Mō te paetukutuku

What is Te Ara?

‘Te ara’ in Māori means ‘the pathway’. Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand offers many pathways to understanding New Zealand. It is a comprehensive guide to the country’s peoples, natural environment, history, culture, economy, institutions and society.

Te Ara consists of a series of themes, appearing progressively between 2005 and 2014:

New Zealand in Brief gives concise, up-to-date information and essential facts about New Zealand.

In addition there will be features on:

Māori Te Ara

An important feature of Te Ara is its Māori content. The Māori perspective is presented with each theme, and entries with substantial Māori content are available in the Māori language.

1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

This was New Zealand’s last official encyclopedia. It is published here in full, with all the original drawings, maps and photographs. The information has not been updated or corrected, but we have incorporated the corrigenda published with the original three volumes.

The editor of the encyclopedia was New Zealand’s parliamentary historian, Dr Alexander Hare McLintock. He and his team of two, with 359 other contributors, compiled over 1,800 general articles and 900 biographies.

The content was presented in alphabetical order, with some subjects grouped under broader headings, such as ‘Defence’ or ‘Education’. We have broken down many of these into smaller topics.

In 1966 the world looked rather different. Some issues which today have revealed their complexity were then regarded as clear cut. Others which received extensive treatment are no longer of burning interest. New discoveries have made some of the encyclopedia’s factual information outdated, and some articles seem old fashioned as we gain new perspectives on the world. Nevertheless it is a mine of useful information, and a fascinating opportunity to travel back in time and experience a state-of-the-art encyclopedia from the mid-20th century.

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography

All of the biographies from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography have been included in the Te Ara biographies section of the website. This includes all biographies published in print between 1990 and 2000, and in the parallel Maori-language series, Nga Tangata Taumata Rau. New biographies have also been added. Read more about Te Ara biographies.