Will we mark 255th anniversary of Cook landing?

Two hundred and fifty five years, ago keen eyes on a small wooden ship were scanning the horizon ahead, searching for the first glimpse of a land briefly visited by the Dutchman Abel Tasman almost 127 years earlier. 

The vessel was a converted coal-carrier, the Endeavour, under the command of Lieutenant James Cook. 

On October 8, 1769, Cook and a landing party encountered local Māori – an event that has entered the history books and left an ongoing legacy. Will it be noted this 255th anniversary? 

The first landing of Europeans in New Zealand, at Turanganui-a-Kiwa, used to be marked in Gisborne – but since the sestercentennial (250th anniversary), seems to have been erased from the calendar. 

This past week, the troubled islands of New Caledonia have marked their own meeting with Cook and his crew on their second voyage to the Pacific. 

The first meeting of Kanaks with Europeans occurred on September 4, 250 years ago, in 1776. 

New Caledonia was sighted by the Resolution, while the locals sent out a pirogue (a small canoe). Cook anchored in the bay of Balade, in the north of the main island, and went ashore to meet the locals and high chief Ti Bouma. 

Valerie Vattier, director of New Caledonia’s Maritime Museum, told France Television they exchanged yams and sugar cane for metal and glass beads.  They also distributed medallions showing the Resolution and Adventure, and the image of King George III. One was found and now has a valued place in the museum. 

Despite the current disturbances, Cook’s landing was commemorated this week with events for families and children. 

Cook did not claim New Caledonia for England — Admiral Auguste Febvrier-Despointes took possession for France, by raising the French flag 77 years later, in Balade, on September 24, 1853. 

So, will we mark our 255th anniversary in any way? Or is Cook and the Endeavour’s arrival forever condemned as a blot to be banished from the pages of local history? 

Roger Handford