More writing on early New Zealand Books has been posted (read more). This time the period covered is 1843 to 1849. This is a period when there was an increasing flow of emigrants through the New Zealand Company, and the Company was active in publishing, or assisting publication of books and pamphlets on both the reasons for emigration, and the details of how to do it, what to take, how to purchase land, and what to expect. Writers such as Charles Hursthouse in New Plymouth provided first-hand accounts, with illustrations of pastoral scenes that would encourage emigration, and perhaps reduce fears of what was to come.

There is also a group of writers, including Walter Brodie, William Martin, and Samuel Brown who witnessed the establishment of Auckland, were close to Hobson, united in despising his acting successor Willoughby Shortland, and were predominantly traders and merchants, trying to establish business in the new colony.

The central figure in the literature of this time was Edward Gibbon Wakefield, still in London, but playing the critical role in the New Zealand Company’s efforts in emigration. Wakefield, with his writing and promotional skills, was also a central figure in the theories and economics of emigration and colonisation, this intimately tied with the contemporary conditions of the working and middles classes in England. Emigration was a way out.

The views of many of the writers on Māori are complex. Often problematic, but of their time in that they ranged from imperial bullying and dismissal to a close empathy and understanding. From afar, writers such as Chamerovzow in the Aborigines Protection Society, called attention to indigenous rights and justice.

The period also saw the production of two major illustrative works by George Angas and Samuel Brees, which have had a lasting influence on both the perception so New Zealand at the time, and the development of colonial art. Books such as those by Hursthouse and Power have very fine plates of colonial scenes, and Angas provides a more human picture of Māori, and a more authentic view of the landscape.

The literature continues to grow into the 1850s and beyond. The days of the calf bindings are falling away and the familiar green, brown, purple and blue embossed cloth covers are dominant in the London publishing houses cashing in on the emigration surge. Commercial publishing within the country is on the way.