Back list - History

Nicholas Tarling is an historian of Southeast Asia who has pursued a variety of other interests as well. Known to many New Zealanders after nearly thirty years as a professor at the University of Auckland, he has also been a broadcaster, an actor, a critic, and an opera buff. Drawing on letters and diaries, the author recalls, with at least something of an historian

Colin Maiden was a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar at Oxford in the late 50s, a research engineer in Canada and a leading General Motors scientist and executive in the US, Vice Chancellor of the University of Auckland for 24 years, and professional company director or chair of companies such as NZ Synthetic Fuels, NZ Refining, Transpower, Fisher & Paykel, Farmers, NZ Steel, DB Breweries and Tower. Few other New Zealanders have been involved at the highest levels in such a variety of activities in New Zealand and overseas. Sir Colin describes a truly energetic life, and revealed, as the reader travels with him, are the talents and considerable contribution of a New Zealander... read more

No Description

No Description

No Description

An in-depth examination of first missionary Samuel Marsden?s New Zealand endeavours. The author researched Marsden?s life and activities in New South Wales and in New Zealand and found a challenging dichotomy between his behaviour and reputation in Australia, where he is loathed, and in New Zealand where he has been little researched, but where he holds ?saint-like? status.

No Description

This compact history reveals the colourful and fascinating past of the Kapiti Coast. This area of New Zealand, once both desired and fought over by Maori, was the focus of much missionary work and early European settlement from the mid 1800s.More manageable land and conditions that allowed for abundant food production drew early farmers from Wellington. As time passed, the beach settlements and relatively luxuriant climate provided by the shelter of Kapiti Island attracted holidaymakers and later commerce. The settlements dotted along the coast became thriving townships that in time were linked by rail, leading to enormous population growth. Kapiti Island itself enc... read more

On 19 February 1876, New Zealand became telegraphically linked to the world - it joined the international Victorian "internet". Contact with Sydney now took only seconds and London less than 24 hours. But unlike today when everybody is their own instant "telegraphist", in 1876 the system needed a small army of specially trained undersea cable operators. The Taming of Distance tells the story of those people - Englishmen, Australians and New Zealanders - who worked the cable, first from an isolated rural, coastal location near Nelson and later from Wellington central. But it is far from a narrow story of undersea telegraphy. It is set in the wider context of Brit... read more

Jack McCullough's diary, begun 100 years ago in 1908, records a period in New Zealand society beset with economic turmoil and war. McCullough was a political reformer - a pragmatic idealist who worked tirelessly to better the lives of his fellow citizens through protest, union and Arbitration Court activity in matters of industrial relations wages and employment conditions.