The illegitimate baby of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, Tom Ryan and his family were banished from Ireland to the far ends of the earth: New Zealand. He went on to score the first points for the first All Blacks rugby team and have a huge influence on the development of tourism services in Taupo. He became a distinguished artist, creating rare sketches of the controversial Maori warrior Te Kooti, and he married the daughter of a Maori chief. He won one of the first inter-colonial yachting contests and became director of a mining company.

From the author of New Zealand By Foot and New Zealand Adventures By Rail, this is the remarkable story of Tom ‘Darby’ Ryan. Including photographs and Ryan’s own artworks, The Good Citizen paints a vivid and intimate portrait of early colonial New Zealand and the people who made up its society.