Rangatira

The Island had become too small for its people. Soon there would not be enough breadfruit and bananas to go around. So when the wind brought a lone old mariner, Rehua, canoe-chief, from a far place to their shores, the Maori saw him as an answer.
Under his wise direction, the Islanders carved from a great tree a sea-worthy canoe for thirty of their best people- four youngsters, Maui and Hauka, and the girls Kura and Ngaio, among them. With coconuts, seedling plants, and two mother dogs ready to litter, the Rangatira- the high born- began their perilous journey into the unknown in search of a new home. Rangatira is the engrossing account of their experiences on the sea, and the hazards these gentle Polynesians met as the settled in the land which is now New Zealand.
Two Australian anthropologists, Norman Tindale and Harold Lindsay, making full use of their long study of the subject, have constructed a vivid, fascinating story of these early Maori people of whose later days Melville wrote in Typee. As rich in homely detail as Robinson Crusoe, and of the same milieu as Kon-Tiki, Rangatira is a memorable, inspiring narrative that captures the imagination and will hold the interest of readers of all ages.