Here is the beginning of European settlement in New Zealand. What manner of men were they? Where did they come from and how did they make the journey there? What sort of life did they expect? Did they prosper? Many books mention the pioneer farmers of New Zealand but few are devoted entirely to them. This volume is about what it was like to be one of those pioneers; a vivid picture of the lives of those men and women - rich and poor, proud and humble, scholarly and unlettered - who broke in the soil of New Zealand in the first days of European settlement. It's their story, told through diary excerpts, letters and newspaper articles of the time. Illustrated with black and white photographs.