PIGS AND PAKEHAS

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 56, 11 February 1953, Page 2

PIGS AND PAKEHAS

WHICH CAME FIRST

(By Te

Rangiita)

Many and fabulous are the tales told by anglers, campeis and pig h/unters of the wild pigs which are so common in the Taupo Country, and which are usually referred to as f Captain Cookers" under the inv; pression, no doubt, that their anc.estry goes hack to pigs given to the Maoris by Captain Cook, In view of the importance often attached to the date when a family tirst became settled in New Zeaiand, it is perhaps right to mention thatit seemiS certain that none of our wild pigs can claim to be descended from pigs left by Cook. But to be quite fair it must also be mentioned that the pig was an earlier settler than the pakeha. The earliest record of any pakeha residing in New Zealand appears to be that which occurs in the account of the visit of the vessel Royal Admiral to Thames in 1801. Two Europeans were found there who had been living with the Maoris for some two years, the date of their arrival thus being 1799. Though one sailed in the Royal Admiral his companion elected tq remain. The earliest record of the establishment of the pig in Newr Zealand occurs in the journal of Lieutenant-Governor King, of Norfolk Island, who relates in March 1795 that Captain Dell, of the vessell Fancy, had reported that at Doubtless Bay in December 1794 a Maori named Tuki had a pig which, with others, had been given to him hy King in November 1793. The pig thus takes priority over the pakeha as the earlier settler by about six years.

When the pig is thus given precedence as a settler by six years only the query naturally arises as to the belief that wild pigs may be descended from Cook's pigs. The fact is that there is apparently no record that any pigs left by Cook became established. And there is evidenee that twentyfours years after he had been in the vicinity of Doubtless Bay his pig^s w^ere unknown. In addition to pigs left hy Cook, the French explorer de Surville gave two young pigs, male and female, to a Maori chief at Doubtless Bay in, December 1769. Again, there is no evidenee that these escaped the hangi long enough to leave aiiy descendents. Records left hy timber traders and whalers durihg the ten to fifteen years after Governor King's gift pf pigs in%17r9;3^: however, make it clear that the pig became established soon after that period. It would seem therefore that the wild pig must look not to Captain Cook's pigs for his ancestors but to Norfolk Island and Governor King's stpck. .