Domenico Felice Vaggioli. Translated from the Italian by John Crockett (ed.) 2010. [Storia della Nuova Zealanda a dei suoi abiatori. Vol 1, section 2.English] The Maori: a history of the earliest inhabitants of New Zealand. Edwin Mellen Press. 424 p.
Notes
Notes
Father Felice Vaggioli was a missionary priest for the Catholic Church in New Zealand between 1879 and 1887. IN 1880 he served at Gisborne, leaving there to return to Auckland, then in 1884 went to Coromandel till he left NZ. Putting aside his world view which was at odds with Darwin, he gave a very good account of the development of Maori society, natural history, and the effects of colonisation. He draws heavily on the works of Thomson, Richard Taylor, Fr. Servant and Hochstetter, but still shows a scholarly aptittude for the material and a personal Italian response, which makes for lively reading and particular insights. - for example, ... "the ordinary cloak was extremely useful for the Maori. It was made of flax, and shaped like a Reformed Franciscan friar's cloak" (p.108). He was fluent in several languages, including Maori.
Bibliographic details
[Storia della Nuova Zealanda a dei suoi abiatori. Vol 1, section 2.English] The Maori: a history of the earliest inhabitants of New Zealand
