On This Day in New Zealand

This books lists chronologically, by month and day, significant events that affected New Zealand and New Zealanders, but this is no mere shopping list of dates. Each entry is like a potted biography of how New Zealand developed as a nation and of the events that made the news at the time. It begins with pre-European times (when definite dates were known) and traverses the exploration years, the colonial period, the changing times of the 1890s and 1900s, both world wars and up to the present. It is a self-contained history of New Zealand based on dates. It covers the great affairs of state but also includes events that touched the lives of all New Zealanders - a political and a social history rolled into one. The book also includes a unique index based on dates rather than pages so the reader can quickly find items of interest.