"This survey of New Zealand architecture -- the first to be separately published -- begins with precolonial buildings in the Far North and ends not far short of the present day. For easier consideration of the different influences at work, the period has been broken into three parts 1820-80, 1880-1920, 1920-1970. Within this framework the authors have chosen to illustrate buildings which best represent their time or which epitomise some important development. No building has been ruled out because of familiarity but, equally, text and photographs have sometimes been allowed to take unexpected directions. The aim of the authors has been to lay out the pattern of architectural design over 150 years and to encourage the general reader, and those newly interested in architecture, to look hard at buildings which have had only casual attention before. Selection, particularly of the work of living architects, has often been difficult, and some fine buildings have been excluded. Some have simply been casualties of the necessary limitation of numbers." -- Inside front cover.