the Christchurch branch of the Institute of Pacific Relations and vice-president of the local League of Nations Union from its inception. In recognition of her many public services Elizabeth Best Taylor received the Jubilee Medal (1935) and was awarded the O.B.E. in 1937. During her last few years she lived with her daughter at St. Kilda, Dunedin. Elizabeth Best Taylor died there on 27 April 1941, being survived by her son and four of her five daughters.

by Bernard John Foster, M.A., Research Officer, Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• Press (Christchurch), 28 Apr 1941 (Obit)
• Christchurch Star-Sun, 28 Apr 1941 (Obit).

Tauranga Harbour is in the western part of the Bay of Plenty. This sheltered stretch of water is 20 miles long by 5 miles wide and is enclosed by a long, narrow, pine-covered sandbar known as Matakana Island. There are two approximately ½ mile-wide entrances to the harbour, one at each end of this island, and both are guarded by ancient volcanoes. In the north the guardian for the Katikati entrance is Te Ho or Bowentown Heads, whereas the guardian for the Tauranga entrance in the south is Mount Maunganui.

The presence of earthworks and midden heaps show that the mild climate of the harbour was long appreciated by the Maori people. The white settlers have also begun to realise what excellent panoramas, fishing grounds, and climate the region has to offer. Although most of the beaches of the inner harbour are muddy, the long sandy ocean beaches at Mount Maunganui, Bowentown, and Waihi Beach are famous for swimming and surfing.

Most of the port facilities are at Mount Maunganui, a few miles from Tauranga city. These are bound to develop further as more products from the immediate area and from the Matamata, Putaruru, Tokaroa, and Rotorua areas are exported. This will be especially true once the railway tunnel pierces the Kaimai Range to the west. Such developments, together with its attractions for tourists and retired people, have made Tauranga and Mount Maunganui among the most progressive areas in New Zealand. Preliminary work on the construction of the Kaimai tunnel has now (1965) begun.

by James Cecil Schofield, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Otahuhu.

Tauranga is situated in the south-east part of Tauranga Harbour on a neck about 2 miles long which trends towards the eastern entrance between the estuaries of the Kopurererua River and the Waimapu Stream. To the west the land gradually rises to the hills of the Kaimai Range. Approximately 23 miles off shore is Mayor Island and 10 miles off shore is Motiti Island. Tauranga is on the East Coast Main Trunk railway. By road it is 68 miles north-east of Hamilton via Kaimai (94 miles by rail), 54 ½ miles south-east of Paeroa (50 miles by rail), and 60 ½ miles north-west of Whakatane (54 miles from Whakatane West by rail).

The Tauranga Harbour Board controls the ports of Tauranga and Mount Maunganui, 11 miles north-east. With the development of wharf and other facilities at Mount Maunganui, it has grown rapidly to become the fourth port and second largest export port of New Zealand, handling 740,859 tons of cargo in 1962. Logs, newsprint, and pulp are exported, as well as wool, meat, and dairy products. In the import trade substantial quantities of grain, manures, and petroleum products are handled. Mount Maunganui is also a marine fisheries centre, while Mayor Island is a tourist base for big-game fishing. There is an airport 9 miles north-east.

Rural activities of the district include dairying, sheep farming, beef-cattle, pig, and poultry raising, and vegetable growing. It is one of the main citrus and subtropical fruitgrowing regions of New Zealand. Chinese gooseberries, mandarins, tree tomatoes, lemons, passionfruit, and feijoas are cultivated. The Kaingaroa State Forest (54 miles south-east) covers 350,000 acres. Pulp and paper are manufactured at Kawerau and there are logging and sawmilling plants on Matakana Island and at Murupara. Tauranga is an important port, a servicing centre, and a holiday resort. Secondary industries include clothing and dairy factories, timber mills, printing works, boatbuilding, plywood manufacture and the manufacture of pre-cut houses, general engineering, and motor-vehicle repairs. Mount Maunganui has a fertiliser works, flourmills, concrete-products works, a wool store, and a wool-scouring works. With its beach, the Mount is a popular tourist centre.

Tauranga and other places round the harbour appear to have been populous places in olden times, and when Captain Cook sailed along this coast he noted many large settlements. The earliest recorded European associations date from about 1830, when several traders set up their establishments round the shores of the harbour. In 1830 at Maketu (25 miles south-east), a trader named Tapsell caused whole villages to migrate to the swamps nearby to scrape flax for him until his premises were ransacked during the wars between the Arawa and the Ngaiterangi in 1836. Early trade was by barter and controlled by Pakeha-Maori traders supplying flax to Sydney firms as well as food to the Bay of Islands. Many Maoris were concentrating on growing commercial crops of wheat and potatoes and using the money to buy European food, drink, and clothing.

In 1864, when the Government dispatched troops to the district, the local tribes built a series of fortifications in an effort to tempt General Cameron to begin a new campaign. When these were completed, they sent Cameron an invitation to commence hostilities. As soon as it became apparent that there would be no reply to this, the impatient Kingites decided to move closer to Tauranga. Near the settlement they raised the hastily constructed works that came to be called the Gate Pa. Two battles were fought at Gate Pa and Te Ranga and 50,000 acres of land were confiscated from the Ngaiterangi. A military settlement was established and Tauranga grew up on the site.

During the seventies and eighties the Vesey Stewart Special Settlements at Katikati and Te Puke were formed and, as the native titles were established and blocks of land sold, other European settlers began taking up land on the lowlands of the Tauranga County. Tauranga came into existence as a town about 1873 on the building of the road via Rotorua to Taupo, but it declined somewhat in importance following the opening of the direct railway to Rotorua in 1894. It became a borough in 1882 and a city in 1961. The meaning of Tauranga has been variously interpreted – it may mean “landing place”, “anchorage for canoes”, or “place of the talisman”. But the name may be interpreted in many different ways.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 13,010; 1956 census, 18,724; 1961 census, 24,659.

by Susan Bailey, B.A., Research Officer, Department of Industries and Commerce, Wellington.

Lake Taupo, in the centre of the North Island, is the largest lake in New Zealand, with an area of 250 sq. miles. The eastern stretch extends for 25 miles from Taupo to Tokaanu, and Western Bay is a large semicircular extension towards the north-west, bounded by vertical rock cliffs. South of Western Bay the lake is from 300 to 360 ft deep, but in the bay it is 60 ft deeper, and extending east is a trough reaching a maximum depth of 522 ft, 3 ½ miles west of Waitahanui.

Lake Taupo occupies an area of volcanic subsidence, Western Bay being part of a large caldera. After the latest great pumice eruptions about 1,850 years ago, the outlet was blocked and the lake rose temporarily for 110 ft leaving a bench at this level. It was named by the early Maori inhabitants after the rocky cliffs behind Halletts Bay. The first European to see Lake Taupo was the Rev. Thomas Chapman, in 1836.

The largest stream entering the lake is the Tongariro River, which has built a delta between Turangi and Tokaanu. The total drainage basin is 1,400 sq. miles, and the Waikato River, which flows out of the north-east end of the lake, is the largest in the North Island. Gates at the outlet point control the level of the lake to within 5 ft of 1,172 ft above sea level and regulate the flow down the river to seven hydro-electric stations.

Taupo is an important holiday centre, boating, swimming, and trout fishing being the most popular sports. There are hot springs at Waihi, Tokaanu, Motuoapa, and Taupo, and hot mineral baths at Tokaanu and Taupo. The Auckland-Wellington Highway skirts the eastern shore.

by James Healy, M.SC., Volcanologist, New Zealand Geological Survey, Rotorua.

Taupo is situated on the eastern bank of the Waikato River at its outlet from Lake Taupo, and at the head of Tapuaeharuru Bay. Mount Tauhara (3,566 ft), the reputed geographical centre of the North Island, is about 5 miles east. The surrounding country is mainly undulating to hilly. The main Auckland-Wellington highway via Atiamuri passes through Taupo. By road Taupo is 53 miles southwest of Rotorua, 40 miles south-east of Tokoroa, 96 ½ miles north-west of Napier, and 91 miles north-east of Taihape via Waiouru and Turangi.

The main farning activity of the district is dairying, but some sheep raising is also carried on. Large exotic forests of Pinus radiata (q.v.) extend discontinuously north-west and north-east from Taupo and, associated with them, are milling and related activities. A limited amount of indigenous timber also is milled in the district. Near Wairakei (5 miles north) a geothermal-steam project for the generation of electricity is in progress, and at Aratiatia (about 7 ½ miles north-east) a hydro-electric power project is under construction. Areas of pumice land lying generally north of the town are being developed for farming by the Departments of Lands and Survey and Maori Affairs and, to a lesser extent, by private interests. Taupo functions as a tourist resort and commercial centre. The main industrial activities of the town are sawmilling, timber treatment, the manufacture of joinery, boxes, pre-cut dwellings and furniture. Other activities include the manufacture of concrete products and diamond drilling bits; general, mechanical, and precision engineering; and boatbuilding.

In pre-European times Taupo was a relatively closely settled area. It was called Tapuaeharuru, “the place of echoing footsteps”, which is also the name of the bay where the present Taupo stands. Several villages were located around the lake shores. The first European known to have visited Taupo and district was Andrew Powers, a Maori captive. The Rev. Thomas Chapman, of Rotorua, travelled to the northern shores of Lake Taupo early in 1839. During February-March John Carne Bidwill passed through the area on an expedition to Mount Ngauruhoe. The Rev. Ashwell also visited Taupo in 1839 and, at the end of that year, the Rev. Henry Williams and the Rev. James Buller. Dr Ernst Dieffenbach and Captain W. C. Symonds visited the locality in 1841. Dieffenbach was the first scientist to describe the thermal phenomena. The town is considered to have been founded in 1869 when an Armed Constabulary redoubt was constructed there in connection with the campaign against Te Kooti. On 7 June 1869 several Hauhaus attacked an Armed Constabulary camp at Opepe (11 miles south-east) and nine troopers were killed. A military force was soon after sent toward Taupo from Napier. At various strategic points along their route parties were detached to build and garrison blockhouses. The tracks linking each post became the basis of the Taupo-Napier road which was practicable for wheeled traffic after 1874. A vehicle road linking Taupo and Cambridge was in fair condition throughout in 1880. In 1893 a road was formed round the eastern shore of the lake. In comparatively recent times this has become part of the main highway. For many years a steamer service carried passengers and mails across the lake from Taupo to Tokaanu, a distance of 25 miles; this formed a link between the coach services from Auckland via Rotorua, to Taupo and the journey was continued from Tokaanu by coach. The contract for carrying of mails by steamer lasted, at least, till 1921, and the steamer service was a regular one till 1926. At the present time there is no regular service across the lake, but launches may be hired for pleasure trips.

In the late 1870s and early 1880s the thermal activity around Taupo began to attract numbers of tourists. At the Spa (1 ½ miles north-east) Lofley provided primitive facilities and was succeeded in 1888 by John Joshua, who developed it further. In the 1880s other thermal activity at Onekeneke Terraces, now called the Terraces (2 miles south-east) were also developed. The thermal area of Wairakei was developed first by R. Graham about 1878, but is now managed by the Tourist Hotel Corporation of New Zealand. By the 1890s Lake Taupo and tributary streams had been stocked with rainbow trout and Taupo had became a popular headquarters for anglers. For a long time Taupo was predominantly a tourist town and in 1945 had only 753 inhabitants. The town grew rapidly between 1949 and 1953, due partly to the geothermal project at Wairakei, the expansion of the timber industry, and farm development. Taupo became a road district in 1946 and, in 1953, was constituted a borough. Taupo is an abbreviation of Taupo nui a Tia (the great cloak of Tia). The meaning is obscure, but according to legend Tia on one occasion slept long at this place.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 1,358; 1956 census, 2,849; 1961 census, 5,251.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

Taumarunui is situated on the north bank of the upper reaches of the Wanganui River at its junction with the Ongarue River. The town site occupies mainly alluvial flat, but the surrounding country is hilly. On the east and north-east the land rises to the Hauhungaroa Range. The North Island Main Trunk railway and the Te Kuiti – National Park highway pass through Taumarunui. By road Taumarunui is 53 miles south-east of Te Kuiti (48 miles by rail), 42 miles north-west of Turangi, 99 miles north-east of Stratford (97 miles by rail), and 27 ½ miles north-west of National Park.

The chief farming activities of the district are sheep and cattle raising and dairying. Butter is produced at Piriaka (6 miles south-east). Fruit is grown at Taringamotu Valley (about 2 miles north-west). There is a large number of sawmills in the district and all cut native timbers. At Manunui (4 miles south-east) in addition to sawmilling, there is a plywood and veneer factory. Taumarunui is a market and servicing centre for an extensive farming and timber-producing district. Town industrial activities include sawmilling and timber treatment, the manufacture of joinery and pre-cut houses; and general and structural engineering. There are large wool and skin stores and a stock saleyard in the town.

Taumarunui was originally a Maori settlement at the junction of important canoe routes linking the interior of the island with the lower Wanganui River settlements. Certain localities in the neighbourhood, notably the valley of the Pungapunga Stream, which joins the upper Wanganui near Manunui, were celebrated for the size and quality of totara, and large canoes were built there. Late in December 1843 Bishop Selwyn travelled from the district south of Taupo to a point on the Wanganui River about 6 miles down stream from Taumarunui and there continued his journey to the coast by canoe. Towards the end of 1869 Te Kooti was at Taumarunui before his march through the western Taupo district to Tapapa. In the early 1880s the first surveys of the King Country commenced and by the early 1890s the Crown had begun the purchase of large areas of land. The first European settler is thought to be Alexander Bell, who became a resident trader there in 1874. During the Hauhau troubles a resident named William Moffatt manufactured and supplied the enemy with a coarse kind of gunpowder. He was afterwards expelled from the district. Despite warnings he returned in 1880, ostensibly to prospect for gold, and was executed by the Maoris.

The Wanganui River long continued to be the principal route serving Taumarunui. Traffic was at first by Maori canoe, but by the late 1880s regular steamship communication between Wanganui and Pipiriki was established. The shipping service was extended in the 1890s with shallow-draught vessels, and a terminal berth was built a short distance up the Ongarue River at Taumarunui. The river vessels maintained the services between Wanganui and Taumarunui until the late 1920s, when the condition of the river deteriorated. In 1928 the upstream terminal was moved down stream to the junction of the Retaruke Stream, and in 1934 regular services on the upper Wanganui River ceased. The progress of the town and district accelerated in 1903 when the section of railway from Te Kuiti to Taumarunui was opened for traffic, and again following the completion of the North Island Main Trunk railway in November 1908. Taumarunui has been assigned more than one meaning, but that most favoured is “place of abundant shade”. In 1906 Taumarunui was created a township under the Native Townships Act 1895, and the same year became a borough.

POPULATION: 1951 census, 3,220; 1956 census, 3,341; 1961 census, 4,961.

by Brian Newton Davis, M.A., Vicar, St. Philips, Karori West, Wellington and Edward Stewart Dollimore, Research Officer, Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington.

The name Tasman Bay is generally applied to the broad triangular indentation, approximately 47 miles across and 35 miles deep, in the northern coast of the South Island between Separation Point and D'Urville Island. The bay was discovered by Tasman in 1642, but was not named. In 1770 Captain Cook referred to the whole bay between Cape Farewell and D'Urville Island as Blind Bay, but on his second voyage in 1773 restricted Blind Bay to the part between Separation Point and D'Urville Island.

d'Urville in 1827 was the first to use the name Tasman Bay for the same feature and he specifically fixed Separation Point as its western boundary. Blind Bay is still used occasionally as an alternative name for Tasman Bay.

The inner portion of Tasman Bay is extremely shallow – less than 20 fathoms – but the outer portion reaches a depth of over 50 fathoms. The bay was probably formed during the early Pleistocene glacial period, when thick gravels were deposited in the Moutere depression extending south from the head of the bay, and when sea level may have been as much as 50 fathoms lower than at present. The chief ports in Tasman Bay are Nelson, Mapua, and Motueka. Of these, the port of Nelson is by far the most important, being accessible to all vessels except those of very large tonnage. Although there are no recognised port facilities along the east side of Tasman Bay, numerous inlets and bays – such as Croisilles Harbour, Greville Harbour, and Port Hardy – afford safe anchorage to shipping.

by George William Grindley, M.SC., New Zealand Geological Survey, Lower Hutt.

(1603–59).

First discoverer of parts of the main islands of New Zealand.

A new biography of Tasman, Abel Janszoon appears in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography on this site.

Abel Janszoon Tasman, in an extant entry of his proposed second marriage under date 27 December 1631 in a church register of Amsterdam, is described as a seaman, aged 28, of Lutjegast. It appears, therefore, that he was born in 1603. Lutjegast was a village in the Netherlands near the city of Groningen. Nothing is known of Tasman's family background, education, or early youth. The entry mentioned above gives the name of his first wife as “Claesgie Heyndrix” and describes him as a widower, and gives the name of his second wife as “Jannetie Tjaerss”. A declaration by Tasman dated 3 April 1634 shows that he was then first mate of the Weesp in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He spent the following two years as skipper of the Mocha in the Ambon area. In late 1637 and early 1638 Tasman was in the Netherlands, returning to the East Indies with his wife. After some voyaging there as skipper of the Engel, he accompanied Matthijs Hendrikzoon Quast as second in command of an expedition to and beyond Japanese waters in 1639. In 1640 Tasman himself was commander of an expedition to Japan. Twice in 1641 he was at Cambodia. Early in 1642 he commanded a small squadron on a voyage to Sumatra.

In 1642 the Council of the East India Company in Java, headed by the Governor-General Anthony van Diemen, decided to send an exploratory expedition to southern latitudes, one of the main objects being to see if there was a sea passage to South America. At that time the west coast and part of the south coast of Australia were known from previous contacts by Dutch ships. Tasman was appointed commander of an expedition of two small ships, the Heemskerck and Zeehaen. Frans Jacobszoon Visscher was chief pilot. Tasman's journal of this voyage is extant in two main copies.

On 14 August 1642 the ships left Batavia and, after visiting Mauritius, came south of the Australian continent, where Tasmania was discovered. Proceeding east from Tasmania, Tasman came in sight of a large high land toward noon on 13 December 1642, on which day the observed latitude was 42° 10' S. This was the west side of the South Island of New Zealand, some distance south of Cape Foulwind, which was passed toward evening of the following day. The ships continued north, and then came round Farewell Spit. The following day, 19 December 1642, some Maoris came off in canoes and attacked the boat of the Zeehaen, killing four of its seven occupants. Tasman describes the Maoris as being of ordinary height, between brown and yellow in colour, with black hair tied on top of their heads in a tuft adorned by a large white feather. An accompanying illustration in his journal shows a manned double canoe, and indicates that the ships at the time were in the south-eastern part of Golden Bay, named Murderers' Bay by Tasman.

From Golden Bay the Dutch ships sailed past Stephens Island, and on 20 December were embayed on the west coast of the North Island somewhere near the modern Foxton. They tried without success to get out the way they came, seeing Stephens Island again to the south-west; they then tacked north, coming in sight of the south Taranaki coast on 21 December. They then tacked south all the way to Stephens Island and D'Urville Island, anchoring because of broken weather until the twenty-sixth near the south-east part of D'Urville Island. The Dutch explorers suspected there might be a strait to the east, but turned north on 26 December without detecting Cook Strait. A map found with one of the copies of Tasman's journal shows unbroken coastline; another by Visscher shows a conjectural gap.

Standing off the coast, the Dutch ships did not come in sight of land again until 28 December, when they were in sight of Mount Karioi, south of Raglan Harbour. The configuration of west Taranaki and Cape Egmont as shown in their maps was thus a reconstruction from their sightings of the coast to the south and north.

The expedition continued to stand off and on as they made a northing, seeing segments of the west coast at intervals, until on 4 January 1643 they were near Cape Maria van Diemen with an island in sight to the north-west, which they named Three Kings. The next day Visscher went with two boats to look for water on Great Island, the main island of the Three Kings group. The boat party saw good fresh water coming down from a steep height, and two canoes and cultivations nearby, but did not go in because of the surf. The party rowed along the coast, seeing 30 to 35 people on the heights, the men tall, who called out to them. The boats returned, and the ships anchored near the north coast of the island. Next day another unsuccessful attempt at a landing was made, when people were again seen on shore. The same day, 6 January 1643, the Dutch explorers quitted the coast of New Zealand.

Tasman, between 13 December 1642 and 6 January 1643, thus saw considerable portions of the western littorals of the South and North Islands, without making any landings.

The name Staten Landt was given by the Dutch visitors to their discovery, because they conjectured it might be joined to the land in the southern part of South America, discovered and so named by Jacob Le Maire's expedition. Later Dutch geographers named Tasman's discovery Zeelandia Nova or Nieeuw Zeeland, no doubt because Hendrik Brouwer in 1643 had shown that Le Maire's Staten Landt did not extend to the west.

After quitting New Zealand, Tasman discovered a number of islands in the Tonga group and the north-eastern sector of the Fiji group, returning to Java north of New Guinea. By so doing, he demonstrated that the ‘Southland’ – the then known parts of Australia – was separate from his discoveries in the South Pacific.

In 1644 Tasman commanded an expedition which discovered large parts of the north coast of Australia. He was a member of the Council of Justice of Batavia from 1644 to 1648. In 1646 he headed a trading expedition to Sumatra, in 1647 a trading expedition to Siam, and in 1648 an expedition against the Spaniards in the Philippines. During the latter expedition he endeavoured to hang two sailors without due process, and was demoted until 1651 from his rank of skipper-commander. Between the time of his reinstatement and 1653 he was honourably discharged from the company's service. He continued to reside at Batavia with his second wife as a well-to-do private citizen, engaging on occasion in private trading voyages. His daughter by his first marriage, Claesjen, married in Batavia and had children there in Tasman's lifetime. Tasman died in or about 1659.

Tasman's importance in New Zealand history rests on his voyage of 1642–43. The statement that he discovered New Zealand requires some qualification by virtue of the fact that in 1901 the Cook Group became part of New Zealand, and there is good reason to believe that Alvaro de Mendana in 1595, and Pedro Fernandez de Quiros in 1606, each discovered an island in the northern sector of that group. Claims have been made that Spanish or Portuguese ships had visited the main islands of New Zealand before Tasman. Thus a piece of Spanish armour, found in Wellington Harbour, has excited such a speculation, although a more realistic view might be that a later European settler who brought some antiques with him dropped it overboard by accident. Others have seen vague outlines of New Zealand in old maps, although if such suppositions were accepted wherever they have been made, little of the world remained to be discovered after 1600. These claims, however, do not conform with discovery in its conventional sense, which implies that some reasonably recognisable revelation was conveyed to the outside world. There is good reason, therefore, to confer firmly on Tasman the title of first discoverer of parts of the main islands of New Zealand.

by Charles Andrew Sharp, B.A.(OXON.), M.A.(N.Z.), Department of Internal Affairs, Wellington.

• De Reizen van Abel Janszoon Tasman en Franchoys Jacobszoon Visscher, ed. Meyjes, R. P. (1919)
• Abel Janszoon Tasman's Journal, ed. Heeres, J. E. (1898)
• “Spanish Discoveries in the Central Pacific”, Maude, H. E.,Journal of the Polynesian Society, Vol. 68 (1959)
• The Discovery of Tasmania in 1642 – Being Selections from Tasman's Journal, Heeres, J. E. (translator), Journals of Captain Cook, ed. Beaglehole, J. C. (1961).

Under the provisions of the Tariff and Development Board Act of 1961, the Board of Trade (established in 1950) was abolished and a Tariff and Development Board was appointed in its place. Under its terms of reference, the Board must consider and make recommendations on (among other things) alterations to the tariff, the general effect of the operation of the tariff on trade and commerce and the farming, manufacturing, and distributing industries of New Zealand. It must also have regard for the interests of consumers and any matter affecting the protection or development of industry or the development of overseas trade, whether by means of the tariff or otherwise.

With the increased importance of the tariff as a protective instrument, its significance as a source of revenue has declined. Under the influence of a protective tariff, the pattern of New Zealand's imports has changed and, no doubt, will continue to change with the further development and diversification of industry. Already an increasing proportion of imports consists of raw materials, semi-manufactured goods, and machinery, which are admitted free of duty or at concessional rates of duty for use in industry. Nevertheless, the tariff is likely to remain an important source of revenue.

by John Francis Cummings, Comptroller of Customs, Wellington.