History of New Zealand and its Inhabitants By Dom Felice Vaggioli

Translated by John Crockett

First Published 1896 First English Translation 2000

Published by University of Otago Press, black and white photos / illustrations

Card cover, 340 pages

Very good condition

Dom Felice Vaggioli (an Italian monk, and one of the first Benedictine priests to be sent to New Zealand in 1879) published this history in 1896. Drawing on first-hand accounts, he describes the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the Taranaki wars, the war in Waitkato. He also recorded details of the lives and customs of the Maori people he was evangelising and presents criticisms of both Protestantism and British Colonisation. This is the book's first translation into English.

The book is unique in another way. Most of the ltalian edition was destroyed at the beginning of the century, as its trenchant criticisms of colonialism embarrassed the British government; few copies of this original edition exist, This is the book’s second edition and its first translation into English.

CONTENTS The First Navigators of New Zealand Origins of New-Zealand Colonisation New Zealand in the Grips of Mayhem and Carnage Inter-tribal Warfare, Unrest and Uneasy Peace Political Unrest, the Catholic Mission New Zealand, a British Colony, Arrival of Immigrants Unrest Throughout the Country Protestant and Catholic Missions The Colony’s Material Development Savage Fighting Between the Two Races Continuation and End of War Colonial Religion Migration, Public Works and Debts Exploitation of the Natives