Aotearoa New Zealand is renowned among biologists worldwide for spectacular ecological restoration work over the last 50 years, through advances in pest eradication and native species translocation. This book documents the development of these world-leading technologies. It uses examples from throughout the country, but has a special focus on one island group – the Mercury islands off Coromandel, of which Ahuahu (Great Mercury Island) is the largest. The story is told through the eyes of pioneer conservation biologist David Towns, who was there from the start. It is a story of triumphs and setbacks, of opportunity and innovation, of teamwork and emerging bicultural collaboration. Today, all seven islands of the Mercury group are free of mammalian pests, providing a haven to native plants and animals. This book is the story of how that was made possible.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 384

Dimensions: 210 x 280 x 15 mm

Publication Date: 16-01-2023

The Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti) is the founding document of our national identity. Traditionally understood as conveying full sovereignty to the Crown, today it is viewed as creating some form of co-sovereign partnership. Which is correct? If we are to ‘Honour the Treaty,’ we must first understand it. To promote an incorrect reading is to dishonour the Treaty. To write the wrong interpretation into a national Constitution would be an enduring mistake. This book examines the Treaty in its historical context relative to the Declaration of Independence. It assesses the contextual use of the terms rangatiratanga and kāwanatanga in those documents, reviews the idealism and intent of the Treaty of Waitangi, reflects on how it was understood in 1840, and considers how and why it fell short in practical application. Having reviewed the impact of colonial policies, the book then presents an evidence-based challenge to modern ideas of co-sovereignty and partnership. Finally, it asks how we can honour the Treaty going forward in the way its signatories intended, as different cultures comprising one nation.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 214

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 07-11-2022

From a sole teacher to New Zealand’s largest school, Going the Distance tells the 100-year story of how a correspondence scheme, a “doubtful experiment” became the Department of Education’s Correspondence School and later through a series of remarkable transformations - Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, which now enrols more than 25,000 students a year and is the country’s largest Māori school. The Minister of Education, Chris Hipkins, has described Te Kura’s work with the country’s most vulnerable students as one of the great untold stories of the New Zealand education system. Back in 1922, the first teacher, Miss Janet MacKenzie, was expecting to enrol about 25 “backblocks”students, but such was the clamour for education that the numbers rocketed with 100 on the roll by the time lessons began. By the end of the year, there were almost 350 pupils, with every lesson, every correction, every letter to pupil and parent handwritten by the sole teacher. The book follows the school’s history through the appointments of several headmasters, all of whom were determined that the pupils should have a “real school”. They held exhibitions of students work (attended by many dignitaries of the day), formed a multitude of clubs, established a museum, built an extensive library, sent out teachers into isolated districts. These visiting teacher reached their remote pupils through an astonishing range of transport, including by dinghy, horseback and on gun carriers. Residential schools were also held every year where the “corrie kids” would spend a month with their schoolmates, who they got to know through the pages of their annual magazine, the Postman. A lot of the story is related by the pupils themselves in the prose and verse they contributed to the Postman, from 1928 to 2002. There are also many comments and descriptions of the school through annual reports, in speeches by Governors General, Prime Ministers from Michael Joseph Savage to David Lange, as well as Ministers of Education, and Government agencies. In the book’s foreword, the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, a former Te Kura student herself, says Going the Distance is not only a history of the school and the New Zealand education, but is also the story of how New Zealanders lived in times past, what they thought about, what was important to them, and even what they laughed about. And she says it tells how Te Kura has been called on in times of national crises, such as the devastating polio epidemics of the 1940s right up to providing its expertise in online learning during the COVID-19 global pandemic. For its first 60 years, the school was truly a national icon – a model of innovative educational programmes, a national broadcaster of educational programmes, and a provider of lessons to a broad range of students from early childhood to adults. However, the school’s fortunes begin to change dramatically in the 1980s. Its traditional base of remote children declined, and a new student profile began to dominate - students, alienated, often expelled, from their own school, often Māori, and most problematically, a type of student least suited to learn on their own through distance education. The school said it had been given a major social problem by government agencies without the additional resourcing needed to do the job, and was then criticised publicly by other branches of the government for failing to achieve the impossible. For many years the school struggled to find a solution, and it wasn’t until the appointment of the current CE Mike Hollings that the school – now Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu – has been able to tackle “the impossible”. In the words of the latest ERO report on Te Kura (December 2021), it has raised the achievement of the most vulnerable and “at risk” ākonga (student) and at a time when increasing numbers of rangatahi (young people) are falling out of the education system. Te Kura has been part of the education system in Aotearoa New Zealand for 100 years. Just as it was crucial in its early years, providing lessons to those unable to access schooling, today it is providing the opportunity to tens of thousands of students who would otherwise miss out on an education. Te Kura is just as relevant – and needed – all these years later.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 252

Dimensions: 210 x 298 mm

Publication Date: 30-09-2022

In 1990 those living on Chatham Islands/ Rekohu/ Wharekauri faced crisis. Annexed to New Zealand by a London proclamation, the Islands had experienced 150 years of New Zealand control. Years of muddlement, some good intentions, financial waste exploitation and theft, and failure to deliver democratic rights and basic infrastructure. The after-effects of Rogernomics had produced a government decision to “walk away”. Such infrastructure as existed would be abandoned, with the Islanders left to save themselves, or fail and leave. How could it have come to this? The first part of this book details the improbable constitutional history of the Islands to 1990. It includes gunship visits to enforce rule; support of Maori for Tohu, Te Whiti, and Parihaka pacifism; a revolt where the magistrate’s authority crumbled to nothing; and many more remarkable events. In 1990, Islanders rose to the challenge of their new independence from Wellington. Their independent community co-operative, the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust, soon flourished. Today it operates electricity, ports, shipping, and other companies; uses a portfolio of fishing quota to support on-Island fishers, and supports private Island businesses. The second part of this book tells how this was achieved. This book will be welcomed by those interested in these or any islands. Equally, those wanting to know more about the most curious parts of the history of government in Aotearoa New Zealand, or just all who enjoy a story of improbable success.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 380

Dimensions: 170 x 240 mm

Publication Date: 10-11-2022

Sandra Russell, a Registered Psychotherapist, who has been living with cancer for eight years, suggests that finding words for your personal story can allow such difficult emotionally-charged conversations to enter the public consciousness. In The Feeling of Cancer, Sandra explains why she believes understanding your feelings and your inner world is the key to getting through intensive treatment and living with the everyday reality of your own death. Even though close to half of us will now experience cancer in our lifetime, we talk about cancer as a biomedical event, of doctors, medical treatment and disease, but not an emotional event. Because we can’t always express the overwhelming emotional impact the feelings stay inside of us, hidden away. However, although it is a huge and painful process, being able to put into words the feelings around the trauma that comes with diagnosis and treatment, and also living with cancer as a chronic illness can help in managing a life-threatening diagnosis. Ultimately, if those of us living with cancer can put our emotional experience into words, we can encourage empathy and compassion along with a better of understanding of what it really feels like to live with cancer.

Bind: paperback

Dimensions: 152 x 229 mm

Publication Date: 01-02-2023

From his earliest childhood memories, author Kevin Tasker always wanted to be an “enginedriver”. Starting the job at Napier loco depot in 1960, a period of time when he was fortunate to have worked many steam operations between Gisborne and Woodville before the final fires were extinguished in June 1967. Following successive examinations, moving through though “C” and “B” rosters, Kevin finally moved to the top roster in 1986, running hot-shot freights and passenger jobs in the Bay on diesel-electric locomotives. While the diesel railway was the backbone of his employment, he opted to certify as a fireman and driver for steam excursions, with many of those operations recalled in detail. Of course, the operational railway included interesting moments and those retold include breakdowns, restructuring, single-man operation, fighting to stay awake, speed, track incidents, closure of the old depot, decline of the Gisborne line, and heading for retirement. Having retired, Kevin was asked to return for steam specials, but eventually ended up back working part-time, training-up and operating the latest DL class diesel electric locomotives. His 55-year career spans an interesting period of railway operation that makes a fascinating read.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 112

Dimensions: 210 x 280 mm

Publication Date: 25-11-2022

A modern board book designed for little hands and developing eyes to explore. Hello Farm features friendly high contrast animal graphics which capture baby’s attention and imagination. Sweet and simple text accompanies each graphic to aid cognitive development in babies and toddlers. Designed in NZ.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 150 x 150 mm

Publication Date: 20-11-2022

Created for babies 6+ months, this lift-the-flap book teaches cause and effect while engaging your baby's brain with rhythm and rhyme. Sharing a book with your baby is a perfect opportunity for bonding, cuddles and learning. Developing an understanding of cause and effect helps your baby learn that the world around them responds when they act. This gives your baby more control over their environment while helping to develop crucial communication and problem-solving skills. Rhythm and rhyme are critical to developing listening and speaking skills, which lay the foundation for reading and writing.

Bind: hardback

Pages: 14

Dimensions: 170 x 170 mm

Publication Date: 14-10-2022

If Mina Cucina doesn’t cook. There can be no accidents,” explained Spaghetti Giraffe. “And if there are no accidents no new animals can be born.” The under-cooker animals want babies. But Mina Cucina has given up cooking – it’s far too dangerous. Spaghetti Giraffe and the other under-cooker animals set about getting her to change her mind; with disastrous consequences. Meanwhile, Gorgon is trying to bake the perfect cake. He’s determined to enter the annual Confectionation – the biggest baking competition in the Bonbon Valley and beyond. When Mina Cucina renews her determination not to cook, Spaghetti Giraffe resigns himself to being childless. But is there another way to get the child he so desperately wants? Spaghetti Giraffe and the Chaos Cake is another warm-hearted story in the Spaghetti Giraffe series, featuring Spaghetti Giraffe and his quirky friends. The third book in the trilogy, the story is also a stand-alone novel.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 184

Dimensions: 130 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 14-11-2022

150 general knowledge crossword puzzles packaged in a stylish paperback - this is the perfect quiz crossword book for adults who like a serious challenge! Featuring over 3,000 difficult general knowledge quiz questions - the questions/clues are arranged on one page with 13 x 13 crossword grids on the opposite facing page, and answers/solutions are easily found in the back of the book. Printed in a highly portable format, the book can be taken on your travels or sit neatly on your bedside table.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 336

Dimensions: 129 x 198 mm

Publication Date: 31-03-2023