A driven man : missionary Thomas Samuel Grace 1815-1879 : his life and letters / David Grace.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 355-356) and indexes.

Beginning -- Turanga -- Auckland -- Taupo -- Opotiki -- Location, Location -- Journeys -- Concerns & campaigns -- England -- The last years -- Afterwards -- Appendix : the Grace children.

"New Zealand at the time of the Land wars, through the eyes of a fearless critic: Thomas Grace, immovable champion of the Maori people, who knew hi as 'Te Kerehi'. A friend of the young Te Kooti, he sympathised with the Hauhau 'fanatics' and the King movement. He led his family on an epic wartime trek from Taupo to the sea, and later journeyed alone in hostile Maori territory. He opposed land sales and encourage Maori enterprise. He attacked exploitation, injustice and indifference wherever he saw it: miserly payments for grazing Maori land, atrocities committed by imperial troops, poor pay and rotten flour for Maori road-building gangs, missionaries buying up land and turning to European service ... the list goes on. Grace irritated the Government, outraged the settlers and embarrassed the mission. Some even said he should have hanged at Opotiki in place of the Rev Carl Volkner. Yet his energy, compassion and many of his far-sighted ideas ring well in the 21st century. This is the first publication of much of Grace's writing"--Page 2 of book cover.