Local History

Come Back to Mona Vale is a beautifully written, compelling narrative/memoir that sets about unravelling the mysteries and anomalies behind the public history of a wealthy Christchurch business family in the first half of the 20th century.

This is a Tongan language book where Sione Tapani Mangisi shares some of his memories about growing up in Tonga in the nineteen fifties. His topic is marbles, a children's game popular when he was young. The book describes how games were set up by groups of boys under the large o...ld mango trees in villages under complex rules that encouraged not just high levels of skill but also careful strategising to ensure that each player won as many marbles as possible. He discusses the traditional hard nut fruits that were used in pre-European times before the introduction and adoption of glass and ceramic marbles. The book idescribes the alternate games that little children and girls played and finishes with tips on setting up your own game. There is a guide to Tongan spelling and pronunciation. It's suitable for Tongan readers of all ages and is particularly designed for adults looking for stories about Tonga in the Tongan language to read to their children and grandchildren.
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Living with her father Fred, her younger twin siblings, Harry and Polly, and self-centred Granny Garter, Hester toils day and night in the laundry room of Poplar Hospital to help put food on the family table. So as to make a better life for herself and her family, Hester trains t...o be a nurse and throws herself into her work.
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This book was a collaboration between three Waikato institutions: the Waikato District Health Board, Wintec (Waikato Institute of Technology) and Hamilton-based printing company Print House. Among the book's contributors were Wintec students in journalism, photography, moving ima...ge and graphic design, plus Waikato DHB photographers, designers and communication staff, and contracted writers. # profiles of a wide range of staff currently working at the hospital, each talking about their job and a typical day for them, produced as feature articles and video interviews # the publishing for the first time of historical photos from the 2004 operation to separate conjoined twins # a "day in the life" DVD by Wintec students, capturing activities and people on the current campus
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Titirangi, probably Aucklands most beautiful suburb and on the edge of the dramatic Waitakere Ranges, is truly the fringe of heaven. This richly illustrated book, compiled over many years by the West Auckland Historical Society, tracks the areas evolution from successive Maori se...ttlements, the first European arrivals, forest clearings and the beginnings of Titirangi village through to the post-war era when artists and writers began gravitating to the community as its regenerating forest reached for the sky. Titirangi: Fringe of Heaven collects specialist accounts of Maori history, prominent settlers, architecture, the arts and the environment with personal recollections of Titirangi life. A must for anyone with a connection to this beautiful area or with an interest in the arts and environment.
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