Edward Tregear's Fairy tales and folk-lore of New Zealand and the South Seas (1891) was the first children's book published in New Zealand. It was aimed at New Zealand children rather than an English audience. Tregear was an amateur ethnologist, well versed in scholarly European writing on myths and legends. His book does not cover the main Māori myths. Instead it concentrates on tales such as 'The fairy fisherman', a story about fairies teaching Māori to make fishing nets. This is Tregear in later life, relaxing in the garden with his wife Bessie and daughter Vera in the 1920s.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library
Reference:
1/2-030475-F
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
Add new comment