Conquering Cascade brings to light a little-known chapter in the history of West Coast coal mining. Cascade Creek, a rugged and precipitous gorge, harboured a seam of some of the best coal in New Zealand, its ‘black gold’ well known but its extraction delayed by forbidding access and tempestuous climate.

The story of the Cascade Westport Coal Company and its workforce, the Cascade Westport Co-operative Coal Party, is one of courage and audacity that included building a wooden flume to carry the coal a steep 250 metres drop towards the coast. At over 12 kilometres long this flume was not only the longest such structure ever built in New Zealand, it also confounded the naysayers who said it couldn’t be done.

 

Conquering Cascade chronicles the troubles, triumphs and trials of the Cascade Creek men and women as they toiled to make a living.

Following a decade of research, interviews and gathering rare material, Phil Walsh has documented an epic saga in New Zealand’s industrial coal mining heritage. Walsh was raised on a farm north of Westport where he revelled in the outdoors. Much of his first 20 years was spent exploring the vast wilderness of the Buller region which nurtured his life-long interest in the West Coast and New Zealand history.

 

ISBN: 978-1-99-116440-7

240mm x 170mm

Four colour cover with flaps328 pages (softcover)  with maps, 18 pages of colour and b/w photographs

 

NZ$45.00

William Colenso was a Victorian polymath and, as the first missionary in Hawke's Bay, 1843-1852, his 'parish' extended west to Taupo and south to include the Wairarapa-Bush and this book records, from his own journals, his journeys on foot through the region. It records the tensions created by the collision of two very different moralities. Author Dr Ian St George is editor of eColenso, the newsletter of the Colenso Society.

Four colour cover with flaps.
illustrated, 424 pages | Soft Cover                                  
ISBN: 978-0-9922475-7-7

240mm x 163mm

NZ$65.00

The story of General Freyberg’s Divisional Protective Troop, so crucial to the success of the North African campaign in World War Two, is told for the first time by the one living participant. Churchill called Freyberg ‘The Salamander’ and his Protective Troop was immediately dubbed ‘The Salamander’s Brood’.  During the early chaotic months in North Africa, Freyberg decided, over the opposition of other military commanders, to direct the 2nd NZ Division from a forward mobile tactical headquarters – his own tank, with a small protective troop of other tanks.

Direct radio communications from his command tank to his Division were key to Freyberg’s success, and author Watty McEwen was his wireless operator through most of the North African campaign. His is a fascinating insight into battles nearly lost to Field Marshall Rommel and a uniquely close observation of Bernard Freyberg, general and fellow tank crewman.

Four colour cover | 288 pages
Photographs and maps

Soft cover

ISBN: 978-0-9582645-7-0

225mm x 150mm

NZ$35.00

Public Lives was the first book about all of New Zealand's 37 premiers and prime ministers from Henry Sewell to Helen Clark; each with his or her own lively and informative chapter, lavishly illustrated with cartoons and caricatures. Public Lives is also the story of New Zealand over the last 150 years. Thirty-five men and two women, the highest office in the land was all most of them have had in common.

Colour cover with flaps | 208 pages

Illustrated with 167 cartoons and caricatures|Soft cover

ISBN: 978-0-9941360-4-6 | 297mm x 210mm

NZ$34.95

Dr 'Montie' Spencer's prodigious letter writing - with linked commentary - encompasses Gallipoli, life in New Zealand in the 1920s and 1930s, extended study trips overseas, his fight with the Plunket Society over its very rigid feeding methods for babies in the 1930s, his pioneering of milk and apples in schools, and his commanding of military hospitals in the Middle East prior to his World War Two death.

Colour cover|376 pages

Photographs and drawings

ISBN: 0-9582052-8-0| 26mm x 185mm

NZ$35.00