Taken from inside cover:
This volume The Dictionary of New Zealand Biography records the lives of more than 600 people who first made their mark between 1870 and 1900.
Here are scientists and artists, town planners and conservationists, publicans and prohibitionists, goldminers, bankers, mayors, dressmakers, shopkeepers, 'rag planters' (newspaper founders), professors and labourers. Musicians, factory inspectors, governors and trade unionists rub shoulders with evangelists, well-sinkers, tourist guides and boxers. Confidence tricksters, highwaymen and murderers are part and parcel of the diverse past alongside judges, philanthropist brewers and other pillars of the community. While some were chosen for their standing on a national scale, others represent a locality, tribe, organisation or activity. Some are included because their lives, as well as the telling interesting stories, reveal significant aspects of their time.