WHO WAS WHO IN NEW ZEALAND

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 14 September 1940, Page 7 (Supplement)

WHO WAS WHO IN NEW ZEALAND

<S> — ♦ Books In Review

IT is" trite but true that the "Dictionary of New Zealand Biography" fills a long-felt need. Almost everyone, at some time, has wanted precise information about some man or woman, prominent or even famous in their day, and often has been surprised and annoyed to discover how difficult it is to come by the facto for which he is looking. Newspaper men and others whose work is concerned with "men and affairs" have long since become inured to the tedious tades of searching for names and dates and other facta associated with personalities; but that task will be lighter in future. The "Dictionary" contains more than two thousand biographies of persons, pakeha and Maori, who in the first century of New Zealand's history have been in some way prominent. The compilation of so many biographies, which occupy two large volumes, has obviously involved much work over many years. In fact, the editor, Dr. G. H. Scholefield, the Parliamentary Librarian, has been preparing the "Dictionary" at intervals for more than thirty years. He entered upon it as a private venture, but the National Historical Committee decided that it should be one of the official Centennial publications, and it is undoubtedly destined to remain the most-used of all the books for which the Centennial year provided the appropriate occasion. The biographies include those of some ' of the Maoris and of pakeha settlers who -i had disappeared before New Zealand became a colony. It includes also some who were not in any sense New Zealanders, but whose names are remembered, for excellent reasons, in association with New Zealand. Thus Captain Cook is included, though not Tasman. It includes such a man as the Mackenzie

whose name is commemorated in the Mackenzie Country. The last biography, among the addenda, is that of Michael Joseph Savage. Dr. Scholefield has not attempted "to evaluate the personality and services" of kit subjects, bat it if interesting to note those to whom the longest references have been made. Thus Grey and Vogel are given 7J pages each, Stafford and E. G. Wakefield s}, Fox 5, Dillon Bell, Te Bauparaha, Seddon and Waterhouse 4}, Ballance, Te Hauhau, Stout, Te Waharoa and Ward 4. But particulars of most of these best-known figures of the past have not been difficult to obtain; and perhaps most valuable work done by Dr. Scholefield has been in retrieving lesser-known men from obscurity. The Maori biographies, too, represent a long advance on anything hitherto published.