NETHERLANDS

NETHERLANDS / NEDERLAND.

350th Anniversary of Abel Tasman's Discovery of New Zealand.
Old map of Wainui Inlet coast, in South Island of New Zealand, and Tasman's Route.
Stamp issued on 12.03.1992.
Face value: 70 Dutch cents.
Design: Heng Glaesener.
Printed by Joh. Enschedé Stamps, Haarlem, Netherlands.
Printing: Photogravure.
Print: 12,432,050 copies.
Size: 37 x 26 mm.

Catalogs
- AFA No. 1437.
- Michel No. 1435.
- Scott No. 809.
- StampWorld No. 1435.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 1636.
- Yvert et Tellier No.  1399.

Abel Tasman (1603-1659) was a Dutch seafarer, explorer, and merchant, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company. He was the first known European explorer to reach New Zealand and the islands of Fiji and Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). On December 13, 1642 the members of his two-ship expedition sighted land on the north-west coast of the South Island, becoming the first Europeans to sight New Zealand. Tasman named it Staten Landt "in honor of the States General" (Dutch parliament). On December 18, the ships anchored near Wainui Bay, north of what is now Abel Tasman National Park. The expeditionaries had a violent encounter with the local indigenous Ngāti Tūmatakōkiri. Tasman named the place Moordenaers ('Assassins') Bay before sailing east to the Manawatu coast of the North Island.