Zealand saw the light of publicity. In fairness to the original editor and the publisher, how ever, it should be stated that the story was given also as a means of supplying interesting infor mation in regard to a country and a race of which very little was then known. It was embodied in a book of 400 pages, entitled ‘ ‘ The New Zealanders,” published in 1830, for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, by the famous publisher, Charles Knight. He was a versatile, talented, and ambitious man; but all his ambitions ran in the direction of the public good. From the time of his early manhood, he wished to become a public instructor. At first he tried to achieve his end by means of journalism, which he entered in 1812, by reporting Parliamentary debates for “The Globe” and “The British Press,” two London journals. Later on he started a pub lishing business in London. Dealing only with instructive subjects, he established “Knight’s Quarterly Magazine,” and other periodicals, to which he was one of the prominent contributors. He was not a business man, and in 1828 he was overwhelmed by financial difficulties. In the meantime he had become acquainted with the brilliant but erratic Lord Brougham, who had completed arrangements for putting into operation one of his great enterprises for educating the masses. This was the establish ment of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It began a series of publications
