Emeritus Professor's History Wins Biennial Prize

Media release 7 April 2004

University of Auckland Emeritus Professor's History Wins Biennial Prize

Russell Stone’s From Tamaki-makau-rau to Auckland has been announced as the joint winner of the sixteenth biennial J M Sherrard Award in New Zealand Local and Regional History.

From Tamaki-makau-rau to Auckland, published by Auckland University Press, shares the award with Dr Paul Monin’s This is my Place: Hauraki Contested 1769–1875.

The Judges found that both were “intelligent and thoughtful histories, casting light on themes of national importance while reconstructing and explaining the events that unfolded between Maori and Pakeha in these adjacent regions.”

Professor Russell Stone ONZM is a distinguished historian of the city of Auckland, New Zealand. He was born there in 1924 and lives there still. He completed an MA in History at the University of Auckland in 1948 and, subsequently, a PhD on Auckland business and businessmen of the 1880s.

In 1964, after several years as a secondary-school teacher, he joined the staff of the History Department at the University of Auckland, from which he retired in 1989.

Now Professor Emeritus in History, he devotes his time to researching and writing. He has worked in recent years researching the Maori history of the Auckland area for the Waitangi Tribunal and has completed a number of commissioned histories as well as From Tamaki-makau-rau to Auckland.

“The Sherrard Award was set up to recognise excellence in New Zealand regional history,” says the organiser of the 2004 Awards.

It remains the only national award for local and regional history in New Zealand and was inaugurated by W J Gardner in 1972 to commemorate the work of the outstanding local historian J M Sherrard and to encourage scholarly research and writing in New Zealand regional history.

The award is administered by the Canterbury Historical Association and the capital sum from which the award money is drawn is supplemented by donations from the Canterbury History Foundation and from individual members of the Canterbury History Association.

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