NEW ZEALAND

Captain James Cook, who first explored the islands a century and a quarter later, took possession of them for his country only to have his claims rejected. Britain still later hoisted the Union Jack over the land to prevent French immigrants from settling in the place they cherished. The country's capital bears the name Wellington, but the Iron Duke stood firm against the annexation.

Many New Zealanders who have never been away from the islands' shores, and whose parents likewise were born in the Dominion, still speak of England as "home."

Here in an area approximately the size of Colorado are grouped the snow-mantled peaks of a Switzerland, geysers of a Yellowstone, volcanic cones of Java and Japan, and the lakes of Italy; the mineral springs of Czechoslovakia, fiords of Norway, seacoasts of Maine and California, and waterfalls higher than Yosemite.

Glaciers slip down sharp mountainsides from vast snow fields into subtropical bush. A short ride through a pass in the Southern Alps will take one from impenetrable evergreen forests into barren tussock-covered lands.

New Zealand is the home of the massive kauri pines, some of which measure 22 feet in diameter and have reached hoary ages that rank them next to the sequoias. It also is the home of the smallest known representative of the pine-tree family. Giant fuchsias grow to the height of 40 feet; a white buttercup has blooms four inches in diameter; flax is produced from a lily; man has imported all of the mammals, and many of the native birds cannot fly.

The Maoris were the first-known colonists of these southern islands. Guided only by the stars and a knowledge of the winds and ocean currents, they boldly piloted their slender double canoes from their homeland of "Hawaiki" (probably Tahiti and the Cook Islands) to the shores of New Zealand in the fourteenth century. Legend credits them with having followed the sailing directions of the famous Polynesian navigator, Kupe, who is said to have preceded them by 400 years.

To the new land they gave the lilting, vowel-studded name, Ao-tea-roa, which is variously translated as "The Long White Cloud," "The Land of Long Daylight," and "The Long, Bright Land."

Here they lived, increased, warred against each other, and cultivated their taro and the more important kumara, or sweet potato…"