One of the largest trees in the world, the kauri is a natural wonder and a New Zealand icon.

Its immense trunk has supplied timber for every conceivable use from Maori war canoes to modern European homes.

Along the way, the industries that sprang up around it shaped national culture in ways that still echo today.

Today the last remaining stands of kauri forest are preserved carefully, a must-see for locals and visitors alike.

From commodity for exploitation to object of awe, the kauri and its story lie at the heart of New Zealand's own story, which is vividly brought to life in Joanna Orsin's book.

'Kauri: Witness to a Nation's History' takes us back to the tree's ancient originals.

We read about Maori myth surrounding the tree, and about the white-skinned mariners who sailed up to harvest timber for their own 'giant birds': the great naval ships of Europe.

The tree's presence looms over the colonial period and beyond, and is the very stuff from which the flagpoles at Waitangi were carved (as well as some of the country's fines architectual treasures and modern works of art).

The book charts the growth of the conservation movement, and presents the modern-day issues that affect the tree, such as Maori guardianship and tourism versus protection.

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THE STORY OF THE NEW ZEALAND GOLD RUSHES

This is a first - a thorough and carefully researched history of the gold rushes in New Zealand - and it establishes a benchmark for future work on the history of the gold rushes.

It's based on sound scholarship and aimed at the wide and growing general readership of those keen to know more about, and to weigh up, the history of New Zealand.

The style is clear, clean and lively.

The scope is the social history of the goldfields of colonial New Zealand, from the 1850s to the 1870s.

The book opens with a survey of worldwide rushes in the late eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries, when for the first time in history a great wheeling movement of gold diggers began to revolve from continent to continent.

The main body of the book looks at all the rushes, large and small, that took place in the colony: Coromandel, Golden Bay, Otago, Marlborough, the West Coast and Thames.

The early chapters of the main body survey rushes chronologically; the later chapters look at rushes thematically.

Beautifully illustrated with sketches and watercolours of the times, this is both a wonderful read and a beautiful gift book.

Prizes: Winner of PANZ Book Design Awards: Non-Illustrated Book 2009.

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The fifth New Zealand title in this internationally acclaimed series of compact, easy-to-use guides which is the ideal car glovebox, pocket or backpack reference for anyone with an interest in natural history.

A Photographic Guide to New Zealand Seashells covers 165 common and a few rarer species of molluscs one is most likely to encounter on New Zealand seashores.

Each is treated with colour photographs - sometimes including the live creature - plus descriptive information including reproduction, habitat notes and distribution maps.

A comprehensive introduction gives an overview of the range of molluses and their distribution and identification.

Author Biography:
Margaret Morley is both a Research Associate and a volunteer at Aukland Museum. She has spent many years collecting, studying and documenting seashells, and has combined her knowledge with the outstanding photographic abilities of Iain Anderson, an experienced underwater photogrpher, to produce this useful, colourful and informative guide.

Two titles continue this well-known series: A Photographic Guide to Trees of New Zealand, written and photographed by Lawrie Metcalf, and A Photographic Guide to Birds of New Zealand, written and photographed by Geoff Moon.

In A Photographic Guide to Trees of New Zealand, fact-filled descriptions highlighting key identification features of New Zealand trees are supported by distribution maps and one or more full colour photographs of each of over 100 species.

Compact and easy to use, these new books are ideal for anyone with an active interest in natural history.


Author Biography:
Lawrie Metcalf is one of New Zealand's foremost authorities on New Zealand flora.

For 22 years he was the Assistant Director of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens and since his retirement in 1992, he has written and photographed some half dozen comprehensive gardening guides.

Fancy a barefoot sand dune safari at Te Paki?

Ever wanted to explore the heritage building where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed? Or spot the world's smallest dolphin?

Whether you prefer a leisurely ramble through local museums, glow-worm caves or country churches, or if you'd rather hit the bike trails, scuba dive or lounge with the locals in the best pubs, Hidden Gems of Northland opens up a treasure chest of curiosities and activities to be discovered just north of Auckland.

Included are handy lists of the best things to do and see from Kaipara Harbour to Cape Reinga, the Far North and right around the East Cape.

Find out all about the geography, climate, forest and bird life of the area, as well as fascinating historical characters such as King Bill, Cannibal Jack and Opo the dolphin among others.

As well as this, the book is a handy guide to the best scenic reserves, hill-top views, beaches, dunes, wetlands, local attractions, campgrounds, scenic waterfalls and birding spots.

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A PHOTOGRAPHIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY

Renowned historian Michael King (1945-2004) presents a comprehensive and searching documentary of Maori culture and society, and Maori-Pakeha contact, conflict and co-operation.

From the earliest daguerreotype around 1852 to the strong protest images of the 1990s, King records and analyses changes and upheaval in the commentary that is always intelligent and objective.

This book leaves the reader with not only a better understanding of the past but a challenge for the future.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY: Michael King became New Zealand's leading writer on Maori history. Until his untimely death in 2004, he contributed a wealth of research and literature, including several biographies of influential Maori leaders, a prize-winning television series on Maori life and the bestselling The Penguin History of New Zealand. King was awarded an OBE for services to literature and, in 2003, the inaugural Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in non-fiction.

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This latest addition to New Holland's 'Top Spots' range takes the reader on a tour through more than 50 of the beauty spots and cultural must-sees of New Zealand's historic and photogenic north, including but not limited to:

beautiful bays and beaches, from tiny secluded coves to the monumental Ninety Mile Beach or pretty Baylys Beach;

magnificent headlands and peninsulas, including Cape Reinga, Aupouri, Tawharanui;

historic sites, including Waitangi, Russell and Kerikeri;

cultural attractions, from the Hundertwasser toilets at Kawakawa to the Matakohe Kauri Museum;

natural phenomena, from the marine reserve at Goat Island to Waipoua Forest (home of the giant kauri Tane Mahuta).


'Top Spots' titles are a great source of inspiration for family outings and make the perfect gift for visitors from farther afield.

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A concise and comprehensive guide to New Zealand fauna, providing information on over 250 commonly encountered species.

Including accessible text and distribution maps to help describe each animal, where it lives, what it's called and what it does.

Superb colour photography.

Suitable for travellers, tourists and students.

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Minnie Dean,the respectable ex-schoolmistress who was so proud of her garden.....did she use it as a graveyard and was she the merciless poisoner of legend?
Was Charles Clements fully sane when he butchered his wife with a tomahawk?
Did Hugh Sweeney,in fact,kill his mistress and set fire to her cottage to cover his crime?
These and other criimes are described in Hanlon:A Casebook,a selection of many of the famous cases,mainly murder,that were defended by Alfred Charles Hanlon.
In the latter years of the nineteenth century and in the first three decades of the the twentieth,Hanlon's name was a legend in law.
While carving out a one-man law practice from the entrenched partnerships of Otago's legal society,"Alf" Hanlon was to defend,usually with dramatic success,a great number of murder cases.Whatever the outcome,the cases described herein show the skill and originality that were to give Hanlon a place in New Zealand's legal history.

Gideon Tait was born in Wellington but raised in the godfearing,sometimes stern but often gentle atmosphere of rural central Otago and Southland in the 1920s.He first worked as a young farm labourer,a freezing-worker and a railwayman,but on turning twenty-one was able to fulfill his single minded ambition to become a policeman.
He was to become one of the most controversial as well as one of the most respected police officers in the history of the force.
Throughout his career he established a reputation as a police officer unflinchingly resolute in his campaign against lawbreaking - the hard line viewpoint he still adheres to in this book on his life.
It's a book full of the challenges and rewards he found in police work,with no punches pulled on many matters still of public concern.
Basically it's the story of a man who in everything he did kept to the conviction that meant most to him -
NEVER BACK DOWN.