Donald MacLean papers

Sir Donald Maclean was the first Minister of Native Affairs. Since the launch of the MacLean papers website National Library customers can search the 14,500 English-language letters McLean received from many hundreds of correspondents, both public and private. What is not so well known is, there are also another 3000 letters in the Māori language written by various rangatira. This is the largest surviving series of nineteenth-century Māori language letters. The letters have research value for studying Māori attitudes to land, inter-hapu politics, the social history of Māori communities, the wider history of interaction between Māori and Pakeha, and for the study of how te reo Māori developed as a written language.
Huria Robens, National Library