GRACE, Sir John Te Herekiekie. Tuwharetoa. The History of the Maori People of the Taupo District. Wellington, A. H. & A. W. Reed. [1959].
Royal 8vo. Original cloth with illustrated dust-wrappers retaining price of 42 shillings, map endpapers; pp. 567, plates after photographs; light marginal wear to wrappers, a little offsetting to endpapers; a very good copy of an uncommon book.
First edition, presentation copy with long and cordial signed inscription by the author to Sir Bernard Fergusson, 10th governor-general of New Zealand, dated 1963, on title-page. Grace was a Maori leader, politician, and researcher of his ancestral land and ethnic group. It took him 15 years to write this book, his monumental legacy.
Provenence: Fergusson was an early and strong advocate for greater knowledge and respect on the part of pākehā (European) New Zealanders for Māori language and tikanga. Fergusson was the first governor or governor-general to speak Māori since Governor George Grey (governor 1845-53), and a strong advocate for Maori culture (tikanga) and language.
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