G. B. Earp–Handbook for Intending Emigrants to the Southern Settlements of New Zealand–(1849)

This publication reappeared as subsequent editions in 1850, 1851 and 1853. In the chapter on Nelson Earp speculated on the origin of the Boulder Bank and arrives at the conclusion that "the easiest, as well as perhaps the most probable solution is to refer it to the Deluge; or if New Zealand be of later origin, to the circumstances of general commotion which must have attended the elevation of the country, or the depression of the adjacent country from or below the waters.

The urgent need of extensive areas of flat land suitable for farming provided the incentive to send men to explore beyond the mountains which encircled the settlement of Nelson and its adjacent Waimea Plain. As early as January 1843 J. S. Cotterell and a party of settlers had reached Lake Rotoiti and climbed a peak in the St Arnaud Range, but their failure to find a suitable stock route to Canterbury did not deter others from undertaking explorations of the hinterland. Notable amongst these were Spooner, Heaphy, Fox and Brunner. The first reports of their early explorations appeared in the pages of The Examiner and later historians have found these reports fascinating material.