I refer to the article ‘Captain Cook’s ship may be in US harbour’ authored by Scott Malone (May 5).

Malone attributes the “first time westerners laid eyes on New Zealand” in 1769 to Cook during his Pacific expedition of 1768-1771; quite a feat in itself for those days.

For history buffs, however, it might be of interest to consider what I was taught as a schoolboy as relevant complementary and interesting information.

As is well known, even the Dutch were well-known Far East explorers following the Portuguese and the Venetians as from the early 16th century. Around the middle of the 16th century, the brothers Houtman established the first Dutch settlement on Java.

During the following century further explorations well beyond the Indonesian archipelago took place under the sponsorship of the Dutch Governor General, Anthony van Diemen, in Jakarta.

Explorer Abel Jansz Tasman discovered the west coast of New Zealand on December 13 1642, that is 127 years before Capt. Cook, and named it after the Dutch province of Zeeland and charted this coast from Hokitika all the way up to Cape Maria van Diemen, named after the governor general’s wife.

Three weeks earlier, on November 24, 1642, Tasman discovered what is known as Tasmania, named after him.

Both these discoveries are known to be first confirmation of European discovery.

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