Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

[introduction]

page 423

This section of the Cyclopedia of New Zealand will necessarily have a large number of readers; not only surviving old colonists themselves and their descendants, but all who take a sympathetic interest in the early colonisation of the country. It has, therefore, been made as full as opportunity and circumstances will admit, though there is no pretence at covering the whole ground by mentioning every man who came, saw, and overcame the formidable obstacles that lay in his way as a pioneer colonist. The section merely deals with typical men concerning whose lives and labours the conductors have been able to obtain trustworthy information. Had this information been obtainable in all cases, many other early colonists who endured hardships, overcame difficulties, and achieved success would have been brought into the category. But even as it stands, the section gives most interesting glimpses into the characters and careers of men who lived the life and did the work of the early days, and made it possible for the people of the present to lead the lives they lead and do the work they do. Young men of the present day in need of stimulating tonics calculated to nerve them on to enterprise, endurance, and achievement, can hardly fail to find inspiration in these brief biographies.

Many prominent old colonists mentioned in other parts of this volume are not referred to in this section, because they are dealt with in articles which are classified under other headings. Some who reside, or who formerly resided, in the suburbs and adjacent districts, are grouped here with city men, partly for the sake of convenience, but chiefly on account of those associations and memories which tend to bring all old colonists together on a footing of fraternity.