LOCAL HISTORY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 892, 7 September 1956, Page 14

LOCAL HISTORY

THE AMURI, by W. J. Gardner; published by the Amuri County Council, with the aid re the Canterbury Centennial (Association, 30/-. A HISTORIAN is surely entitled to follow the line of research that yields the richest material and to concentrate on those aspects of his theme

which appeal most strongly to his personal interest. Mr. Gardner has chosen to devote most of his space, wisely, I think, to the Amuri’s settlement by pioneer graziers rather than become unduly involved in the inevitably pedestrian chronicles of the growth of. small townships or the progress of small farm settlement. The first or pastoral phase of colonisation was perhaps less important than the second, but for much the greater period covered by this history the Amuri’s progress was bound up inseparably with the fortunes of its runholders, many of whom became embroiled ‘in local politics, either from choice or the necessity for safeguarding their own interests. The boundaries of adjacent runs, the security or insecurity of tenures, the eradication of scab and the allocation of finance for roading, were all questions of vital importance to their welfare. Their station records and personal correspondence, relating not only to public affairs but also to matters more intimate and domestic, have provided the author with copious documentary sources, A stranger to the Amuri, ignorant of its geography, will have grounds for complaint that the maps reproduced in this book leave something to be desired; otherwise the illustrations are both profuse and well chosen. Mr. Gardner suffers from an addiction to footnotes, many of which might easily have been incorporated in the text, but apart from this small objection he has written a book which must rank very high among

loca] histories.

R. M.

Burdon