A PIONEER LOOKS BACK
Fewer and fewer are becoming those qualified to set down in writing for posterity first-hand recollections of the early pioneering days in New Zealand, and there is danger as further years roll by of the colony's initial history going unrecorded. Hence the value to the historian of the future of any book of authentic recollections of the nature of "Recollections and Reflections of an Old New Zealander," which has just been published by Messrs. A. H. and A. W. Reed, Dunedin and Wellington. The author is Mr. E. Maxwell, a real pioneer, and his recollections of Wellington, for instance, go back to a time when "Wadestown was just a small clearing in the forest, with, in all, five houses, all distant from each other." Petonc, as he first knew it, was "with the exception of a Maori pa and one or two small cottages clustered near the site of the present railway station, a waste of sand, shingle, rushes, etc." Apart from descriptions of the country in the early days of colonisation, this book of reminiscences contains descriptions of several notable wrecks, some interesting observations and stories about the Maori, and reflections on the penalties of material progress. A number of very interesting photographs help to recall the forgotten past and assist in completing a useful contribution to New Zealand's historical records.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/EP19351123.2.216.8
Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 30
Word Count
226A PIONEER LOOKS BACK Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 30
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