Old New Zealand : Being Incidents of Native Customs and Character in the Old Times

London: Smith, Elder and Co.. Very Good- with no dust jacket. (1863). Hardcover. Ex-library, General Assembly Library of New Zealand. Gilt library stamp on front board. Library labels and markings. Rubbing to joints and edges of boards. 18mm splits to leather at head of joints. Moderate foxing. Gutters split at hinges. ; First UK edition, published in the same year as the first two New Zealand editions. viii, 216 pages. 19th century full calf binding with gilt decoration to spine, gilt double borders to boards, blind-stamped dentelles. Marbled endpapers. Page dimensions: 188 x 118mm. Selected contents: First view of New Zealand; A Maori Chief's notions of trading in the Old Times; The Market Price of a Pakeha; Maori Mermaids; Maori Law; How I Purchased my Estate; The Muru; The Tapu; The Law of Muru; The Tapu Tohunga; The Maori Oracle; The Storming of Mokoia; Hongi Ika; Ancient Forts Trading in the Old times; Rule Britannia. [References: Bagnall 3345; Andersen "The Lure of New Zealand Book Collecting" (published 1936) page 71: "The London edition, in spite of all these vicissitudes, is not very particularly rare, but it is very desirable"; Hocken 224: "A second edition was published simultaneously in London"]. .