Books on the history of Westland / Fiordland and the West Coast people and places.
Regional local history.
The Story of Denniston, a coal mining township on the West Coast of New Zealand
mining, Westland, history
VG hardback in G+ dust jacket.
Jacket has some tape rust and edge wear. Name stamp to first page.
$35 C/B
J.W. Baty Ltd.1971 first edition, 168pp + plates.
[#5200 ]
An early tourist publication for the Westland District.
Includes information on travel distances, itineraries for travellers and fares for public transport providers.
Fully illustrated throughout with photographs.
Includes how to get to Hokitika from Christchurch or Nelson, and then day excursions from Hokitika.
Focuses on the Franz Joseph and Fox Glaciers as destinations.
Describes the Haast Pass route to South Westland.
G+ softback in paper wrappers with some edge wear and minor chipping. Back of the spine has lost a good deal of the paper but the sheets are holding well. Recent gift inscription to title page.
$45 C/A
New Zealand Government Department of Tourist and Health Resorts 1906, 53pp
[#3069 ]
Early guide-book printed in the Whitcombe and Tombs Dainty Booklet Series covers the Southern Alps and Westland, including the Hermitage, Copeland Pass, Mount Cook, the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. Illustrated with photographs. Gives good information on the scenery to be encountered during a tour of the region.
Dainty Booklet Series 16.
G+ softback, sewn sheets in paper wrapper with small hole worn into cover.
$35 A/A
Whitcombe and Tombs undated (c.1910)
[#3068 ]
A history of Dusky Bay in south-west Fiordland, where Cook and his men spent five weeks in 1773.
Frequented by whalers, sealers, sailors and others since.
Includes Richard Henry, the ornithologist and conservationist of Resolution Island, saviour of the kakapo.
Some colour photos.
VG hardback in VG dust jacket.
$50 B/C
Whitcombe and Tombs 1968 REVISED EDITION, 240pp + plates.
[#3038 ]
Based on research into the account written by the well educated Englishman, Boultbee, who turned his hand to sealing, this is a full scale history of the sealing trade out of Hobart Town in the 1820s. Includes dealings with the Southland chiefs of Murihiku.
ISBN0723306044
VG+ hardback in VG+ dust jacket
$55 B/C
Whitcombe and Tombs 1979 FIRST EDITION, 329pp + plates.
[#3040, 3995 ]
G+ hardback in VG- dust jacket, the free endpapers at front and back have been removed.
$30 B/C
Whitcombe and Tombs 1979 FIRST EDITION, 329pp + plates.
[#3040B ]
Published for the Westland Centenary in 1976. A history of the settlement and development of the West Coast and it's industries and personalities. With many historic photos.
Jackson's Bay, Westport, Arthur's Pass, Otira, Bealey, railway, Greymouth
VG softback
$30 C/B
Westland County Council with Pegasus Press 1977, 168p.
[#3471]
A scarce history of the Chinese who came to the West Coast of New Zealand during the gold-rush in the late 1860's and later.
Describes the experiences and contributions they made as gold-miners, merchants, cooks, market gardeners, and even as missionaries, to the West Coast's history and development.
Accounts of Chinese women, inter-cultural marriages and the achievements of individual Chinese.
ISBN 9780473155469
westland, china, chinese, chinese kiwis
VG+ softback
$75 B/C
Shantytown (West Coast Historical & Mechanical Society Inc.) 2009 first edition, 294pp.
[#5523 ]
VG hardback in VG dust jacket. White-out to end paper.
$20 B/C
Whitcoulls 1981, 80 pages. [#3258]
VG hardback in VG dust jacket
$15 B/C
Whitcoulls 1981, October reprint, 80 pages. [#2615]
Denniston 1893-1943
Gives the history of the activities and membership of this West Coast Freemasonic Lodge.
Masonic Lodge, westland
VG+ stapled card wrappers.
$45 C/A
A G Betts and Son Ltd (1943), 52pp.
[#4831 ]
William James O'Leary (1865-1947) was a prospector for gold and other minerals in Otago and Westland, making new tracks in unexplored areas. His astonishing endurance, tenacity, and eccentricity captured the imagination of those who met and knew him, and those who have only heard his legend. Denis Glover immortalised him in his famous poem Arawata Bill . This new edition includes information that has only recently come to light.
ISBN9780908988150
VG softback
$25 B/B
Exisle publishing 2005 New Revised edition, 196pp.
[#3407 ]
From the time of the Maori, early surveyors and runholders, to the townships that sprung up during the Preservation goldrush.
Milford Sound, Preservation inlet, Reischek, Richard Henry, Mackinnon
VG hardback in VG dust jacket.
THIS COPY SIGNED BY AUTHOR TO TITLE PAGE
$55 C/C
Reed 1968 first edition, 199pp+ plates.
[#5586 ]
An illustrated history of the pioneering explorers in New Zealand's Fiordland, location of the earliest European settlement and the realm of Moa and Lost Tribes.
ISBN 0589009737
Doubtful Sound, Dusky Sound, Preservation Inlet, Acheron Survey, Martins Bay, Wreck of the Waikare, Gold rush, Milford Sound, Richard Henry of Resolution Island, Donald Sutherland the hermit of Milford Sound
VG hardback in VG dust jacket.
THIS COPY SIGNED BY AUTHOR TO TITLE PAGE
$65 B/C
Reed 1976 first edition, 148pp.
[#5581 ]
An illustrated history of New Zealand's Deep South.
ISBN 0589012568
Southland, Foveaux Strait, Acheron surveyTuhawaiki, Bloody Jack, Bluff, Wohlers, Kelly of Inverkelly, whaling, whalers, Invercargill
VG hardback in VG dust jacket. Jacket has tape staining on reverse of jacket which shows through faintly.
THIS COPY SIGNED BY AUTHOR TO TITLE PAGE
$65 B/C
Reed1979 first edition, 165pp.
[#5582 ]
The political, social and economic history of Westland, with an account of pre-European Maori history on the Coast, and the earliest Pakeha explorers. The Gold Rush and growth of Hokitika as the service centre for the gold-fields.
VG cloth hardback with no dust jacket
$45 C/B
Whitcombe and Tombs 1923, 187pp + plates.
[#3066 ]
A survey of the colonisation and development of the Grey County on the West Coast. Includes details and statistics in relation to the Gold Rush, Coal Mining, development of infrastructure and the railways.
VG+ softback
$45 C/A
Greymouth Evening Star Print, 1960, 80pp.[#2937 history, westland ]
The memoirs of a West Coast teamster in the days when New Zealand was built through hard-slog and a team of good horses. Includes the Nelson region also.
VG hardback in VG dust jacket with light wear.
$40 C/C
Reed 1961 first edition, 190pp + plates.[#1856, 3388 ]
Westland, Waitahu Sawmill, Newman Brothers, Takaka, Murchison, Teamster
Stories and historical anecdotes about the West Coast and it's remarkable people.
westland, coasters, history
G+ hardback with soiled cloth, no dust jacket, light aging
$8 C/B
Whitcombe and Tombs 1960 cloth, 158pp.
[#4896 ]
VG hardback in G+ dust jacket, gift inscription to fep, jacket rubbed to edges with some tears along folds.
$10 C/B
Whitcombe and Tombs 1959 cloth, 158pp.
[#1763 ]
An autobiography by Leonard John Kearton Holmes, F.N.Z.I.S.
Len was raised on the West Coast and had a career as a surveyor, and his company Cowan and Holmes helped develop the Coast infrastructure.
The Surveyors Monument Reserve at Kakapotahi has a memorial to him.
ISBN0473046083
Kaiata, hunting, Savage Club, Survey Board, Reid Cowan, Len Holmes, Westland, Fox Glacier
VG hardback in VG dust jacket, name to first page.
$65 C/C
Ann Holmes 1997 first edition, 231pp.
[#3674 ]
A mix of history and the author's thoughts on abandoned Fiordland settlements near Milford and Waihuna.
ISBN034017739X
Big Bay, South Westland
VG hardback in VG dust jacket
$25 C/C
Hodder 1979 first edition, 152pp + plates.
[#2741 ]
Deep Cove and the area between Manapouri and Doubtful Sound.
South Westland, Fiordland, history
VG hardback with VG dust jacket $35 C/C Whitcombe and Tombs 1966 First edition cloth, 211pp + plates [#5605 ]
VG- hardback with NO dust jacket $15 C/C Whitcombe and Tombs 1969 second edition cloth, 211pp + plates [#2976 ]
Centennial publication of New Zealands Westland province, home of coal and gold mining as well as forestry.
With lots of photos and advertisements.
official souvenir, Phil Ross May, mining, gold rush, Greymouth, Fenian uprising, coal mining, Hokitika, Grey River Hospital, Rotomanu, Reefton, Otira
VG- pictorial colour wrappers, rubbed to spine edges with short splits at ends, still fully attached etc.
$30 B/B
Westland Centennial Council 1960 First Edition, 176pp.
[#4692 ]
A 1993 record of the development of Greymouth and district and some of the activities and achievements of its citizens, councils and community organisations.
ISBN0473023679
VG softback, signed to first page 'Best regards' with a squiggle. Stapled above this is Tony Kokshoorn's business card as Mayor
$30 B/C
Greymouth Evening Star 1993. 160pp. [#2908 regional history, west coast ]
The history of Westland including Maori, Captain Cook, Brunner, Heaphy, Gold fever.
Published for Westland Centennial
VG hardback with original green cloth with gilt to upper board, in Good+ dust jacket with some wear and soiling.
$75 C/B
Whitcombe & Tombs 1939 first edition, 258 pages plus Roll of Honour memorial to rear.
[#2481 ]
Six essays on socio-political aspects of Westland.
Includes the politics of the railway Midland Line, and friction over conscription of Coalminers during the First World War.
ISBN0900392215
mining, west coast, socialism, Seddon, politics
VG hardback in VG dust jacket.
$25 C/C
Whitcoulls 1975 first edition, 174 pp + plates.
[#3646 ]
VG hardback in VG dust jacket, gift inscription at front.
$25 C/C
Whitcoulls 1975 first edition, 174 pp + plates.
[#4973 ]
The definitive history of the nineteenth century Westland gold boom and the subsequent expansion of the communities with the influx of miners , their families, and the merchants and publicans needed to supply them.
westland, 19th century, gold mining
VG hardback in G+ dust jacket with some wear, tears and minor edge chips.
$75 C/C
Pegasus Press 1962 first edition, 588pp + plates.
[#4966 ]
The definitive history of the nineteenth century Westland gold boom and the subsequent expansion of the communities with the influx of miners , their families, and the merchants and publicans needed to supply them.
westland, 19th century, gold mining
VG hardback in VG- dust jacket with some minor wear and one tape repaired chip to corner.
$75 C/C
Pegasus Press 1967, revised second edition, 560pp + plates.
[#4967 ]
On 8 March 1868 a priest and an editor led a mock funeral of Irish miners into Hokitika cemetery to plant a Celtic cross honouring the 'Manchester martyrs', three Fenians hanged in Britain the previous November.
The procession confirmed the worst fears of the British authorities, that Fenian agitation to free Ireland had been imported into New Zealand. News that a Fenian had shot the Duke of Edinburgh in Sydney threw the Government into a panic. The procession's ring-leaders were arrested on charges of inciting riot and publishing seditious libel and troops were sent in to help local volunteer militia maintain law and order.
The Irish made up a good quarter of the 26,000 miners on the lest Coast goldfields, and they were certainly among the most riotously visible in the numerous pubs and casinos where the drink was cheap and the dance floor girls were pretty. The Protestant merchants who ran these boom towns welcomed excessive profits but not adversarial politics. When loyalists returning from celebrating the Duke's survival in Westport were attacked by Irish miners at Addison's Flat, it looked as if the Irish had boiled over. The Hokitika authorities prepared for war.
From newspaper and official accounts, from coded Government cables and correspondence, and with a selection of fascinating illustrations, David McGill has recreated those stirring times when the West Coast was a powder keg of conflicting Ioyalties and the authorities seemed determined to ignite it.
The Lion and the Wolfhound also recounts the splendidly Iibellous and vitriolic newspaper war between the Celt and the West Coast Times and describes the Hokitika trial of the Fenians, who were defended by Australia's most famous criminal lawyer, the colourful R.D. Ireland.
The events of 1868 are set in the context of the Irish cause in New Zealand, both then and now. The legacy of those heady months remains, not least in the mythology of the Coast, where they still tell the story of the Battle of Addison's Flat and recall the days when gold brought to Westland a rollicking prosperity and romance never again seen in this country.
ISBN1869340191
VG softback.
$20 C/C
Grantham House 1990 first edition, 178pp. [#2753/3585 ]
Reefton / Inangahua, quartz mining, a full on personal and general history of the Waiuta area and the mining and miners. this is the original edition
Westland, West Coast
VG softback, paper covers over stapled pages.
$75 C/B
Privately published 196. First Edition,158pp
[#5624 ]
VG softback, paper covers over stapled pages, staples rusting.
This copy is signed at foot of title [best wishes | from | Ed C Chandler].
$95 C/B
Privately published 196. First Edition,158pp
[#5625 ]
Maud travelled through Arthur's Pass and Otira, through Hokitika and south to Haast, where she went inland to Lake Wanaka and hawea, visited Mt Aspiring, then back to Christchurch via the Lindis Pass and lakes Tekapo and Pukaki. She recounts the scenery as well as the people she met.
'This is the story of a ride - of a five weeks' wandering in the Back-blocks of a land still in the making - a land whose conditions, even to-day, are often primitive. Properly speaking, there is no story - only impressions, gathered in those wanderings: things I saw, things I heard, in isolated settlements, where the men and women, living face to face with Nature, seem to show a readier kindness; where the robuster virtues still thrive, and the heart of the race is young. Looking back now from under English skies, surrounded by sights and sounds of an English summer, it seems very far away: a land apart - a people who belong almost to another world. An enchanted land of cool, dim, forest aisles of lonely snow-peaks filling the end of some purple gorge: of rushing, hurrying streams: of untouched solitudes, where one goes all day long in wondering worship.'- Maud Moreland's preface.
travel, Matukituki, Franz Josef, Fox Glacier, Haast, mountaineering
VG- hardback with no dust jacket, free endpaper has been removed and there is some soiling or rubbing to the covers.
$45 C/C
Whitcombe and Tombs undated (1916) second edition, (xx) 219 (2)pp + plates and two folding maps.
[#3533 ]
Historic photography of the Westland mining community, including Waiuta, Blackwater Mine and Reefton
ISBN9781877448942
VG hardback with no dust jacket as published.
$35 B/C
B/C Steele Roberts Publishers 2010, first edition. 112 pp.
[#2249 ]
Scottish-born Charlie Douglas was one of the great early European explorers of New Zealand.
From 1867 to 1916 he recorded the geography and topography of South Westland, as well as its ecology and wildlife, at a time when this was largely unknown.
New, revised edition of Pascoe's 1957 classic.
One third details Douglas' life and the rest presents his journals and sketches.
ISBN 9780908812950
Fiordland, Southland, Westland, exploration, 19th century, Gerhard Mueller, Harper, Harris
VG softback, small pen gift inscription at head of first page.
$35 C/C
Canterbury University Press 2000 first printing of this edition, 320pp + plates.
[#5188 ]
The history of the Haast Pass and local areas, including Jackson Bay, Maori times, early settlers, the Haast road.
Surveyors, engineers and workmen.
VG hardback in VG- dust jacket with a small chip and a closed tear to rear panel.
$30 B/C
Reed 1966 first edition, 116pp + plates.
[#2713 ]
VG hardback in VG dust jacket. Name at top of title page.
$30 B/C
Reed 1968 reprint, 116pp + plates.
[#3744 ]
A look at Westland's Cascade River during the run of whitebait. A period of three months of whitebaiting and the characters camped out for seasons catch.
ISBN0723306168
South Westland, Cascade River, whitebait
VG hardback in G- dust jacket with a tape repaired tear to the front cover and some edge loss.
$20 B/B
Whitcoulls 1979 first edition, 126pp. [#2974]
VG hardback in VG dust jacket.
$30 B/B
Whitcoulls 1979 first edition, 126pp. [#3707]
A first hand account of the fishermen of New Zealands deepwater Fiords, by one who has spent several seasons working with them.
With black and white and colour photos.
ISBN9780589009380
Puysegur Point, Milford Sound, Catseye Bay, Dusky Bay, trawling, commercial fishing, George Burnby, Bruce McKay
VG hardback in VG- dust jacket with some minor wear and repaired edge tears
$35 C/C
Reed 1976 first edition, 118pp+ plates.
[#4175 ]
Land Use Capability Bulletin 4.
geology, ecology, conservation, westland, south island west coast, research
VG Quarter cloth hardback rubbed to edges of boards, with no jacket.
$30 B/C
National Water and Soil Conservation Organisation, Christchurch 1972, 53pp 18 photos + 6 folding maps in rear pocket
[#4448 ]
In words and photographs this lavish illustrated book traces the story of the Coast from its geological origins through Maori settlement, European exploration by Charles Heaphy, Thomas Brunner and others, the gold rushes, the coal industry and the emergence of railways., the rise of unionism, the effects of war and depression, the changing fortunes of forestry and the growth of conservation and tourism. ISBN9780790010229
VG+ softback
$35 B/C
Reed 2006 reprint, 184 pp. [#2711 ]
History of the West Coast Government founded and promoted settlement that foundered within the first ten years.
ISBN0589009192
VG hardback in VG dust jacket
$40 C/C
Reed 1976 first edition, 198pp. [#2960 ]
Belligerent Hokitika farmer Stan Graham refused to hand in his rifle for the war effort.
Later, combined with financial strain and arguments with his neighbours, he later shot and killed a total of seven people before being killed by an armed Home Guard search party.
Made into a film Bad Blood in 1981.
ISBN072330629X
true crime
VG+ hardback in VG dust jacket, some fading to red titling on the jacket spine.
$30 C/C
Whitcoulls 1979 first edition, 224pp illustrated.
[#4052]
Belligerent Hokitika farmer Stan Graham refused to hand in his rifle for the war effort.
Later, combined with financial strain and arguments with his neighbours, he later shot and killed a total of seven people before being killed by an armed Home Guard search party.
Made into a film in 1981.
ISBN0006349250
new zealand, true crime, west coast
VG softback
$15 A/A
Fontana/ Collins 1981, 224pp illustrated.
[#3987 H]