Lighting the Coast: A History of New Zealand's Coastal Lighthouse System

This book is the first comprehensive history of New Zealand's system of 'well-placed and effective' lighthouses that were essential for 'the great maritime future' its government envisaged. It presents the fascinating story of the siting, design, construction, operation and eventual demanning of those nineteenth- and early twentieth-century monuments of engineering. It reveals much of the lives of the lighthouse keepers—practical, independent men who took their families to live in remote parts of New Zealand—and raises critical questions about the future of the historic structures.