INTRODUCTION TO FARMING IN NORTH AUCKLAND PENINSULA

Abstract

In Northland, as elsewhere in New Zealand, the Maori was the first tiller of the soil. He used fern roots for food supplemented by produce of the forest and sea, but he also cultivated areas for the kumara, the taro, the gourd, and the yam. Possibly the first reference to Maori agriculture in Northland was made by Captain Cook in December, 1769, when he spoke of 40 to 50 acres of land cultivated and planted with roots on an island in the Bay of Islands as well- as considerable areas of kumaras on the mainland. It was through the action of Cook and other early visitors that the Maori added pork to his diet.