Stephenson Percy Smith (1840–1922) arrived in New Zealand as a boy, and in early 1858 travelled six hundred miles exploring the volcanic interior of North Island, including Taupo, Lake Tarawera and the Tongariro-Ruapehu area, returning via Rangitikei and Wanganui. He also witnessed the unrest caused by the rapid European encroachment on Maori lands. After retiring in 1900 from his career as a government surveyor, Smith devoted himself to the study of the Maori and co-founded the Polynesian Society, in whose journal this study originally appeared between 1899 and 1901. Reissued here in its enlarged second edition of 1910, it deals with the inter-tribal 'Musket Wars' of the early nineteenth century, when different Maori communities competed for territory shortly before European settlement began in earnest. Although Smith's interpretations do not meet modern scholarly standards, his pioneering work still provides fascinating insights into nineteenth-century Maori traditions and their colonial reception.
