Excerpt from Historical Records of New Zealand, Vol. 1 The object sought to be attained by the publication of the "Historical Records" of New Zealand can best be understood by a perusal of the preface to the "Historical Records" of New South Wales, printed in this volume. The reason why the method is adopted of explaining one set of Records by quoting the preface to another is that this volume comprises almost exclusively those documents among the "Historical Records" of New South Wales which concern the Islands of New Zealand. Those belonging to the years prior to 1811 have been extracted from the printed, those after that date from the manuscript "Historical Records," lying in Sydney, which latter, by the kindness of the New South Wales Government, were put at the disposal of this country. The New South Wales sources are therefore our sources, their preface our preface. So clearly are the objects to be gained by the publication of the material and the sources from which it has been procured stated in the preface to the "Historical Records" of New South Wales, that the Editor sees no necessity to deal at any length with the task of justifying or explaining the publication of this volume. The documents, it may however be mentioned, are arranged in chronological order, and it is intended to continue the issue of fresh volumes from time to time as the material obtained justifies that course. Already a very large amount of additional material, sufficient to warrant the belief that another two years should see a second volume emerge from the printer's hands, is ready for the compositor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.