HISTORICAL RESEARCH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1939, Page 8

HISTORICAL RESEARCH

WORK OF MR E. RAMSDEN

FORMER MASTERTON MAN.

A visitor to Masterton today is Mr Eric Ramsden, of Sydney, who commenced his training for newspaper work cn the “Wairarapa Age" and since has filled responsible positions in Australia.

The purpose of Mr Ramsden's visit to New Zealand is to complete the firs! biography of James Busby, who was British Resident at the Bay of Islands from 1833 to 1840. The biography will bo published in Australia in June, and should throw interesting light on early colonial ■ history. The introduction to the biography will be written by Professor 11. Buck (Te Rangihiroa). who performed a similar courtesy for Mr Ramsden when he wrote "Marsden and the Missions; Prehide to Waitangi."

After leaving Masterton, Mr Ramsden will proceed to Napier, Rotorua and then to Auckland where he will study certain important papers in the Public Library. Following on his representations to the Prime Minister, there is now a possibility that a cairn may be erected at Waitangi to commemorate Busby’s memory. Busby. Said Mr Ramsden, was the man who actually drafted the Treaty of Waitangi, although he was never given any credit for it.