An amateur English historian believes that Chinese discovered New Zealand well before Maori or Dutchmen.

South Island-based daily The Press in Wellington reported yesterday that conventional histories showed the first recorded European to sight New Zealand was Dutch navigator Abel Tasmanwho, who spotted the South Island's West Coast on December 13, 1642.

English explorer Captain James Cook reportedly "discovered" New Zealand's East Coast on October 7, 1769, hundreds of years after it had been settled by Maori.

But two visits early this year have convinced Cedric Bell that Chinese ships were visiting New Zealand 2000 years ago.

Bell is equally convinced that a Chinese city of 4,000 people was situated in the present-day Christchurch Botanic Gardens 1,000 years ago, alongside a fort - one of 30 supposed Chinese sites he has found on the South Island.

Christchurch was the Chinese capital of the South Island, said Bell, who is not deterred by the fact that not a single artifact or Maori acknowledgment of Chinese exploration exists in New Zealand. He claimed that his research was "indisputable."

The retired marine engineer and production manager for Castrol has been exploring Roman remains in Britain for the last 10 years.

He read of early Chinese global expeditions in the alternative history book by former Royal Navy officer Gavin Menzies, "1421 - The Year That China Discovered America."

Menzies argued in the bestseller that squadrons from the fleet of legendary admiral Zheng He, between 1421 and 1423, not only discovered the Americas, but also Greenland, Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand. But he offered no proof and other historians said a lot of his circumstantial evidence was marred by questionable scholarship.

Bell said he explored while visiting his son in New Zealand, and claimed to have detected a "Chinese fort" near the children's playground in Christchurch's Botanic Gardens and the ramparts and drains of a walled city, 400 meters long by 100 meters wide, immediately behind the Canterbury Museum.

Bell claimed the "Chinese settlers" diverted the Avon River to create the loop around the Botanic Gardens, used the river for navigation and developed a boat harbor between the walled city and the fort.

He argued the carbonized remains of a Chinese junk can be seen in the cliffs at Moeraki, south of Oamaru, the result of the vessel being swept ashore by a tsunami. He has seen signs of another in a Catkins cave.

(eastday.com November 8, 2003)