"Sir George Grey's gifts to the South African Public Library at Capetown included a large collection of Maori matter, much of it manuscript and unpublished. It lay there unavailable to Maori scholars in New Zealand for sixty years until after protracted negotiations an exchange of material pertaining to the respective countries was arranged and carried out in 1922-23. Much of the material which the Auckland Public Library thus acquired is original Maori manuscript collected before 1850 and of great ethnological an historical value. It includes tribal lore and legend told by notable chiefs, accounts of rites and ceremonies by priests, and records of wars fought in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Much of this material has not yet been published and it is my intention as time permits to make some of the more important Maori and other items available to the student."--introduction.