A decade of disasters : the Chatham Islands from 1866 to 1875 / compiled by Rhys Richards and Bill Carter.

"With notes on John Amery and 'Koche, King of Pitt'."

"John Amery wrote most of the newspaper articles in this compendium..."--P. [165].

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Chatham Island historians, Rhys Richards and Bill Carter, have compiled a book sourced almost entirely from the National Library's Papers Past website, the Library’s digitised newspaper collections. "A Decade of Disasters reads more like a novel and is based on the tumultuous times for the Chatham Islands from 1866 to 1875. It was also the first time New Zealand newspapers found them a source of interest," says Rhys Richards. Papers Past allowed us to easily source first hand accounts from the island correspondent of the Hawkes Bay Herald," says Bill Carter "More importantly, the mass of material enabled us to deduce from style and literary quotations who the man was who had written these reports." The book tells of the Māori and Moriori populations, drastically reduced by disease introduced from visiting ships, and a small group of sheep farmers, and what they had imposed on them by the New Zealand Government. A penal colony of about 200 troublesome East Coast Māori were held there without trial. The reports show they proved, however, to be industrious and well behaved, in marked contrast with the motley crew of military guards who spent most of their time drinking and playing cards, as well as stealing Government property. The book includes some of the first photographs taken by Samuel Barker in 1873, W H Rau in 1874 and Alfred Martin in 1877."--Publisher's description.