The Rock and the Sky. The Story of Rodney County. By H MABBETT

Hardcover, near fine condition, no inscriptions, dust jacket, unclipped, in easily removable plastic cover, closed tears and pieces missing from edges

Publisher: Wilson & Horton Auckland, 1977, First Edition, 490 pages, maps, colour and b/w illustrations. ISBN: 0868640182

"This book reflects the author's conviction that local history must be the story of people to be preserved for those who follow. In any case Rodney's battles have all been fought in foreign lands. Its victory on the home front is the conquest of the gumlands, its greatest achievement the preservation of, and public access to, its exquisite coastline. Harold Mabbett was born at Weber, Hawkes Bay, in 1900. About 1906 his family moved to Te Kuiti where he made many Maori school friends. He was only 13 when, on a school trip, he witnessed at the Orakau jubilee of 1914 the poignant handclasps of tattooed ex-warriors and the men they fought. He had 43 years' service with the Auckland Education Board, his first school being at Te Rore on the Waipa, living on the very spot occupied by General Cameron's headquarters in the Waikato War. He then served in Auckland. the Waikato again and North Auckland. In Rodney he was headmaster of both Warkworth and Wellsford District High Schools and has lived for 30 years in the county whose story he has written. He represented Wellsford Riding on the Rodney County Council for more than 13 years and his ward on the Education Board for eight.

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