Notes

A personalised history of the nation: the political battles, the social mores, disasters, crimes, tragedies and triumphs. The Maori chiefs sign the Treaty of Waitangi; Te Rauparaha captured; Government House razed to the ground; Thomas Brunner explores the West Coast; James McKenzie sent to jail; The first shots in the Land Wars; Gabriel Read's gold find; The battle of Orakau; Christchurch given a link to the sea (Lyttelton Tunnel); Rescuers watch helplessly as 131 die aboard the "Tararua"; Mount Tarawera explodes in a terrifying convulsion; Women get the vote; Arrest and execution of Minnie Dean; William Larnach shoots himself at Parliament House; New Zealanders off to their first foreign war; Wellington comes out to mourn King Dick; New Zealand becomes a Dominion; Scott departs on his fateful voyage to Antarctica; New Zealand goes to war against Germany; Disaster at White Island; The Anzacs at Gallipoli; The great prohibition battle; Talkies come to Auckland; Disastrous earthquake at Murchison; Phar Lap wins the Melbourne Cup; 256 die in Hawke's Bay earthquake; Depression riots spread through New Zealand; Miss Batten arrives in triumph; A nation mourns M. J. Savage; Manhunt on the West Coast; Two New Zealanders win VC in Crete; The battle for Monte Cassino; 41 die in department store inferno (Ballantyne's, Christchurch); Police clash with waterside workers; Hillary conquers Everest; Railway disaster on Christmas Eve kills 151; Trial of schoolgirl murderesses (Parker/Hulme case); Opo the gay dolphin; Don Clarke comes to the rescue; Devenport swims Cook Strait; Ferry "Wahine" sinks in Wellington Harbour; Air New Zealand jet crashes in Antarctica (Mount Erebus disaster); How Lange watched himself become Prime Minister.