"A unique visual record of one and a half centuries of new Zealand's history - her growth from colony to dominion, from her beginnings as a distant outpost of the Empire to a nation of Pakeha and Maori becoming increasingly part of the Pacific and Asian community. Over 280 photographs, maps and drawings have been selected from library, museum and private collections. Reproduced on a generous scale, with the astonishing technical quality of the early photographs preserved, and ranging through personalities and events in everyday and public life, they illuminate New Zealand's story as never before"--Taken from previous edition.