the area. Lieutenant, later Captain James Cook, the first European known to visit the area, sailed between Motiti Island and the coast in 1769. This was his first voyage to New Zealand, but he did not land here. Cook named the area the Bay of Plenty as he observed that it was well populated and looked very fertile. In 1830 Danish sailor Philip Tapsell, also known as Hans Homman Felk, settled at Maketu and operated as a trader. Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries arrived shortly afterwards and established mission stations at Te Papa (Tauranga) and at Rotorua. After the land wars began to ease in the 1860s, European settlers began to move to the Bay of Plenty though not in great numbers. Maketu, however was a thriving village with a school, post office, and hotel and in 1869 an Anglican church. In 1876, surveying of the Te Puke Block commenced but it was not until 1879 that they survey was completed as the Native Land Court needed to complete their investigation of Māori titles for the land. Demand for land in the Tauranga area increased and the Tauranga Working Men's Land Association was formed in 1877. Forty eight members petitioned the government for 4000 acres (16 ha) of the Te Puke block under the deferred-payment system. At the same time George Vesey Stewart applied to the government to bring settlers from Great Britain to the Te Puke Block as he had already successfully done in Katikati. The first settlers on the Te Puke Block arrived in 1879 and included Peter Grant and his wife Caroline (née Moon), William Bird and his wife Sarah (née Leitch), Joseph Malyon and his wife Sara (née James) amongst others. The first of the Vesey Stewart settlers arrived in Tauranga directly from London on the Lady Jocelyn on 2 January 1881. Development In July 1880, work commenced on the Tauranga to Te Puke Road, via Welcome Bay. It was constructed by the Armed Constabulary and local Māori who worked on their land. Before this, access to Te Puke was made across the Papamoa Hills from Ngapeke to Manoeka, following an ancient Māori trail. Peter Grant had been contracted by the Tauranga County Council to form this track into a bridle path in 1879. Stores and passengers for the town could also come from Tauranga by boat, first to Maketu, then up the Kaituna River to