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190 South Island is sometimes called Middle Island, from its position between North and Stewart islands.



"Cook Strait commemorates the great navigator who was killed on the Sandwich Islands. He landed here in 1769, and took possession of the country in the name of England. He made five visits altogether to New Zealand, and introduced pigs, potatoes, sheep, goats, and other animals and vegetables."

"Hadn't Tasman already taken the country for Holland?" said Frank.

"No," replied the Doctor, "he did not set foot at all in New Zealand. He anchored in a bay in South Island, next to that in which the town of Nelson now stands, and had an encounter with the natives who opposed his going on shore. He lost four men in the fight, named the place Massacre Bay, in memory of the occurrence, and sailed away without landing."

"How soon after Captain Cook's occupation of the country did the British Government establish colonies?"

"Not for some time," replied Doctor Bronson. "In the latter part