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Shortlisted for the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards
Shortlisted for the University of Melbourne-based Ernest Scott Prize for 2008
Named one of the NZ Listener's Best Books of 2007
This monumental work of scholarship is the first full biography of one of the key actors in the drama of 19th-century New Zealand land dealing. It will be an enormously valuable resource for future writers and researchers.
Donald McLean was born in Tiree in the Scottish Hebrides in 1820 and came to New Zealand in 1840. His first government appointment was to the Protectorate of Aborigines in 1843, and he was to have a major public role until his death in 1877, as Land Purchase Commissioner, Native Minister, and major landowner in his own right.
McLean was highly respected by Māori for his knowledge of te reo and respect for rank and protocol, and was closely involved in land dealings in the Taranaki and elsewhere that still have repercussions today. Highly regarded by politicians and settlers for his ability to get things done, he was also denounced after his death for having failed to open up the King Country to settlement.
'This is the life story of an extraordinarily tough, shrewd man, admirable, perhaps, but hardly likeable...This excellent book provides a detailed exposition of the issues, almost all around land, that rent New Zealand's 19th-century pioneer society.' — Gordon McLauchlan, NZ HERALD
After a period of secondary teaching, much of Ray Fargher's working life was spent as General Secretary of the Association of Teachers in Technical Institutes until retiring in 1986. He then spent the next four years chairing ministerial working parties advising on the reform of post-school vocational education and training, including the Probine-Fargher Report on The Organisation, Management and Funding of Continuing Education.
