Explorer Abel Tasman did not hang around his discovery of New Zealand the way the Dutch did in the Indies to the northwest. The Maori there were trying to kill him. Perhaps that was the correct decision for the Maori. The descendants faired better under the British than the Malayans further north did under the Dutch. Modern New Zealand is much more wealthy than modern Indonesia. 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.
They pack a lot of information on this stamp. The man portrayed as an obvious Dutchman, the ship undergoing a rough voyage and a map showing the part of the west New Zealand coast that was spotted by Tasman. It would probably be too much to ask to also include a club wielding Maori, but I bet the kids and probably the Maori would have appreciated it.
Todays stamp is issue O79, a 2 Pence official stamp issued by New Zealand in 1940. It was an 11 stamp issue in various denominations that show scenes from the colony’s founding. The “official” overstamp meant the stamp was used for government business. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents used. Without the overstamp the value falls to 25 cents.
The government of Holland had granted a monopoly to the Dutch East India Company for trade with the east after the realization that the world was round. The company had made an arrangement with local Malayan Prince Jakarta to set up a trading post in what the Dutch called Batavia. Among their employees was seafarer Abel Tasman. Tasman had a close brush with death when he landed without warning to trade spices on the island of Seram in the Malluccans and several of his companions were murdered. He escaped and returned to Holland. He then reupped for 10 years and brought his wife to Batavia. There was a theory at the time that the great Euro-Asian land mass near the North pole must be balanced out by another undiscovered land mass near the south pole. In the Indies they heard local legends of such a place rich in gold. The Dutch version of this was the “Provinces of Beach”. The Dutch East India Company sent out Tasman to find them.
Tasman of course first found the island of Tasmania off of southern Australia but this stamp requires me to get to the New Zealand part. Upon leaving Tasmania, Tasman intended to sail north but the rough seas and strong winds had his ships go east. He spotted the west coast of the south island of New Zealand in 1640. His earlier trouble in Seram had taught him not to rush ashore. He anchored a kilometer off the coast and sent a small boat ashore to scout some fresh water. They were met by club wielding Maoris that murdered them. Now the Dutchmen knew how the kiwi birds felt. Tasman thought the discovery important as he hoped the land connected to land already discovered at the southern tip of South America.
Tasman tried to communicate with the Maori but they could not understand each other. At one point Maori tribesman sailed to the ships in canoes. When the Maori played a wind instrument as part of their battle cry. Tasman’s ship responded by one of the sailors playing sea shanties on a trumpet. The Maori did stop and listen but it did not change their intent which was to board the ship and capture it. When the canoes got too close, Tasman was forced to fire cannon and muskets. He ended up sailing away having never set foot on New Zealand. He named the area he set anchor Murderer’s Bay. For some reason that name didn’t stick.
The Dutch East India company was unsatisfied to Tasman’s work on this expedition or later ones. They decided to fire him and hire a more “persistent explorer”. He was even brought up on charges and stripped of his rank for a shipboard hanging without a proper trial. His real crime of course was not bringing in the gold. Tasman was able to live out his life as a well off landowner in Batavia.
Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering how the Maori could not have understood sea shanties played on a trumpet were a sign of friendship? Perhaps a tribe’s warriors are not there to lay out the red carpet. Come again on Monday for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.
Update: Sorry this ran a little late today, for some reason the publication failed overnight at the usual time. I woke up this morning to see only yesterday’s offering.