Major Frederick R. Stack
Views in the Province of Auckland, New Zealand
Dedicated by Special Permission to His Excellency Sir George Grey Governor of New Zealand. London: Day and Son Lithographers to the Queen [1862]. 4pp. of text, 6 hand-coloured plates of views of Auckland. (Plates cut-down without loss, and mounted, dedication and text mounted or window-mounted, some light soiling to mounts.) original paper wrappers mounted bound-in (wrappers soiled). Plates are mainly clean, the colour vibrant, Folio 605mm, bound in brown cloth with gilt titles front board. A very tidy copy of a rare item. Bagnall 5290
A rare series of views of Auckland. The fine plates are titled 1. View of Auckland Harbour ... Taken during the regatta of January 1862 (the race of the Maori war canoes;
2. View of Auckland ... from the crater of Mount Eden; 3. View of Auckland ... from the lake on the north shore; 4. View of the Firth of the Thames, Waitemata, Tamaki, and Gulf of Hauraki, from the Howick Ranges; 5. View of the Wairoa Creek (pheasant shooting on the estate of Alexander Kennedy..) on the road leading to the Wairoa Valley; 6. View from the ranges, overlooking the entrance to the Manukau Harbour, Auckland. The text comprises both topographical descriptions and some comment on the social life of the colony: it includes some original comments from Stack (‘Sir George Grey has lately purchased an island (the “”Kawau””) containing several thousand acres in the Gulf of Hauraki, about thirty miles from Auckland, and on it he intends turning loose the Red deer sent to him by the late Prince Consort’), also lengthy passages extracted from William Swainson’s New Zealand and its Colonization (London: 1859]. Hocken p.221. [Ellis, 624-629]

Provenance: Estate of John Lawford.