By Design - A Brief History of the Public Works Department - Ministry of Works 1870 - 1970

New Zealand Government Printers, Wellington. 1975. 1st edition. Hard-back. Good second-hand condition. Binding tight. Orange cloth with white title on spine. Dust-jacket sun-faded , otherwise intact.

In 1870 there were close parallels between New Zealand and Australia. Each consisted of isolated settlements round an extended coastline, with sea travel the only ready means of communication. Each area developed its own local government. In New Zealand a central government controlled finance but with bitter inter-provincial jealousies the country lacked unity.

Some hundred years ago Julius Vogel, the Colonial Treasurer, realised that the key to overall development lay in improved overland communications. To effect this, he established a central Public Works Department to build roads and railways between the settlements.

This book is the story of that department over its first hundred years.

- from the inside cover.