BOOKS: TRAVELS IN NEW ZELAND Ernst Dieffenbach Volumes one and two Pages 431 Pages 396 Excellent condition - dust jackets in great condition

Travels in New Zealand is one of the classic accounts of the settlement period in New Zealand history and ranks with Polack’s New Zealand and Thomson’s Story on New Zealand as primary source material in any good collection. Clearly and often racily written., Dieffenbach’s shrewd observations of the undeveloped country included fearless criticism of the undesirable aspects of colonisation. The boldness did little to endear him to his employers, the New Zealand Company, which retained his services for only one two-year term. Dieffenbach’s remarkable exploits and explorations in the North Island brought him into daily contact with the Maoris, among whom he moved freely and for whom he had a great admiration. He feared for them as European civilisation – and disease – spread rapidly. Travels in New Zealand included chapters on Maori speech and language which were the most important then published. This remarkable book is no dry-as-dust history; it is the well-written and very readable product of an intelligent mind. The publication of Travels in New Zealand did much to encourage emigration to the youngest British colony: Dieffenbach could fairly be credited with influencing some of the more simulating pioneers of the 1840’s.