Murihiku, a History of the South Island of New Zealand and the Islands adjacent and lying to the South, from 1642 to 1835

Abstract

THOSE who are personally acquainted with that prosperous and very up-to-date portion of His Majesty's Empire now known as the Dominion of New Zealand will find it difficult to realise that so recently as the year 1835 the Customs House authorities in London decided that whale oil imported from that country was liable to a duty of 26l. 12s. per tun, on the ground that it did not come from a British possession. So many stirring events, however, had already taken place in New Zealand at this date that it has required eleven years of research to enable Mr. McNab to recover from the “forgotten past” the materials for a history of the southern portion of the Dominion from the time of its discovery by Tasman in 1642 up to the year mentioned. The task has been an arduous one, involving the close study of rare works in English, Spanish, French, and Russian, and the examination of countless official documents and files of local newspapers. Information has been brought together from oevery quarter of the globe, and not the least interesting of the author's discoveries is that of a series of manuscript logs of early voyages, which he found in the library of the Essex Institute at Salem, Massachusetts. Murihiku, a History of the South Island of New Zealand and the Islands adjacent and lying to the South, from 1642 to 1835. By Robert McNab. Pp. xv + 499; with plates and charts. (Wellington, N.Z.: Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd., 1909.)