Another piece on early New Zealand books has been posted (read more). This covers the main books published between 1856 and 1860. There some very worthy accounts here, from visitors, or those who settled only for a few years, with a heavy emphasis on recounting the history, and, perhaps for the first time, providing statistics and hard data.

This is noticeable in the major work of the period, that of Thomson’s The Story of New Zealand. This is a two volume history, the most comprehensive to date, and written by a medical officer in the army with an interest in disease and pandemics. There is also a strong Australian presence among the books, particularly in the work of Shaw and the naturalist George Bennett, who was a force across the Tasman, with only a glance at New Zealand.

There are two particularly entertaining books. One is by D’Ewes, a moneyed adventurer who voyaged out, carefully disassociating himself from the common emigrant, but who led a life of fraud and in the end, despair. The other is the account by the ship’s steward Henry Moon of the wreck of the Osprey at the mouth of the Herekino inlet, which the captain had mistaken for the Hokianga Harbour a few miles south. This account is excessive religious, but amongst the biblical allegory is a good tale.