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Geo-News

© 2008 The AuthorsJournal compilation

© 2008 The New Zealand Geographical Society

nature of the discipline – and appreciatedoccasional contacts with former students andcolleagues.

Murray Wilson

School of Earth & Environmental SciencesThe University of Wollongong

Te Ara, The Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

Te Ara is New Zealand’s online multimediaencyclopaedia. It is prepared by a team at theMinistry of Culture and Heritage, with con-tributions from a range of scholars, and isavailable at www.TeAra.govt.nz. ‘Te Ara’means the pathway, and Te Ara offers manypathways to understanding Aotearoa/NewZealand.

It is being prepared in nine themes, thefourth of which, ‘Settled Landscape’ waslaunched in November 2008. This offers a widerange of well-researched entries, with carto-graphic, visual and sound resources, on ruralthemes. These include making the landscape,introduced plants and animals, farming, ruralservices and country life. There are 100 topics,

on matters as varied as erosion and soil con-servation, duck shooting, shows and fieldays,and animal diseases. Many entries are basedon new research.

Te Ara’s first theme, ‘New Zealanders’ waslaunched in February 2005, and tells the storiesof M

a

ori and later immigrants who have madethis land their home. The second theme,‘Earth, Sea and Sky’ was launched in June2006, and the third, ‘the Bush’, about the land,its plants and animals, in September 2007.Several very successful books have beenpublished from material in these themes,including

M

A

ori Peoples of New Zealand/NgaIwi o Aotearoa

(David Bateman, 2006 andreviewed in this journal in April 2008), and

Lifeon the Edge: New Zealand’s Natural Hazardsand Disasters

(David Bateman, 2007).Future Te Ara themes will cover the

economy, business and city life; social life;government and nation; popular culture andcreative culture. The encyclopaedia is a workin progress, with all themes being on line by2013.

Eric PawsonManaging Editor