This volume is the first of three that provides a complete review and inventory of New Zealand's entire living and fossil biodiversity. More than 220 New Zealand and overseas specialists have collaborated to produce the most comprehensive book of its kind in the world. Together, the three volumes will list every one of the 55,000-plus known species of New Zealand's animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms. These volumes are affiliated with Species 2000, an international scientific project with the long-term goal of enumerating all known species on Earth into one seamless list - the Catalogue of Life, a kind of online telephone directory. To date, only New Zealand has compiled a checklist of its entire biota. Approximately 52% of this country's species are endemic - found only in New Zealand's freshwater, marine, and land environments. We have a responsibility to the global community to preserve this unique heritage or taonga. But further than that, all of our species - including many of the naturalised aliens included in the survey - are important to New Zealand's economy, ecology, and well-being.
Written for the advanced high-school and tertiary-level reader, these volumes are also intended to be a kind of 'Cooks Tour' of the kingdoms and phyla of life that will, it is hoped, provide an appreciation of the wondrous diversity of nature.

Pages: 592

Dimensions: 210 x 280 mm

Publication Date: 14-08-2012

This lively survey tells the story of a major New Zealand city, the capital of Canterbury province and the South Island's largest metropolitan centre. Why was the city established in the middle of a swamp? What was it like to live in Christchurch in the 1850s, the 1870s or the 1940s? What has changed, what has disappeared, and what has survived from the past? Who were the people who made Christchurch what it is today? What makes Christchurch distinctive among New Zealand's cities? These and many other questions are answered in this highly readable account.

Pages: 192

Dimensions: 210 x 285 mm

This landmark publication draws together all that has ever been written about the role of freshwater fishes in the lives of early Maori. Species such as tuna (eels), kanakana (lamprey), inanga and kokopu were of high importance in the traditional diets of Maori, who were well aware of the places and seasons in which these fish could be harvested. Bob McDowall has made it his life's work to read every word ever written on the subject of Maori fisheries, from passing references in explorers' diaries, to the significant literary achievements of Elsdon Best and Te Rangi Hiroa in the 1920s, to the recent reports of the Waitangi Tribunal. In Ikawai , all the knowledge on record is connected into a coherent account for the first time, and interpreted in the light of modern scientific knowledge of the fish fauna. As well as being highly informative, Ikawai also serves to illustrate the beauty associated with Maori fisheries. Bob has amassed an extraordinary collection of photographs of the fish themselves, of the artefacts Maori customarily used in catching fish, and of artworks by modern Maori practitioners, some reflecting the many legends and stories associated with fish. He has also unearthed some stunning and highly significant historical images that were hidden away in archives, libraries and photographic collections. This compendium is an essential resource for anyone interested in the lives and livelihood of New Zealand's earliest settlers

Pages: 832

Dimensions: 190 x 258 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2011

This volume is the third in the trilogy that provides a review and inventory of New Zealand's entire living and fossil biodiversity - an international effort involving more than 220 New Zealand and overseas specialists and the most comprehensive of its kind in the world. Together, the three volumes list every one of almost 55,000 known species of New Zealand's animals, plants, and micro-organisms. These volumes are affiliated with Species 2000, and international scientific project with the long-term goal of enumerating all described species on Earth into one seamless list - the Catalogue of Life, a kind of online biological telephone directory.

Pages: 616

Publication Date: 01-10-2011

One in 13 of New Zealand's native plants is now threatened with extinction. Six species have already, like the moa and the huia, gone for ever. This beautifully illustrated book combines precise botanical descriptions with lavish photography in describing 189 species officially designated by conservationists as extinct or threatened.

Pages: 450

Publication Date: 01-12-2009

Harry Evison re-examines New Zealand colonial history in the light of a number of original documents, particularly the ten Ngai Tahu deeds by which the Crown acquired Maori title to the southern half of New Zealand from 1844 to 1864.

A unique feature of the book is its handsome colour reproductions of these deeds and their plans, published here for the first time.

During intensive research in the Crown deeds archive, the author compiled transcripts and commentaries on the Ngai Tahu deeds and associated documents, which are included here to encourage readers to examine the images and make their own conclusions.

Sixteen chapters of text provide a fresh account of the period and the key people involved. They are written in the uncluttered style that won the author the 1994 New Zealand Book Award for Non-fiction for Te Wai Pounamu: The Greenstone Island.

Chapters on Maori aboriginal title and the impact of the Treaty of Waitangi and the Wakefield scheme, and the Maori policies of Governor Grey, challenge some popular assumptions about New Zealand history.

Besides the deeds documents, the author draws on original manuscripts such as private and official letters and journals, Native Land Court minutes, and royal commission testimonies. Thus the Maori voice is heard alongside the official voice.

The Ngai Tahu Deeds is intended as a manifesto for the scientific method, demonstrating the use of original primary sources to find out what probably happened in history

First published March 2006.
320 pages
290 x 210 mm

Pages: 320

Publication Date: 15-03-2006

George Jobberns was appointed to the first geography lectureship in New Zealand in 1937, at what is now the University of Canterbury. Five years later he became the country's first Professor of Geography. In an era when the accent for academics was more on teaching than research, Jobberns nevertheless published widely, including journal articles, encyclopaedia entries, popular articles and school textbooks. His Whitcombe's Regional Geography of the World, ran to six editions and was the entry point to geography for many secondary school and teachers' college students. This commemorative volume draws from his published and unpublished work on geopolitics, regional geography, and geography and geographers. First published June 2010.

Pages: 136

Dimensions: 152 x 228 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2010

The bodies of 29 men are still entombed in the collapsed Pike River mine, more than a year after the tragic explosion and fire of 19 Novem­ber 2010. What do their deaths mean for workplace health and safety? Is there a future for coalmining in this era of climate change? How has the Coast changed from the centre of radicalism it represented in the early 20th century? What is the way forward for a region that has felt betrayed by a succession of political decisions and developments over several decades? Playwright and film director Paul Maunder lives in Blackball, and was one of the first emergency respondents to Pike River, within minutes of the first explosion. He kept a diary, and has since been talking to locals and reflect­ing on the big issues at stake.

Pages: 144

Publication Date: 01-01-2012

The first of 2 volumes of a full-colour identification guide to 1500 species of marine invertebrate found around the coasts of New Zealand, this book is intended for divers and naturalists as well as professional scientists. Sections on each major taxonomic group - e.g. starfishes, crustaceans and molluscs - describe in plain language each animal's morphology, habitat, abundance, distribution, depth range and commercial importance, and introduce and scientific literature. More than 2500 illustrations include colour photos by New Zealand's best underwater photographers, and hundreds of line drawings for extra anatomical detail. Also included are references, a compehensive glossary, a full index and a general introduction. Quite the largest and most comprehensive zoological book ever published in New Aealand, it provides access to a tremendous volume of material hitherto buried in the scientific literature.

Pages: 632

Dimensions: 216 x 286 mm

Publication Date: 01-11-2009

The Boxing Day Riot of 1879 when a parade of Orange Lodge members was attacked by a mob of Irish Catholic navvies swinging axe-handles, a slander case involving one of the city's richest merchants, the famous Severed Hand Mystery of 1885 ... Following on from his first volume, Christchurch Crimes 1850-1875: SCandal and Skulduggery in Port and Town, historian Geoffrey Rice presents another fascinating collection of Christchurch crimes and scandals drawn from nineteenth-century newspaper court reports, this time covering the later Victorian period from 1876-1899.
We meet some of the city's most notoirous citizens of the period, such as the photographer Eden George, and the preacher-fraudster Arthur Bently Worthington, who caused the one and only reading of the Riot Act in Christchurch. The Opawa axe murder of 1897 includes a rare photograph of the body.
Magistrates and judges had to deal with a procession of society's law-breakers passing through their courts, from apologetic drunks and brazen prostitutes, shifty forgers and brutal thugs, rapists and arsonists, bigamists and embezzlers to desperate women charged with manslaughter or murder. The defence lawyers were often faced with a difficult task, yet Christchurch in this period had several highly skilled courtroom lawyers who knew how to persuade a jury.
The author's easy-to-read story-telling style and genuine enthusiasm for and knowledge of his subject bring to life another rich, colourful and intriguing chapter from the city's past.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 260

Publication Date: 20-11-2013