"With theodolites and Maori guides, nineteenth-century land surveyors travelled over New Zealand renaming peaks and rivers, cutting survey lines through the bush and across Maori cultivations. They placed grids for new settlements over improbable landscapes, and 'discovered' territory known to Maori for generations." "The surveyors saw themselves as taming the wilderness, travelling through uncharted country, and claiming commercial opportunities. But they depended heavily on Maori navigational and mapping methods, and they acknowledged Maori assistance and hospitality while documenting also…
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The new Oxford history of New Zealand
