"Prolix but occasionally shrewd statement on Maori-European relations ... Waitara and the King movement, co-existence of both peoples in various localities, with much on the problems of Raglan, the writer's district, and Wesleyan involvement in land purchases"--Bagnall.

"God's Messenger is a new biography of the North German missionary Rev. J. F. Riemenschneider, who settled in the Taranaki region in the first half of the nineteenth century. The book places him into the historical and social context, which not only illuminates his life and work, but throws new light on aspects of nineteenth century New Zealand history. The book outlines Riemenschneider’s upbringing in North Germany, his arrival in New Zealand and setting up of a missionary station in Taranaki, rifts between the missionary and his people, his exile from Taranaki and setting up in Otago." --Publisher.

Keith Sinclair's The Origins of the Maori Wars is a fascinating account of the Waitara purchase and the cause of war in Taranaki in 1860. The seeds of conflict were sown in the earliest days of European settlement in New Zealand, when colonists arrived to take up land for which they had paid before it had been procured. The King party, one of the earliest national movements among M&āori, reacted against this imperial expansion. The story of the developing crisis features good intentions, self-interest, obstinacy and miscalculations &– elements involved in the origins of many wars. Written over ten years, The Origins of the Maori Wars is a pioneering study that comes complete with scholarly apparatus, including maps, appendices, notes and an index. First published in 1957, The Origins of the Maori Wars quickly established itself as a classic of New Zealand historical scholarship. This is the second edition.