55 Hard to Find Digital Vintage Books on Maori and New Zealand Colonization History

Maori & Early New Zealand Historical Archive – Digital Bundle

A curated collection of rare, foundational texts tracing the shaping of Aotearoa, the encounters between Māori and early European settlers, the development of missions and colonies, traditional whakapapa, mythological frameworks, and first-hand narratives of life in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

This bundle includes over 50 carefully sourced historical works: missionary journals, ethnographic studies, colonial government reports, folklore collections, travel narratives, and early anthropological works. While many of these texts reflect the worldview and biases of their era, they are also primary historical records and culturally significant reference points for understanding the intellectual, spiritual, and political landscape of early Aotearoa.

You’ll find works by Marsden, Selwyn, Elsdon Best, Percy Smith, Horatio Robley, and many others; letters from settlers and missionaries; traditional waiata and moteatea collections; mythological accounts; ethnological theorising; and documentation of pivotal conflicts, migrations, and tribal histories.

This is material often referenced in academic research, museum work, whakapapa tracing, and cultural heritage studies.
It is not modern commentary or reinterpretation — these are original historical voices.

What’s Included

A broad but cohesive range of themes:

• Early missionary encounters & cultural contact

• Colonial expansion, land surveying, and settlement narratives

• Traditional Māori cosmology, myth, carving, moko, and lore

• Tribal histories and oral traditions

• Letters and personal accounts from the frontier

• 19th-century anthropological and ethnological interpretations

Important Format Notes (PLEASE READ)

• These are digital reproductions of historical works.
• They are provided in PDF and eBook formats.
• Image clarity varies depending on the age and condition of original scans.
• Some are older scans with natural imperfections; they are for reading and research, not modern re-typesetting.

After completing your purchase, you will receive:
→ A private download link delivered automatically to your email.
(No physical books will be shipped.)

Why This Collection Matters

This bundle is for readers, researchers, whakapapa students, librarians, educators, historians, and anyone seeking to explore the cultural memory and documented legacy of Aotearoa — in the words of those who witnessed and shaped it.

It is also for those willing to engage these texts critically:
seeing not only the histories they preserve, but also the assumptions and ideologies they project.

Books Included

1. Among the Maoris or, Daybreak in New Zealand. A record of the labours of Samuel Marsden, Bishop Selwyn and others
2. An Account of New Zealand; and of the Formation and Progress of the Church Missionary Society's Mission in the Northern Island
   by the Rev. William Yate
3. An Account of the Settlements of the New Zealand Company
4. The Ancient History of the Maori, his Mythology and Traditions Vol 1
5. Colonial Surveying with a View to the Disposal of Waste Land
6. A Dark Chapter from New Zealand History by James Hawthorne - The book provides a detailed narrative of the brutal massacre that took place in Poverty Bay, 
7. An Earnest Address to New Zealand Colonists, with Reference to Their Intercourse with the Native Inhabitants 1867
8. East Coast (N.Z.) historical records Gisborne New Zealand, 1932. Compiled by Bishop William L Williams.
   
9. Folk tales of the Maori by A A Grace
10. Annals of the diocese of New Zealand [compiled from missionaries' letters 1847
    
11. The British colonization of New Zealand
12. Chronological list of some noteworthy events in the history of New Zealand health services
13. Glimpses of Maori-land / by Annie R. Butler.
14. Hawaiki Original Home of the Maori by Percy Smith
15. Information Relative to New-Zealand Compiled for the Use of Colonists
16. Information Respecting the Settlement of New Plymouth, in New Zealand,
17. Ko nga moteatea, me nga hakirara o nga Maori he mea kohikohi mai 1853
18. Latest information from the settlement of New Plymouth, on the coast of Taranake, New Zealand.
19. Letters from Canterbury, New Zealand; with a Map of the Province, .
20. Letters from Settlers & Labouring Emigrants in the New Zealand Company's
21. Maori and Polynesian, their origin, history, and culture
22. Maori Lore by James Izzett
23. Maori tales and legends. Collected and retold
24. Maori_Tatu_and_Moko
25. Mythopoetic Maori by Elsdon Best
26. Narrative of a residence in various parts of New Zealand, together with a description of the present state of the Company's settlements
27. Narrative of a Voyage to New Zealand, Performed in the Years 1814 to 1815, in Company with the Rev. Samuel Marsden, Vol. 1 
28. New Zealand and its aborigines 1845
29. New Zealand and the New Zealand Company being a consideration of how far their interests are similar
30. New Zealand being a narrative of travels and adventures during a residence in that country between the years 1831 and 1837
31. Poenamo sketches of the early days of New Zealand romance and reality of antipodean life in the infancy of a new colony
32. Polynesia a history of the South Sea islands, including New Zealand
33. Polynesian mythology and ancient traditional history of the New Zealand
34. Pounamu, Notes on New Zealand Greenstone ; Author, Horatio Gordon Robley
35. Reasons for Promoting the Cultivation of the New Zealand Flax
36. Savage Life And Scenes In Australia And New Zealand Vol.1 And 2
37. Some Account of New Zealand Particularly the Bay of Islands and Surrounding Country
38. South Island Maoris by Canon Stack
39. Spiritual and Mental Concepts of the Maori by Elsdon Best
40. Tangata Maori (Fiction) by Rolf Boldrewood
41. Te ika a maui = or, New Zealand and its inhabitants
42. Te Tohunga - The Ancient Legends and Traditions of The Maoris by W Dittmer
43. Ten Months Residence In New Zealand 1823
44. The Ancient Maori by George H Wilson
45. The art workmanship of the Maori race in New Zealand
46. The Aryan Maori BY Edward Tregear
47. The New Zealanders 1823
48. The six colonies of New Zealand
49. The stirring times of Te Rauparaha (chief of the Ngatitoa)
50. The story of Te Waharoa
51. The Lost Continent of Mu Book by James Churchward
    
52. Traditions and superstitions of the New Zealanders 1856
53. Traditions of the Maoris of the west coast
54. Tura and the Fairies & Over worlds and Tu
55. Waikare-moana by Elsdon Best