Maori Settlers in N.Z...

The Maoris were not the first to settle in New Zealand. Carbon dating of rat bones found in Hawkes Bay on the east coast of North Island shows them to be at least two thousand years old. The oldest Maori settlement dates back to AD 800. Dr. Richard Holdaway, a Christchurch palaeontologist, says the rats must have arrived by human voyagers - in short, humans must have arrived 800 years before the Maoris. As Dr. Rau Kirikiri, a leading Maori academic, reflected, ‘This could lead Maoris to question their own history.’

From: http://www.1421.tv/extract.htm

Maoris were the first inhabitants of New Zealand, arriving on the islands in about 1000. Maori oral history maintains that the Maoris came to the island in seven canoes from other parts of Polynesia. In 1642, New Zealand was explored by Abel Tasman, a Dutch navigator. British captain James Cook made three voyages to the islands, beginning in 1769. Britain formally annexed the islands in 1840.

From: New Zealand: History, Geography, Government, and Culture — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107834.html#ixzz1U7QFJylj

The first argument is largely backed by physical evidence (rat bones found by palaeontologists) whereas the second argument doesn't include physical evidence, rather it assumes that its thesis is true because of prior research and oral history passed down within Maori culture. A lot of evidence claims it to be the rat bones that helped to determine the arrival of the first settlers in New Zealand which is extremely controversial because it assumes that evolution did not occur – rats did not evolve in N.Z, and it states that they were brought by people coming to our country by canoe and ship. I personally believe that the second argument is the strongest because of the fact that there is a larger body of evidence backing the theory that Maoris arrived in New Zealand in about 1000. It is conforming to the idea that the majority is right however because of all of the research and the seemingly unified thesis we as New Zealanders are taught from a very young age, I chose to believe the second statement.