Summary: It is probably true that the Anglo-Maori Wars have received more attention from historians than any other single topic in New Zealand history. This is as it should be, because that event was a watershed - albeit an unhappy one - in the settlement in this country. I therefore make no apology for adding another piece of research which includes a consideration of events in 1859 and 1860. I first �discovered� C.W. Richmond when asked to present a tutorial on him whilst engaged in post-graduate studies at the University of Otago. Regular histories of the period of the Anglo-Maori Wars were consulted, but they dealt with Richmond only in passing. It was at this point that G.H. Scholefield�s two volume edition of the Richmond-Atkinson family papers came to my attention and I discovered in them a wealth of information hitherto unrevealed about the Minister for Native Affairs. Accordingly, I was attracted to a study of the man, and the present paper is the result. The wonder is that so little has been written on a man who played a key role (one could argue the key role) in the Waitara dispute which led the Anglo-Maori Wars. One thesis was written on him in 1948, and W.D. Stewart wrote a short book on him in 1947.

Summary: It is probably true that the Anglo-Maori Wars have received more attention from historians than any other single topic in New Zealand history. This is as it should be, because that event was a watershed - albeit an unhappy one - in the settlement in this country. I therefore make no apology for adding another piece of research which includes a consideration of events in 1859 and 1860. I first �discovered� C.W. Richmond when asked to present a tutorial on him whilst engaged in post-graduate studies at the University of Otago. Regular histories of the period of the Anglo-Maori Wars were consulted, but they dealt with Richmond only in passing. It was at this point that G.H. Scholefield�s two volume edition of the Richmond-Atkinson family papers came to my attention and I discovered in them a wealth of information hitherto unrevealed about the Minister for Native Affairs. Accordingly, I was attracted to a study of the man, and the present paper is the result. The wonder is that so little has been written on a man who played a key role (one could argue the key role) in the Waitara dispute which led the Anglo-Maori Wars. One thesis was written on him in 1948, and W.D. Stewart wrote a short book on him in 1947.