King More than Qualified for Role of National Historian

C.K Stead reviewed the late Michael King’s Penguin History of New Zealand for the Times Literary Supplement, making some keen observations of his own on the subject. “If it were possible to subtract the Maori element from NZ history then the story would be remarkable only in an entirely unremarkable way, offering yet another illustration of the human capacity for hard work, optimism, endurance, adaptability and (on the whole) triumph against the odds […] That is how it all seems if you leave out the Maori element which is, however, the most complex, intractable, interesting and enduring part of the story, and the part the late Michael King, a Pakeha, the biographer of two Maori leaders, who had learned Maori language and customs, was well qualified to deal with.” Stead’s cover story was one of several dealing with Pacific art and culture in the June 11 TLS.