Tavern in the Town -- James McNeish

Tavern in the Town dispels a long standing fallacy that New Zealand hotels lack colour, tradition and a tale that tingles. To prove that this was so, a young Auckland journalist travelled the country twice from the backblocks of Northland to the Bluff, stopping at the hotels of his choice, interviewing old identities, chasing threads of long-buried tales, and digging deep into newspaper files and archives.
Covers the gold rushes, gum digging, early coaching, ferry houses, grogshops, swagmen and bushrangers. Full of history and humour.