This 13 chapter self-published 'book' was a school project of the 1952 combined Form I & II (years 7 & 8) 'social studies' class of Ngaio School. The project was directed by their teacher, Ian Thomas Galloway (1919 - 2003) who later become 'Rector' (i.e. headmaster) of St Andrew's College in Christchurch from 1962 to 1982. Years 7 & 8 continued to be taught at Ngaio School until the establishment of Raroa Intermediate in 1971. Though ostensibly a class project, the information gathered by the children at the time was deemed to be of sufficient quality to be used as a source by the historian Arthur Carman for his 50th Jubilee history of Ngaio School published (1958) and the subsequent 75th Jubilee history (1983).
