The Battle of Waireka: An Anthology of Eye-Witness Accounts by Graeme Kenyon. SIGNED BY AUTHOR

The Battle of Waireka: An Anthology of Eye-Witness Accounts by Graeme Kenyon. SIGNED BY AUTHOR with gift inscription to previous owner.

Published by Lone Gull, NZ, 2018, First Edition. VERY SCARCE.

Hardback with laminated boards, bump on top corner, light foxing/marks to some pages, otherwise very good. 256 pages, illustrated.

On 28 March 1860 on the southern outskirts of New Plymouth the Battle of Waireka occurred. Three paramount chiefs along with a number of other Taranaki and Ngati Ruanui warriors were killed. The somewhat confused actions of the British military have been debated ever since. What began as an attempt to understand the role of his ancestors in the battle lead the author on an amazing journey of discovery. It was evident that there were major contradictions between the writings of early historians and more recent interpretations of what happened on that afternoon. To find out what really happened there seemed to be no choice but to go back to the first-hand sources and gather every contemporary news item, diary, letter and official report left to us by people who were there at the time. This material has been reproduced, in full and verbatim, in order to let these people speak for themselves. The author has provided some background material on each of the people who left us their stories - settlers, soldiers, sailors, wives, Government officials, journalists, missionaries and Maori - and assumes that they were all speaking the truth as they saw it. While acknowledging their inevitable lapses and bias, it has been possible to discover a narrative which explains what happened and accommodates all of the different eye-witness accounts. Comprising mainly primary source material, much of it never before published, the book will have long term value as a resource for students of New Zealand history, and a gold mine for anyone whose family is descended from the early New Plymouth pioneers.

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