Description: New Zealand was the last land discovered by human beings and has the shortest human history of any major land mass. Its two large islands were lost in a distant corner of the world's largest ocean, and in hospitable to human beings. New Zealand's human history may be short, but it is rich and interesting. In New Zealand's first thousand years, the Polynesian first-comers created one of the world's most sophisticated stone-age cultures. But the Maori world was disrupted when European navigators found New Zealand, and were followed in the 19th century by successive waves of Europeans. The river of New Zealand's history has flowed from two sources -- Polynesia and Europe. The mingling of the two streams has not always been smooth, but today, both Maori and Europeans call themselves New Zealanders. Both peoples have made the islands their native land. Here then is the story of New Zealand's birth, of a new nation emerging in the world's last, loneliest corner.

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