Welcome to the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre’s free online archive of New Zealand and Pacific Islands texts and heritage materials, which offers an ever expanding, fully searchable, set of images and full-text books, manuscripts and journals.
We are always keen to hear suggestions of other rare or significant texts which we should make available through the collection. Please contact the NZETC director.
The NZETC also works with partners in the cultural heritage and ePublishing sector on a wide variety of digitisation and digital content delivery projects. More information on the Centre's mission and activities can be found in our mission statement.
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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand
The Cyclopedia of New Zealand was published in six volumes between 1897 and 1908 by the Cyclopedia Company Ltd. Each volume deals with a region of New Zealand and includes information on local towns and districts, government departments, individuals, businesses, clubs and societies. Volume One, which covers the Wellington Provincial District, also includes a history of colonial government in New Zealand, with portraits of Governors, politicians and state officials. Members of the public paid to feature in the Cyclopedia and supplied the compilers with their histories and personal details. As a result, the portraits tend to be very flattering—indeed, the Cyclopedia has been called ‘that great repository of fiction’ (J. Andersen, The Lure of New Zealand Book Collecting, Auckland, 1936). Despite the hyperbole, the six volumes provide a fascinating glimpse into life in colonial New Zealand around the turn of the century. The text is extensively illustrated with photographs of each province's towns and ‘picturesque scenes’ and of the individuals and business featured.
The New Zealand Electronic Text Centre, in partnership with Wellington City Libraries and Colonial CD Books now presents a full-text, freely accessible edition of Volume One and Volume Six of The Cyclopedia of New Zealand. Volumes Two-Five will be added to the site in the near future.
