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by John Featon (Author)
The author of this rare account of one of New Zealand's Maori wars is something of a man of mystery. John Featon certainly served in the New Zealand Artillery Volunteers in the 1860s, when the 1863/4 Waikato War was fought, and may also have been a journalist on the Daily Southern Cross newspaper in the 1870s. And that is almost all that is known of him - apart from the facts he assembled in this book, which he published in 1911. The narrative proudly concentrates on the deeds of the New Zealand Colonial Militia and Volunteers, rather than on the British regular Imperial Forces which bore the brunt of the fighting. Featon's original manuscript has been revised by Captain Gilbert Mair, who has added an account of the subsequent Te Kooti expeditions to Featon's original text. This is a book for all Kiwis and anyone interested in the Maori wars.
