PREFACE

My name is William Hosking Oliver. I was educated in schools in Fending and Dannevirke, graduated from the University of New Zealand (Victoria University College) with first class honours in history in 1951 and from the University of Oxford (Balliol and Nuffield Colleges) D.Phil. in history in 1953. In 1964, after employment as junior lecturer, lecturer and senior lecturer at the Victoria University of Wellington and the University of Canterbury, I was appointed foundation Professor of History at Massey University. I became Emeritus Professor at Massey on my resignation in 1983 to become General Editor of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. I retired from that position in 1990. In that year I was awarded the OBE and graduated D.Litt.(Hon) from Victoria University. Since that time I have worked as an historical consultant and writer for the DNZB, the Crown Forestry Rental Trust and for the Hauraki Maori Trust Board. My publications in New Zealand history include The Story of New Zealand (1960), Challenge and Response (1971), The Oxford History of New Zealand (ed. 1984), Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (Vol 1, ed. 1990), Claims to the Waitangi Tribunal (1991), and numerous essays, papers and reviews especially in social policy history. I have made submissions to the Waitangi Tribunal in connection with the Muriwhenua Land Claim and to the Department of Justice on the Crown Proposals for the Settlement of Treaty of Waitangi Claims.

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