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Niue 1979, A “Savage Island” remembers Cook’s landing at “Traitor’s Head”

Discoverers don’t just have trouble with mother nature, sometimes the natives are not overjoyed to see them. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I like this stamp a lot. On one hand it is a fairly old fashioned commemoration of British explorer James Cook aimed at the commonwealth collector. It is however modern enough to show the challenges Captain Cook faced with natives he found. In doing so one can see the event from both sides. The printing is excellent and done on behalf of Niue by New Zealand Post.

Todays stamp is issue A68, a 30 cent stamp issued by the New Zealand Dependency of Niue on July 30, 1979. It was part of a 4 stamp issue in various denominations honoring the 200th anniversary of the death of the explorer James Cook. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents mint.

Captain Cook joined the Royal Navy in 1755. After showing great skill mapping the Saint Lawrence River during the French and Indian War, Cook was tasked with exploring the Pacific. His journeys took him to Australia and New Zealand most famously but also Hawaii and the islands depicted on todays stamp.

The stamp depicts Captain Cook’s attempted landing on the Vanuatu archipelago island of Erromango in 1774. Cook found the natives unfriendly and several of his men were hurt and several natives killed. From this experience, Cook referred to the place he landed as Traitor’s Head. This event might have had special meaning on Niue as they also were so unfriendly that Cook did not actually land at Niue but gave it the name Savage Island.

Erromango was later found to have a large supply of sandalwood, for which there was a rich market for in China. The British could not convince the natives to work in a forestry operation but word got out of the riches available. Hawaii sent a expeditionary force to take over the island but when the force got there if found two ships, one from Rotorua in New Zealand with Maori workers and another from Samoa. While none of this treasure seeking involved Europeans, none were welcome by the natives of Erromango. Of the near 500 Hawaiians sent, only 30 made it back to Hawaii. Eventually these rival Polynesians slashed and burned their way through all the sandalwood.

Eventually traders and missionaries were allowed on Niue. The tribal King repeatedly petitioned to Queen Victoria to be made a British Protectorate. This was finally granted in 1900, but administration passed to New Zealand in the 1960s. Offered independence. the island chose to remain associated with New Zealand and their people are New Zealand citizens. Over time about 75 percent of the population has moved to New Zealand. The population is now barely over a thousand. So far New Zealand has been rebuffed in it’s suggestion that the remaining population leave as it becomes more difficult to offer services there.

Well my drink is empty and so I will pour another to toast Captain James Cook. I recently returned from a great trip to New Zealand where I got to enjoy both the heritage of the British and the still preserved culture of the Maori, the local Polynesians. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.