Diggers, hatters & whores : the story of the New Zealand gold rushes / Stevan Eldred-Grigg.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Gold fever -- Golden hems -- The stars of Orion -- Hurrah for gold digging! -- Wild West Coast -- Nigger and digger -- The digger's farewell -- Who were the diggers? -- Life and death on the diggings -- The yells and shrieks of the mob -- Women -- Chinese -- Yarns.

This is a first - a thorough and carefully researched history of the gold rushes in New Zealand - and it establishes a benchmark for future work on the history of the gold rushes. It's based on sound scholarship and aimed at the wide and growing general readership of those keen to know more about, and to weigh up, the history of New Zealand. The scope is the social history of the whole of the goldfields of the whole of colonial New Zealand from the 1850s to the 1870s. The early chapters of the main body will survey rushes chronologically. The later chapters look at rushes thematically. Beautifully illustrated with sketches and watercolours of the times.